And on to Stitch

I was really looking forward to getting on to the stitch samples, a change for me as I always dread it. However the euphoria didn't last long and I soon hit a brick wall.

I started with this piece of Dupion silk as I had it in stock and I was still waiting for my new samples to dry. I used the stone markings on the original source to give me a starting point for my stitching.


1/7/1

Having first laid down some pieces of sparkling sheer under a layer of fine random dyed silk, I then incorporated pieces of the thick dyed silk and dyed silk tops. I like the result so far but wonder if I should work into it some more.


1/7/2

The next sample was very exciting for me as it was my first attempt at digitising a free design of my own on the Bernina Designer Plus software. The shapes are taken from a stone outline in my SB


1/7/3

On the first sample I used the Auto digitiser with a ripple fill over each shape and then did an an outline in a slightly different colour, not wanting too much contrast.


1/7/4

I then scanned this image into photoshop and simulated various stitch additions to this motif.


1/7/5

And this was my favourite.


1/7/6

My second attempt at this motif was to use the magic wand tool to manually digitise the centres of each shape in order to fill them with a different colour to the main shape. That worked well but when I tried to select the outside shape and put a fill on it, it covered the whole piece, so I need to look at this again. I like the motif on the sheer and it stitched very well with a layer of Madeira Avalon underneath, but I will have to be very careful with the programming in future as there were one or two errors that caused the machine to run back on itself.


1/7/7

The last sample I tried, so far, is an over-dyed piece of cotton sandwiched with pieces of Erisé film lace parer and sheer. I was thinking here about the anemones from my SB and things that you see just beneath the water sometimes, in the sea.


1/7/8

I have started to add stitch to this piece, but again, I'm not sure how much more to do.


1/7/9

Having now got started on the stitch I think I feel a lot happier, but could do with some guidance as to where to take it from here.

One of my blogging friends, Jacqueline, does some amazing contemporary work and her pieces on this post really inspired me so maybe I could incorporate text in the next sample.