Auditioning fabric is a wonderful way to procrastinate. I'm doing my usual hesitation as I ponder the stitching I want to add to the leaf-printed charm squares. The other day I happened upon a different way to use this red leaf-stamped charm (yes, it really is red - my camera was getting horribly confused by all this bright color) - on point and not necessarily on a silk background. The piece it now rests on is from an experiment with shirring fabric and applying paint to get a shibori effect. It's been pinned to the same design wall as the charms for awhile now, but some shuffling back and forth on a different background suddenly had the two together, and I decided I liked it. Now to find another fabric to border it. You can see I've narrowed it down to two rather bright options, and the rest more somber in the brown family. I have a feeling the browns are going to win out, but I won't decide until I've quilted the shibori, and added the charm after stitching.
Here are some possibilities for that stitching - I'm thinking the brightest yellow will do the trick and one of the darker ones will provide some undulating and overlapping lines of quilting on the shibori.
All this as a prelude to choosing thread for the charm squares I'm supposed to be stitching up. We all have our little rituals before we can dive into the actual work. This post shows how I did these leaf prints
These two were my first trials as I haven't made backgrounds for them yet. Don't want to mess up on the "good" ones. The one on the left is stitched with a variegated Oliver Twist hand-dyed cotton thread. The one on the right was initially stitched with a Sulky Ultra Twist, but the paint color is so dull it needed something more. I stitched next to the original stitching with a yellow rayon thread and it made all the difference in the world. All the charms are backed with Decor Bond (of course) to stabilize them.
These two I think will get a bit more stitching - a round of dark green to accentuate them a bit more. The one on the left is stitched with two rayon threads run through the eye of the needle - a yellow and a red one. The one on the right has a home on one of the 4-patch silk backgrounds and I realized that the thread color choice was as much about that background as it was the charm color itself.
I'd been thinking about what kind of background would look good behind my crazy-pieced rectangle of silk leftovers. While searching my stashes for something for the red charm, I ran across one of my early hand-dyed cottons that I think will be perfect. Killing two birds with one stone is what it felt like! The fabric down in the corner is actually a shimmery sheer that I am considering for whatever I add to the rectangle. I may do something with leaves cut from it, floated across the top. Or not. I'm still researching Celtic designs.
Here are some possibilities for that stitching - I'm thinking the brightest yellow will do the trick and one of the darker ones will provide some undulating and overlapping lines of quilting on the shibori.
All this as a prelude to choosing thread for the charm squares I'm supposed to be stitching up. We all have our little rituals before we can dive into the actual work. This post shows how I did these leaf prints
These two were my first trials as I haven't made backgrounds for them yet. Don't want to mess up on the "good" ones. The one on the left is stitched with a variegated Oliver Twist hand-dyed cotton thread. The one on the right was initially stitched with a Sulky Ultra Twist, but the paint color is so dull it needed something more. I stitched next to the original stitching with a yellow rayon thread and it made all the difference in the world. All the charms are backed with Decor Bond (of course) to stabilize them.
These two I think will get a bit more stitching - a round of dark green to accentuate them a bit more. The one on the left is stitched with two rayon threads run through the eye of the needle - a yellow and a red one. The one on the right has a home on one of the 4-patch silk backgrounds and I realized that the thread color choice was as much about that background as it was the charm color itself.
I'd been thinking about what kind of background would look good behind my crazy-pieced rectangle of silk leftovers. While searching my stashes for something for the red charm, I ran across one of my early hand-dyed cottons that I think will be perfect. Killing two birds with one stone is what it felt like! The fabric down in the corner is actually a shimmery sheer that I am considering for whatever I add to the rectangle. I may do something with leaves cut from it, floated across the top. Or not. I'm still researching Celtic designs.
3 comments:
I'm loving it all, Sheila!
Thanks, Connie - all your support is so appreciated!
Yes, I agree it's all very gorgeous. Fab colours!
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