Back at it

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.