Crazy Pleating

I have some ugly brown/orange/yellow fabric that I want to try out, so I used the twin needle and radiated lines with yellow silk thread in a spoke pattern. Two half moon shapes were cut from light yellow and medium yellow fabric and I hand basted these together. I tried pleating these moons at different angles and “crazy pleating” came about. I wasn’t happy with it, there is nothing neat about the pleats.

I pinned the pleated shape to the ugly backing, and quilted it all down using yellow silk thread.

Using star embroidery, running stitch, chain stitch, feather stitch, buttonhole stitch, fly stitch, and herringbone stitch I embellished the pleats. With silver thread, I quilted more of the pleats down.
The quilt needed beads, so yellow and blue seed beads follow the stitching. My daughter calls it a fountain.

Autumn Leaves

Walking in Kuirau Park today, we picked up some beautiful leaves in hues of yellow, red and burgundy. Autumn is almost upon us.

I have some curtain fabric that I feel the reverse side is more interesting and suited to an Autumn project . I also want to try reverse appliqué.

Some “fluffy” acrylic yarn was couched using variegated red crochet cotton. I started in a spiral but it looks more like a flower, so I embroidered the center with French knots and added black and red beads.

I reversed appliquéd a red sun, but it isn’t as round as I would like it to be. I want to get an image of a fallen autumn leaf, so running stitch might do. I did an outline, but felt it needed more, so I filled the inside of the leaf with running stitch, but tried to get one side paler than the other using the variegated thread.

I got carried away with the twin needle, and put some wavy lines in and swirled the fabric and thread around, trying to imitate the wind.

The to was then quilted with burgundy thread and echo quilted around the sun, and the leaf.

I like the look of the leaf, this turned out better than I had hoped. Experiment and you shall see.

Ladder Stitch

I want to try ladder stitch, which is similar to buttonhole stitch.
Background was cut from lavender felt and red felt. The fabric scraps I am using are red. Strips were cut 1.8cm to 3 cm wide and random lengths. I layered these on top of the felt until I came to a pleasing arrangement.
Sewed 0.5cm along the edge of the strips, but didn’t sew the full length of some strips as I wanted a random feel. I left the threads long, and will attach beads to them at the end.
Popped the quilt into the wash to fluff it up, but the threads have knotted and all messed up, so I have learnt from that.
Spent a while in front of the fire, yes, it is wet and grey day today, perfect for hand sewing. I used variegated crochet cotton, and standard embroidery thread to try different textures.
The ladder stitch then got embellished with ribbon, rikrak, sequins and beads. I sewed white and red buttons on some of the ladder stitch as well.
I put tassels at the end of a length of beads, 4 threads of crochet work better than 3.
I surprised myself with all unfinished edges and frizzy bits of thread.

Out of the Darkness

Today is wet and grey. I want to use a colour I don't normally play with - Black.

I have scraps of muslin, organza, cotton knit, black lace, and black ribbon.

Decided to use red as the contrast.

The twin needle was used to great effect, but I ran out of neon green as I made the second run.

Frayed the edge of the organza, but I stayed stitched 15mm in from the edge, just to secure.

The square of red was layered with the black lace with one rose prominent over the red.

Zigzagged the edges and voila!. Feather stitch embroidery and beading completed the quilt. I even left the dangly threads on the beads.

"Chenille Valentine"

Finished the Chenille Valentine, which is 5 layers of fabric sewn in layers diagonally. Then it is cut / slashed between the sewn lines. I also added a six layer with a heart motif(detail).

I sewed the lines 5mm apart at 45degrees, then I sewed the ones away from the heart 10mm apart. When I slashed them with a cutter, in some cases the channels were too close together, and I had to use the scissors to cut. Surprisingly, even though you think you can sew in a straight line. After chucking the chenille in the wash, there is not that much difference between the 5mm and 10mm lines, so nextime, I would just do the 10mm lines, as it would educe the sewing time.

I am not sure how effective the heart is. It doesn't stand out as much as I would have liked. Next time a greater contrast fabric would work. The border is zigzagged in medium green.

He's back!

Sewing machine is back and I have to put him to work straight away. I want to finish a project started last week, a chenille journal quilt, as this is a technique I have not tried. I also want to make some organza butterfies with wash away stabliser.

Walk in the Park

Picked up some gull feathers while walking next to the lake. I want to use them in the following weeks painting them and weaving them into a quilt. I also need to tighten my theme for my next series of quilts.