I was in serious need of some brainless sewing the other day, and decided to add some physical texture to a photo of moss that I took at Nisene Marks State Park. I've played with this technique before (lots of machine stitching on wash-away stabilizer) and wanted to see how it would work when superimposed on a digital photo. I'm sure it looks like a mess in such a small image, but I'm mostly really pleased with the way the stitching turned out.
I started with two layers of Aqua-Magic pinned together. I prefer this stabilizer because it feels more like fabric than the see-through types, and it doesn't stick to the bed of my sewing machine. Two layers is a compromise--not too much to wash away, while not distorting too much when densely stitched.
Good thing I was in the mood for brainless stitching, because creating the underlying grid is a bit tedious! The first pass outlined an 8" x 10" rectangle in straight stitch (1.8 on my Bernina), then parallel vertical rows approximately 1/8" apart. I used a toning color of Masterpiece thread top and bottom. Masterpiece is finer than standard sewing thread so the grid lines almost vanish into the picture.
The moss is mostly a bright spring green, but there are drab khaki sections as well. I changed thread colors (still Masterpiece) and added more gridlines. To hold everything together later on, I used a mock-smocking zigzag to stitch horizontal rows every 1.5" or so. I like the zigzag rather than a straight stitch because the horizontal lines aren't as obvious.
Next: serpentine lines of straight stitches (good old stitch #4 on the Bernina) and curved lines of multi-step zigzag. The curved lines help hold the longer stitches in place. Then I finally got to the real point of the exercise: lines of feather stitch for texture. To finish, place the wash-away on top of the photo, stitch in place with a fairly dense applique stitch and wash the stabilizer away.
As a proof of concept, it did exactly what I wanted. I would do things differently next time around, though. It is important to secure the grid to something stable/sturdy, so I printed the image on TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) fused to heavy-weight Lutradur. Even though the Lutradur held the thread web securely, I don't like the photo quality of the transfer. Next time I will print the photo directly on fabric (EQ Printables) and come up with a new way of holding the stitching securely. I used Highlights (40-wt. polyester) for some of the feather stitching with either Masterpiece or Bottom Line in the bobbin. Masterpiece was very well-behaved but I had a heck of a time getting the tension right with Bottom Line. I would also avoid straight-line stitching with high-contrast threads, they just show up too much.
This project was a fun way to spend an afternoon, and probably took almost as long to write up as it did to do most of the stitching! I can't wait to incorporate this technique into my "Walk in the Park" quilt.
I am an absolute zombie after my agility workshop today -- I didn't think I ran around that much, but I've taken over 14,400 steps already today. I'm going to kick off my shoes and sit back with this new book. I love feathered stars and these grid-based stars should go together easier than traditional Le Moyne-based stars.
I'm sure this is a sign of my Virgo-ness, but I have spent tons of time tagging all my images in Photoshop Elements. If I'm looking for a bird or a brush (or a bird brush!), one click brings up just the subset I'm interested in. I lost all the tags when I upgraded to Windows 7 and couldn't get my backup to restore correctly, so I've been obsessed about getting a copy on my laptop just in case. I got it to work today -- hooray, sigh of relief! It is a bit time-consuming, but definitely preferable to recreating all the tags.
Mama Bird is back for her third year and her second in this spot (yes, I know it could be a different bird, but what are the odds she would nest by the front door again?). Her nest is a couple of feet from the doorbell, and she sits tight even when visitors come to the door. The next time someone asks if we know we have a bird nest there, I will have to pretend I've never seen her before!
Anyone who has seen my library knows that I do my best to keep the publishers of quilting, embroidery and beading books in business. Every once in a while I buy something that Amazon recommends, even if it isn't directly related to those topics, and this is one of those books. I skimmed through this one when it came but didn't really read it until recently.
The swirls have nothing to do with the bridge except they were quick and easy to stamp, but I can see a lot of potential for this technique with logically related images. I know I could do the same thing by masking off part of the image instead, but this appeals to me since I was replicating a physical manipulation. Cheers!
I was in serious need of some brainless sewing the other day, and decided to add some physical texture to a photo of moss that I took at Nisene Marks State Park. I've played with this technique before (lots of machine stitching on wash-away stabilizer) and wanted to see how it would work when superimposed on a digital photo. I'm sure it looks like a mess in such a small image, but I'm mostly really pleased with the way the stitching turned out.
Next: serpentine lines of straight stitches (good old stitch #4 on the Bernina) and curved lines of multi-step zigzag. The curved lines help hold the longer stitches in place. Then I finally got to the real point of the exercise: lines of feather stitch for texture. To finish, place the wash-away on top of the photo, stitch in place with a fairly dense applique stitch and wash the stabilizer away.
Since I have all the time in the world (HA!), I signed up for Sharon Bogon's "Encrusted Crazy Quilting" class through Joggles.com. My block is 12" since I wanted space for some larger motifs -- that medium green solid in the top left is begging for something over the top... I'll post photos of the embroidery as I get it done.
I'm still working on getting everything organized after my trip, but this quilt won't be moving for a little while! Cupcake says it makes a very nice bed (oh, and "put the camera away!"). Kitties have needed so much love since I got back, which meant I didn't sleep much last night. The dogs have gotten a couple of time-outs for chasing kitties...
Nancy and I took our cameras to Nisene Marks State Park today. I fed the mosquitoes but think I avoided the poison oak (thanks, Nancy!!!). Most of the area was in deep shadow but we found this newly-opened leaf and took multiple photos each. I got quite a few good texture shots and look forward to tweaking them in Photoshop.
