Here’s the last pear using Carol Shinn’s technique. I wrote a longer post about it over on the Felting and Fiber Studio if you’d like to read more about it.
The Last Pear
Category Archives: level 2 stitch class
More Machine Embroidery
I’ve been steadily working on completing my homework for my stitch class. I am supposed to be trying out different methods of machine embroidery, some historical and others from contemporary machine embroiderers.
I decided I would try different methods but use the same subject. Then I could see which one I liked best.. This first one is granite stitch using directions from a Singer instruction manual from the 1940’s. This is the underlayer of stitching. I had a really hard time going in circles. It was a bit jerky.
This is the finished pear. Looking at it now, I think the shadows on the bottom are a bit dark. But that just might be because there are no corresponding shadows on the ground section. I just embroidered the pear and not the background. I got a lot of distortion of the background which is a heavy weight Pellon.
This is my second attempt. I used heavy weight Pellon again but used the mossing stitching as described by Australian Ken Smith. I find this stitch easier but maybe because this is the one that I’ve practiced the most. Again, this is the underlayer of colors.
The colors seem to mix better with this method. But the center of this one doesn’t have much variation either.
This last one is on canvas. I am going to use Carol Shinn’s technique. She stitched on canvas cut on the bias and either uses a photograph transferred on to fabric or paints the image first. This is the painted image on white canvas. I decided it needed a background color since the other two had background colors.
So I painted the background with Dye-Na-Flow. Here’s the finished painting after heat setting the paint. Now I need to stitch it. But I can only do so much of this type of work at once. Perhaps tomorrow.
I had extra paint so I painted a couple of pieces of fabric and then scrunched it up and left it outside to dry. It looks like mountain ranges from above.
Next weekend I am hosting a felting retreat. We’re going out to a rustic lodge by a lake and felting all weekend. I am planning on washing some wool, doing some drum carding and hopefully getting something felted as well. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Botanical Sketches
I promised to show some of my homework for my stitch class. We’re working on free motion machine embroidery with botanicals as our inspiration. Some are done in black and white and some are painted afterward. I have been really enjoying working on my sketching skills and improving my free motion on the machine. These are a sampling of what I’ve been doing and some I’ve sketched but still haven’t stitched yet. I also have a post on the Felting and Fiber Studio tomorrow with a slide show of further work in the sketchbook if you’d like to check it out.
Dyeing Day
I spent most of the day yesterday dyeing 24 scarves to sell at the store. I used Procion MX dyes and actually they were a bit old. The colors were not quite as expected but still nice. I like to use fiber reactive dyes because you don’t have to steam them but I don’t like how much you have to rinse them. The acid dyes are really nice because the dye exhausts and you don’t have to rinse out all that extra dye. And then of course there is the ironing part…
The other thing I did yesterday was to free motion machine stitch this tree on tulle. I then cut it out and stitched it down to a piece of linen. This is part of my homework for stitch class. We have also been working on “botanicals”, sketching flowers and leaves and then stitching them on the machine. I’ll show you more soon. Hope you have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by.
Back from Stitch Class
We made it back from La Conner without difficulty and even though it was a bit cool and rainy, it was better weather than we’re having in Montana. It’s been raining and cold since we got home. I had a great time in class. We worked on machine embroidery. My old Brother machine started giving me a really hard time so when we got home, I went out and bought a new machine. It’s a Pfaff 2170 and boy is it cool. I’m still figuring it out but I think I’m really going to enjoy this machine.
Here’s a piece that I did for last session’s Kantha homework. It’s of my hubby on his John Deere. Since I put a barn in the composition he said we needed to build a barn so the tractor would feel at home.
Here’s another piece that I made for last session’s homework. It wasn’t assigned but I wanted to try stitching on felt. I made the felt hat out of short fiber black merino and then stitched the designs with 3 perle cottons. There are shisha mirrors in the yellow circles.
We worked on machine embroidery in this session. I don’t have any photos of what we did but I’ll show a few later. One of the designs we worked on was from a voided shape. Mine was from a photo of a flower that was simplified and then cut out. I’m still working on this piece so more on that later.
I’ve got lots of homework to get done before September and we are off to New York City for a week soon. Then it will be summer time and I’m sure it will be busy, busy, busy. Thanks for stopping by.
Ruth Lane Art 