Dear readers, you deserve something fabric related after suffering through my sketching and art journaling efforts of late. I've been inching along on the original Upward Tick the last few days. I finalized the arrangement of circles, using a dab of fabric glue stick to hold them in place while tulle was overlayed and pinned for the final stitching. Time to contemplate whether clear or smoke invisible thread would be best, and do I have to free motion around the circles? I've done this on one other art quilt (Jockeying For Space) so pulled it down off the wall for a close look. So much for my memory. I was quite surprised to find I'd used a dark purple cotton thread along the edge of each piece, and the stitches were too uniform for them to have been free-motion stitched. Lightbulb moment - of course! My Upward Tick circles would benefit from an outline of dark thread. I used a black Aurofil 2 ply 50 wt cotton which is quite thin - perfect!.
Next step was to fuse Decor Bond to the back of the photo-printed fabric that will be the "mount". This gives it more stability and heft for both attaching the quilt part to it and for the framing step. Sometimes I use glue baste to hold the little quilt in place once I've centered it on the mount. This time I used 505 spray baste (and quickly remembered why I started using the glue instead). A narrow zigzag stitch with mono-filament thread attaches it permanently to the mount, and this chenille decorative thread couched along the edge with clear mono-filament thread provides the finishing touch and accent that helps pull things together. For all intents and purposes, this is finished, but I'll show it in its entirety when it is in its frame.
You may remember that I mentioned trimming down the circles. While I was doing that, watching the rings stack up on the table, I of course wondered if there was anything I could do with them. I started playing with interlacing them like the rings of the Olympic logo. Eventually I tossed them on this scrap of fabric I'd set to one side, another idea in the offing. This is why a perfectly tidy studio may not be the best environment for creativity - at least for me. I need things OUT and in my line of sight so these happy accidents can occur.
5 comments:
Love those trimmings! How about portrait size and more in different sizes?
Something quilty this way comes! I think that is similar to a real quote although I think that is something wicked this way comes! Your upward tick is looking good although I would like to see the entire thing. Good idea on the dark outlines. Also I am intrigued with what you are doing with the scraps.
Hi Sheila!
Thanks for updating.
I like your sketches and your journaling, I don't mind if you post about these themes. I guess that they help you in textile art.
I liked specially your last picture (the Olympic like rings). I was very impressed with the fabric under the rings. Wow, I loved the yellow!!
Thanks again!!
Wil, of course you like the scraps - you've been working on a circle series! I like these unplanned things so I doubt I will purposely cut more for variations, but one really could go crazy with this idea.
Chris - I love it! You've got the original quotation right and your variation makes me laugh. Surely, someone out there has a quilt named that. Patience - you'll see BOTH Upward Ticks in their entirety soon.
Lucia, yes the hope is that the sketching and journaling will improve my textile work - a training of the eye and brain I think. That fabric under the rings is a piece 4 inches by about 18 inches I think and all that I have. It came from my friend's stash and I wish I had a large piece of it - it really is fantastic, even this little piece. I knew I wanted to add something appliqued to it for either fabric postcards or a long narrow art quilt but hadn't settle on what. This idea has so much energy to me - exciting!
I love the trimmings -- and yes, Olympic Rings is what came to my mind at first look. And yes, a dark outline around your circles will help them to pop off the background both by color and dimensionally (as in 3-D).
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