Doodling

Everyone seems to be in such a rush.....me?  just taking time to doodle

Merry Christmas!

Fold - Stitch - Dye

Last week, I decided to try something different. Did I have a clue what I was doing? absolutely not....never let that stop me, not knowing exactly what will happen IS what makes it FUN!
I took a piece of cotton and folded it just like I do the paper for making those papercut snowflakes. What I did then, was thread a needle with heavy thread (jean's thread actually) then I randomly began stitching through all those layers, pulling it all up good and tight, creating lots of deep creases.

Soaked the piece in a soda ash solution and then placed it in a ziplock bag with some dye

After, batching, rinsing, removing the stitching and unfolding......this is what I got.
 

Not fabulous, but interesting all the same. I think I know where I may have gone wrong and will definitely try this again.............got a little "ink blot" thing happening  :-)

Quilting....Free Motion, continued

In my last post, I talked about some of the basic steps I take when doing free motion quilting. In this post I thought I would share how I decide "what" to quilt.
It really depends on the quilt itself, if I am working on a utilitarian quilt, I will generally use simple shapes, stencils, feathers or basic meander. I let the size and purpose of the quilt dictate what I choose to do.

But art quilts are a different matter, art quilts tell a story and I want the stitching to continue the story. Below are some examples of ways that I use stitching to compliment the images on my quilts.

Sometimes I just add a little something in the background....can you see the spirals that break up the stippling?

pebbles stitched using pastel variegated thread kind of looks like snow

Simple "echo" stitching is often a great choice when you just want the stitching to stay in the background

Carrying an  image in your stitches out into the border  adds interest and continues the story. Here the roots spread out into the border.

In between the roots, I wanted the feel of earth, jagged, uneven stitching, pebbles and stippling worked well.

wavy lines and bubbles surround these turtles for a watery feel

This is another example trying to get the feel of the movement of water

sky.... gentle breezes

Sometimes, it can be as simple as following the pattern of the fabric, for excellent effect.

I just noticed....this is my 300th post.....Wow...have I really have that much to say?