I had a little time this morning to start on my next machine stitched page. I decided to cover the background with drizzle stitch and then do some organic satin stitch lines in the opposite direction. If you haven’t heard of drizzle stitch, it is simply zigzag stitch done in various widths and stitch lengths over top of each other.

 I’ve started here using a Madeira metallic thread. I will mix in some other shades of blue until the entire page is covered.

I did stiffen the felt with a bit of nylon organza fused to the back. I am working on finishing the edge of the last page but didn’t think you would want to be bored by another photo 🙂

I haven’t been able to get much done today but I did do a little more detached buttonhole stitching along the edge of my machine stitched page. I’m getting close to finishing the bottom edge.

I finished the edging of the machine stitched page I was working on yesterday. Then because I didn’t have another hand stitch project going, I decide to do detached buttonhole in blue on top of the orange edge. I used thin blue thread and so the stitching is tiny.

Here’s what happens when you just can’t leave well enough alone. Just add a little blanket stitch to the edge of your machine stitched pages.

 It only takes a few minutes!

And then you have a bright pop of orange on the edge. Perhaps I should do some further embellishment of the edge?

I worked on the third page for my machine stitched book. The instructions for this one was to have areas with minimal stitching, areas with moderate stitching and then small areas with very dense stitching.

 Here is the ‘sandwich’ that started the process. I used white nylon organza fused to the back of felt. The felt had been previously painted with Dye-na-Flow paint and the top layer is dyed silk organza. The layers are basted together.

 Next, I followed the organic lines that were formed in the dyeing of the silk organza and free motion stitched the layers together. I cut back some of the areas of silk organza to leave painted felt.

 Then I added stitching. I haven’t finished the edges yet because I’m trying to decide if I should add a touch of yellow. I don’t want to over stitch the piece and I should have added yellow earlier to integrate it in. I might just leave it as is.

There is a lot of surface texture since the dense stitching really compresses the felt so the more lightly stitched areas puff up a bit. Now I have to decide what I am going to do for the remaining two pages. My choice, hmmmm……