Winter’s Day

Winter’s Day

I started this project after a walk on a beautiful sunny day.  Using white fabric, I machine stitched shapes using a twin needle and then cut out parts.  I coloured a second piece of white fabric using Caran D’Ache Neocolor II water-soluble wax pastels and Derwent Inktense Pencils.  The plan for the piece evolved as the weather changed.  An ice-storm brought down many branches from my pine trees and then froze them to the ground and covered them with snow.

Detail – hand embroidery and weaving

I stitched the pine branches onto water-soluble stabilizer with the sewing machine and once the stabilizer was washed out I sewed them onto the back side of the cutouts.

Detail: Winter’sDay

This will be one of the pieces I will be entering in Out of the Box‘s Fibre Fling 6 show in April.

Prudence

Prudence is another doll whose shape was inspired by a bottle. (See Making a Pattern from a Bottle here.)

I used the same pattern as for Portia and Passion ( see here and here)  except that I made the pattern slightly smaller.

The front and one side are sewn together half way

I used the sewing machine to make  the hair.  Using the same  green thread  I used in the body, I sewed straight lines on water soluble stabilizer and then sewed over it with a decorative stitch that caught both straight lines.

Sewing decorative stitch over the two lines of straight stitch

After washing out the stabilizer and letting it dry, I cut it up and used Fray Check to seal the ends before sewing it on the doll’s head.  I marked dots on the head with a pencil as a guide.

Sewing on the hair

The face was painted with pastel pencils.

Here is the completed doll.

Prudence

Detail – Prudence

Do You Wanna Dance?

I love So You Think You Can Dance.  This season I have been trying to sketch while watching it on TV.  I have no way to record the program and stop the action, so I make very crude stick figures in various positions all over the page of my sketchbook.  Afterwards, I use my little artist’s manikin and put it in the position of one of my stick figures and draw a slightly better sketch of the dancer.

Once I have a sketch I like I trace it onto water soluble stabilizer.  I use  free motion embroidery  to fill in the figure and then add a lacy grid pattern around it to  make a rectangle.  In my first embroidery, I filled the background in a little more than I intended so I  added some gold metallic thread to the figure to help it stand out.

I left it for a time while I decided what to do about it.  It needs a back ground in order to see the figure.  Hanging it in a window also works, but the sun would not be good for it.

Meanwhile I had done some more sketches and was ready to try again. I figured, as long as I have to add a background I might as well embroider it on a background and then I don’t have to make sure all the bits of the background lace is attached to other stitches.  So I went off to my favourite sewing store, Yarn Forward & Sew On, to get some suitable stabilizer.   Well, I did buy a little bit of stabilizer, just in case, but Jo-Ann Raven persuaded me that I should frame it in a deep frame with the fabric close to the glass leaving space behind the embroidery for light. So that is what I did.  Thanks Jo-Ann.

At the moment  I have not put any backing on the frame.  I have photographed it hanging on a blue wall (at an angle to avoid reflections) and again out in the garden.

For my second embroidery, also on water soluble stabilizer,  I did less background stitches.  I think too few.  In future, I will do something in between, less than the first attempt and more stitches than the second.

Free motion embroidery laid on fabric

Come Swim with the Fishes

I made some more fish.

I made three bodies and then embroidered the eyes and fins.

Fin-less Blind Fish

I’m still having trouble with the stabilizer scrunching up as I sew but it’s a little better after putting it in the freezer for a while before I start embroidering on it.

Free Motion embroidery fins and eyes on water-soluble stabilizer

Dorsal fins and a new eye

When I started to sew on the  fins , I realized that I had forgotten to embroider the dorsal fins.  I also didn’t like one of set of eyes, so I decided to redo it in a different colour.

Detail of Fish Tail

School of Fish

The tail fin of the green and purple fish was a little floppy so I coated both sides with Acrylic Matte Medium.  When I finished the fish I hung them outside to photograph.

Soft Sculpture Fish

This piece was inspired by my March trip to the Biodome in Montreal.  There were fish in 2 of the ecosystems, but the ones in the Gulf of St Lawrence held our attention for the longest time.

I eventually want to do a  fish with an embroidered body, but for now I thought I’d do a few in fabric with free motion embroidered fins.

Free motion Embroidery on Ultra Solvy, water-soluble stabilizer

So far I’ve only done this one in black and white with red fins.