MICRO STITCHING

I decided to micro seed stitch the background of this piece with one strand of embroidery floss rather than the machine echo quilting originally planned 

Holy cow.....this is SUPER time consuming but I'm now committed so I'm trying to enjoy the slow process.  The piece is only about 8" x 14". The thought was not to add the overwhelming texture of machine echo quilting, choosing instead to go with a more subtle pebbled background that would allow the thread sketching to be the focus.

This will certainly take time.....

WHAT A MESS!!

One of my favorite fabrics to work with is silk noil.  Which is why this material is usually my first choice to hand-dye when the opportunity presents itself.

The piece below was ice-dyed which yielded less of a all over color mixture than is usual.  It was a fairly large piece and thankfully a section was cut to use for another project.  I say thankfully because this is a MESS.

 The intention was to create a morning sky landscape theme.  Instead as I machine stitched, the results became big blobs of color and lots of distortion.

Silk noil is notoriously sort of flimsy so being very familiar working with it, I added a stabilizer on the wrong side.  However, I used a new (to me) top thread, King Tut by Superior Threads.  Clearly it was just too heavy for this fabric. I should have acknowledged that immediately, but foolishly forged on anyway!

Lesson learned....come back tomorrow to see what I'm doing on the other half of this fabric.

PINE BOUGH

Yes, I'm still here.....thank you to the many followers who emailed me.  Things have been a bit crazy in our household but all will be well.  Our hearts go out to all those suffering the aftermath of the hurricanes. Realizing what those folks are facing, certainly puts one's little bumps in the road in perspective.

Okay....let's talk fabric!  The purple discharge motifs I blogged about recently are still on my design wall and I'm NO closer to a design solution.  So, in the meantime, another one of my rust-dyed vintage linens got my attention. 

The embroidery design was kept quite simple to avoid over-powering the lovely lacey motifs.  It was mounted on mottled hand-dyed silk noil.

PINE BOUGH  18" X 15.5"

AVAILABLE HERE

Vintage linen, hand embroidered/dyed with iron water, hand-dyed silk noil.

RED BERRIES

After taking about 100 photos....this is the best view I could get....it's puzzling why documenting the color of this piece was so difficult.....but alas it was.....

However, it's finished and I'm pleased with the new life this little hankie now has!  I hope you've enjoyed following its transformation. 

 RED BERRIES  15" x 18.5" MARY STORI © 2017

AVAILABLE HERE

Vintage hankie, eco-dyed, hand embroidered, mounted on linen.

VINTAGE HANKIE - PART 2

......The embroidery work is now complete. 

 Red berry motifs are being auditioned.

 Fortunately, my stash includes two bins of ultra-suede scraps which translate well for small motifs where texture is beneficial. I like to trace the design onto  freezer paper, press it to ultra-suede and cut out using a very sharp small scissors. If necessary, a dab of glue can be used to hold the item in place as it's hand appliquéd in position.  

Once the accent motifs were in place, as much of the stabilizer as possible was trimmed away.  Next, as you can see by the needle and thread, I began the tedious task of carefully stitching the edges of the hankie to its background.

Stay tuned......

VINTAGE HANKIE

Back in 2015, two pals and I tried our hands at eco printing.

After mostly disappointing results, I decided to abandon the idea of printing with leaves and instead to process some vintage textiles that I'd brought along in an iron water bath.  They were squeezed into fabric balls, contained with string and simmered for about an hour.

 I can't tell you how many times I've pulled them from my stash, only to put them back after being unable to move forward with a workable design on their small size, about 9" x 10".  Finally it came to me.....perhaps they could be transformed and then mounted on pieces of dyed silk noil or ????  Why did they have to be stand alone....which was my original thought?!?

Of course every bin and stack of fabric I own was gone through before finally settling on an approach.  This piece is still in the works......so it will be interesting to see what the final decision turns out to be.

 A lot of thought went into how to stablize the embroidered/lacey textile and yet retain the details.  Pellon non-fusible light-weight stabilizer, as is often my choice, was placed on the wrong side of the piece.  I plan to cut away all exposed sections beyond the center section where the motifs will be placed. 

 The biggest hurtle was developing a way to transfer the design lines to the fabric!  The use of pencil or other such tracing material was out......too risky in case I changed my mind about location etc.  Removing those marks may prove to be impossible.  

Here's what I came up with.....borrowing a transfer method I often employ when beading.  With tracing paper over the hankie, the outline of the center section was recorded.  Next, I spent a good amount of time auditioning small scale foliage designs within the marked boundaries using pencil and eraser. 

To transfer the final design to the hankie, the paper pattern was positioned on the right side of the fabric and secured with small silk pins.  With thread to match, I machine stitched a line down the center of each branch.  Carefully the paper was torn away, revealing a guide for the hand embroidery. 

As the first line of embroidery was added for every branch, the guideline was removed.  This approach eliminated all possibilities of having offending marks  on the work.  Stay tuned....I'm gearing up to add the remaining designs....

Check out these links to explore what other artists have been working on this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts.

POLKA DOT PARADE

Sometimes it's the little, seemingly simple projects that become quite challenging.  The goal was to retain the happy feeling of the colorful fun circular motifs, without resorting to taking the easy way out and simply make it a whole cloth piece. Incorporating two rows of polka dot scraps, adding hand embroidery  and finally machine quilting with long black dashes seemed to fill that intention.

Okay I admit.....my fingers were itching to add beads.....but fearing that would add too much clutter I restrained myself!

POLKA DOT PARADE  

19" x 14.5"

Cotton fabric stamped with thickened dye, hand embroidered, machine quilted.

Detail 

LUNARIA ANNUA

Last Friday I blogged about the start of this project.  Since then I've been putting hours and hours and hours hand stitching this half of an ice-dyed linen table runner. 

The featured botanical motif is known by several different names; its Latin name: Lunaria Annua, or Silver Dollar, Honesty Plant, Money Plant.

The stems are hand-dyed cotton strips & machine stitched to the background. The discs have been created by combining  hand-dyed cottons, fusibles, and hand-dyed crinkled polyester. Each has been appliquéd with hand embroidery.

It was understandably time consuming, however after not being able to do much handwork for nearly 4 months due to eye surgery, it was pure pleasure.

The challenge now is to figure out how to finish it. The fabric has been stabilized with Pellon's lightweight non-fusible interfacing which allowed the flimsy fabric to remain remarkably flat.  The edges aren't quite as straight as I'd like, so along with finishing the top, I'll be addressing that issue. I'm considering dyeing some lace to add to those areas.  

Creating one-of-a-kind wall art pieces with repurposed fabrics can be challenging but so rewarding!

Follow these links to see how other artists are having fun with their work this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday.

  

FOCUS ON NATURE - PART 2

Yup....that wonderful uneven hole in the agate seemed like the perfect space to show off additional beads!  I enjoy creating dangles that feature interesting 'focal' beads at the end.

 Stacking beads to create clumps can be useful to add texture and depth to one's work. I puzzled for quite awhile about how to handle the many images screen printed onto the silk noil. Often times deconstructed screen printed fabrics are very busy and difficult to work with.  In the end, I decided to incorporate simple hand embroidery to highlight some areas and help pull the less interesting ones back into the visual mix.

FOCUS ON NATURE  14" x 11"    © 2016

AVAILABLE HERE

Deconstructed screen printed images on silk noil, bead embellished, hand embroidered. Mounted on canvas covered fabric backed frame with a hanging device.

*Note - the beads around the agate appear redish in this photo, however the  actual color more closely matches the orangey dyed scrim. 

'THE COLOR OF FALL' - FINISHED NEW WOOL PIECE

This is the final layout I selected to marry the needle lace leaves with the wool that had been reworked numerous times!

THE COLOR OF FALL  -  12" x 9"

SOLDAvailable Here  (and to view a larger photo)

 Artist shibori printed, ice-microwave dyed, & mono-printed wool, machine needle lace embroidered leaves. Mounted on a canvas covered frame, fabric backed & hanging device attached.

Visit these blogs to see what others have been up to this week.  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Sews.

NEW WOOL WORK - PART 3

I expect most of you are familiar with the wonders of water soluble stabilizer....simply stitch on it.....cut the excess stabilizer away and dissolve the remaining in warm water.

The leaves are soaking in a sink that's filling with water.

With the stabilizer gone, the leaves are left to dry.

Though I made the leaves specifically following the design pattern I drew on the overlay.....it didn't translate into a pleasing piece.

I had a stack of leaves to work with so I began auditioning new placements.

Though I rejected this one layout, upon reflection, I rather like it now.  However I didn't then, so check back tomorrow and I'll show you what I did do!

NEW WOOL WORK - PART 2

….Continuing the saga of this new wool piece........

The colors and texture of the fabric gave the impression of fall.  So I set out to create leaves to enhance the design of the fabric.  A clear piece of plastic and a magic marker allowed me to preview the shape and placement.

Normally I use a dry erase marker when auditioning motifs, but because I wanted to transfer the design, a traditional marker worked better for this approach as it stays fairly wet.

I placed a piece of lightweight paper over the leaves drawn on the plastic to transfer their shapes.....they will now be my templates.  Sure they are rough shapes.....but for my purpose; to make needle lace leaves, that was fine.

I retraced the shapes onto a piece of water soluble stabilizer.

Okay, I know what you are thinking....Mary doesn't like to free motion stitch....and you'd be right.  But it had to be done.  So, the shapes were outlined and then filled in using rayon embroidery thread.

Well......that wasn't too bad.....I did it!  But, yikes.....it took a lot of time and I had how many more planned???

Come back tomorrow and see the progress........  

NEW WEEK - NEW WOOL PROJECT

This post should probably be titled - The 7th Time May Be The Charm......
Normally, my preference is to show the process and conclusion of a project in one post, assuming that doesn't get overwhelming. But, because of all the steps involved, I'm breaking up this 'story' into several posts.

It all began with a piece of garment quality white wool.  I love working with felted wool, but as is often the case with dress goods, it wouldn't felt.  I had a lot of this fabric so I decided to work with it anyway.

The first step was to ice dye it.....but as seen in this photo......it's rather dull. So when two friends and I were playing with acrylic paint, I wrapped it onto a large pvc pipe. 

And painted the folds using a foam brush. (My buddy Judy Simmons can be seen in the background painting one of her pieces.)

......Hummmm.....it's still ugly!

Several months later the Fiber Junkies spent a day experimenting with microwave ice-dyeing....so I overdyed it.  Good grief....it's still homely.

Time passed and the Fiber Junkies met again for a mono-printing day.  I was doing a happy dance after transforming the fabric by applying numerous layers of thinned acrylic paint with the aid of several really interesting stencils a member shared.

Trust me....it's so much better in person.  The challenges are that it is far darker than it appears in the photo and has a VERY BUSY appearance.  

With that said......after picking it up a dozen times and replacing it, I now have a plan that hopefully will be successful.   Check back....won't you?

INDIGO BLUE - NEW WORK

I'm crazy about the color indigo blue......aren't you??  This little project consumed many happy evenings as I stitched and stitched.

INDIGO BLUE    10" x 8" 

Available Here

Artist indigo dyed linen, printed with natural foliage, bead embellished agate,

and hand embroidered.  Mounted on canvas covered frame, fabric backed with hanging device.

DETAIL

WILDFLOWER FANTASY - NEW WOOL WORK

After many happy hours stitching on this small piece....it's now complete!

Sometime ago I blogged about the process of altering a section of this peachy National Nonwoven's Woolfelt fabric.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their products.  

First there was a rather unsuccessful attempt to micro-wave ice-dye it.  I believe the unsatisfactory result of that experiment was because the piece was too large and it 'cooked' too long.

On a re-do.....it was monoprinted using slightly thinned acrylic paint and a stencil.

I always stabilize felted works to keep them from distorting during the stitching process.  Often I'll sketch some basic design placement ideas on a piece of lightweight non-fusible Pellon interfacing. (I don't draw....so this is really rough.)

The interfacing is thread basted to the wrong side of the altered fabric and here ultra-suede stems are being added. (Sometimes following the sketch I've drawn on the wrong side, sometimes not!) 

Stitching with Burmilana #12 thread and beading using a variety of styles of seed beads is in progress. Next the interfacing will be trimmed to about 1/4" from the outside edge, a backing and edge finishing will be incorporated.  Finally, a hanging device and label will be added.

WILDFLOWER FANTASY  10" x 12" 

AVAILABLE HERE

Artist microwave ice-dyed, monoprinted, hand embroidery,

bead embellished.

UPDATE:  I've had several inquires about how I finish the back of these pieces, plus inquiries about hanging devices.  I blogged about it here:  http://marystori.blogspot.com/2012/11/backingslabels-for-wool-quilts.html

See what other artists have been up to this week:  Nina-Marie Off The Wall Friday, Whoop, Whoop Friday, 

SUNRISE AT THE MARSH - NEW WORK

In September 2014, our Fiber Junkies group spent a day over-painting completed or half-completed projects using diluted house paint.  The ole' "it can't get any worse approach" for work that wasn't satisfactory the first time around.

We have a tendency not to stick with our designated themes......so when Judy brought out some plain lightweight canvas to share....I created this.  The background is house paint and the reeds were done with metallic acrylic paint.

 It's been a time consuming project....great for someone like me who enjoys evening hand stitching projects.  My plan called for filling the entire background  with simple straight stitches, consisting of two strands of embroidery floss (often different colors) in the needle.

 I blogged about the painting process here and again here.  However, I didn't keep track of how long the stitching took. 

  Does it matter?  However I can say it was quite awhile!  For instance this photo was taken Jan. 10, 2014....but who's counting?!?

 Because I always secure my work in a QSnap frame when hand stitching.....some of the acrylic paint flaked off during the process.

Mixing up a similar color using several paints and reapplying wasn't a big deal.  Because of the weight of all the embroidery....I decided to machine outline stitch the reeds so the work would be securely attached to the backing. The pieced was now quite thick, so rather than mounting onto a canvas frame as I had planned, it was finished with narrow hand-dyed binding. (see below)

SUNRISE AT THE MARSH -  14.5" X 12.5"  © 2015

 AVAILABLE HERE

Hand embroidered painted cotton canvas.

Check out what others have been creating this week:  Off The Wall Friday, Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Richard and Tanya Quilts.