I have been in Nevada for the past two weeks checking out how it will be to live with my daughters family. The answer? Great! I have been contemplating the move for a few years now and things just weren't quite ready. Now I think I am, but there are still many things to do before I really go. Like clean out the garage.
So let's talk about what I have been doing these last few weeks.
Do you remember that I used this image as a demonstration in the last session of class? Well I made it into a quilted pillow and I really like it now. I extended the design by quilting beyond the circle and it worked out really nice.
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Here is the next thing I've been doing. I had painted these leaves on silk, so then I thought, "What if I add a little free motion machine embroidery to parts of the painting. I knew I would need stabelizer so I went shopping for something that I thought would work. It didn't! See all the wrinkles after I took it out of the hoop and then washed away the stabilizer it was very pulled and crinkly and no amount of ironing helped.
next plan.
Then I used an iron on knit stabilizer and a layer of wash away "Sulky" It was better, but still not as good as I wanted. IN the detail below you can see the wrinkles are fewer and not as bad as before.
On to the next try. This time I used another brand of fusible very soft knit stabilizer by "Floriania" recommended by Alex Anderson for "tricky fabrics like silk" Then I added another layer of a firm tearaway and I had the best results so far.
Very little wrinkling after tearing away and such. I also tried pre-shrinking the stabilizer before I applied it. So far This is the third try and it is getting better. This time I also used some background stitching of leaves to give it a bit of dimension. I used a variegated thread so It would kind of give variety to the stitching. I went back and added stitching to the one before. But found that adding the stitching first was the best way. That was a no-brainer.
Here in the details you can see the stitching and the embroidery. I'm excited about the concept of the silk painting and the free motion embroidery for accent.
I will be framing these as wall art so am hoping to get even a better result when finished.
This time I have two layers of stabilizer and it is smooth, I will let you know if this works after I do the free motion embroidery and remove the stabilizer.
Detail of the painting and the drawn background leaves without any stitching. By the way I painted the background silk before I put on the gutta lines, so there are fewer gutta lines showing in the finished pieces. You can see the effect better a few photos back.
I'm having fun. I hope you are creating and enjoying it also. Let me know what you are doing and any comments about what I am doing also.
