I didn’t get a lot done this week due to home circumstances but here are a few more white samples.
This one is a melted polyester on felt. It is always interesting to see how the polyester melts, I used a heat gun on this one.
Here is my first ever attempt at smocking. This is a lattice smocking, I found a Youtube video to follow and it’s a fairly simple process but lots of prep work. It kind of reminded me of doing shibori stitching for dyeing or felt.
This is an example of English style hand quilting. I used one of my stamp designs that I created in Level 3 Art and Design for the pattern. This one has a light tan thread. The instructions were to use a light weight thread in a tone darker than the background. I didn’t have an off white light weight thread so the tan was the closest I had. I think I would have preferred an off white thread.
This last one used a design from a historical study. It is an example of Italian corded quilting It’s stitched on the sewing machine and then the channels were filled with wool yarn. It was an interesting technique.
I haven’t done a lot of these more traditional techniques such as smocking and various forms of quilting. I have a few more to try and then I have to get back to putting my color samples together. I am waiting for some supplies from Dick Blick for the color samples so hopefully, that will arrive soon.
Have a good weekend.
Ruth Lane Art 
Does the melted polyester stick to the felt?
The lattice smocking looks complicated but what a lovely finish.
The English quilting looks very delicate and the tan thread doesn’t really show in the photo.
How on earth did you get the wool yarn in those thin channels in the last example?
Thanks, no, the melted polyester is stitched down to the felt. I think it might be possible if you used acrylic felt which melts and melted the two together at the same time, it might stick. I haven’t tried that though. The lattice smocking was easier than I thought it would be.
I used a needle from the back side to thread the wool through the channels. It wasn’t that hard except for the big circle at the top. Otherwise, it wasn’t hard to get the yarn through.
Oh yes – many, many moons ago Annie and I tried to ‘weld’ fabric and felt together with a soldering iron and failed miserably. We investigated and found that we were using the wrong kind of felt!
I’m still impressed that you threaded the yarn through those tiddly little channels.
A good collection of samples. The smocking, from memory, requires concentration to join up the correct dots, you obviously have plenty of that.
I agree with Ruth about the hand quilting, and your design is very fitting.
Is the Italian quilting the same as ‘trapunto’? It’s amazing how the design comes alive once the yarn is threaded through the channels.
Looking forward to your next instalment.
Wishing you all good things for home.
Thanks Antje, Italian cording is different than trapunto. Trapunto uses stuffing and can fill different shapes. Italian cording uses sewn channels and some type of cord or yarn.
Home life has improved since yesterday. Yay!!
Yay to home!
Home – good
Thank you for the explanation I had forgotten- it’s been over 20 years since I did my samples Of both Trapunto & Italian quilting & other fabric manipulations Etc. Ahhhh memories….nimble fingers & smaller eyed needles!
Ha – I remember doing some lattice smocking on prefelt and then felting it afterwards. Very interesting!
There’s a book called The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Paula Wolff. It has a lot of technical detail, but all her samples (and there are lots of them!) are white on white and look stunning.
Yes, I think I remember your smocking felt. I have seen the Paula Wolff book before briefly. I should have paid more attention. I can’t get it from my library and I don’t really want to buy it at this point. So I will just keep going on my own.