Aftermath of All That Input

Gently prodded along by the interest in my fountain piece and impatience to see progress (you know who you are!) I settled in yesterday afternoon with my sample, my pattern, my reference photos and my art group input fresh in my mind. Time to stitch in those grout lines. I'm figuring out so many things with this sample simply by doing and then realizing there would have been a better sequence of attack. If I were satin stitching around the outside of each unit as well as the outside of the finished piece as initially planned, the starts and stops of this grout stitching would be covered and secured by that last bit of stitching. Now I can see that it would be to my advantage to do all this satin stitching as well as the quilting before turning the edges to the back. Yes, I'm making notes as I go.

Some of the sections will overlap, others will butt up against each other and be joined by a "grout" line of satin stitching. I may change my mind and cut these two as one piece like I did a section on the other side.

Doing my best to emulate the sketch on the right

Before I can sew any more sections together, I must run the stitching lines representing water. I studied a video I took of the fountain (see below) and sketched out several ideas for mimicking how the water moved over the wall even before I started playing with cropping the uneven edges around the design. Now I went back to the video to confirm my thinking about using some white thread as well as an opalescent for sparkle. How did I not notice the almost scallop-shaped flow over one section? I quickly tried sketching it and think I will try that in the upper section. But in this main big section I'm trying the sketch that I'm hoping will give the impression of sideways rippling, which on re-viewing I'm seeing is more angled motion. Oh well, I'm sticking with this on the sample, running the opalescent sliver thread and the white rayon together through the needle. I think this is the effect I wanted - a not too in your face white with just a hint of sparkle. I am hoping it translates the same to the larger piece where there might be more room between the lines of white stitching which could be filled with just opalescent or a metallic thread. Lots of thread tails to be pulled to the back and more stitching to be added but this is where I stopped yesterday. The Stiff Stuff, by the way, coupled with the Misty Fuse is really nice to sew through, I'm tempted to say "like butter".