embellishing – Daily Fiber

Bygone Days of a Future Fiber Artist

Posted on February 26, 2025February 26, 2025 by Laura Kate

Today I am joining As Kat Knits for * Unraveled Wednesday, making something from materials on hand.

I have a souvenir T-shirt that I love, but the neckline has stretched out and sagged something terrible. I no longer enjoy wearing it.

So I got the scissors and cut off the neck binding. After pressing the edge under and fusing it down, I considered how I might embellish the now-scooped neckline. Blanket stitch seemed the obvious choice.

While stitching away, memories flooded back to me of the moment when I learned to sew this stitch. I had just joined the Girl Scouts. Our very first activity was to make a sit-upon out of oilcloth stuffed with newspapers. This object was to be used outdoors when we needed a dry place to rest. To sew the edges of our sit-upons closed, we used blanket stitch.

Sorry, friends, I do not have a photograph of the original item. For obvious reasons, that product didn’t last very long. But the happy memory of the scout meeting when I made it lives on in my brain. I was with my friends, starting on a new adventure – who knew where we would go during scouting. Our future was bright and we were eager.

These days, I still have a soft spot for good old blanket stitch. Today, I held together dark blue and pale green 12 weight threads to give a my shirt some pop.

And here is my revived T-shirt, all tricked out with a sexy neckline.

I’m ready for my next adventure.

oops, my bad, I didn’t realize that Unraveled Wednesday was for knitting projects. I promise to follow the rules in my next post.

embellishing, hand embroidery

Friday Finish: Dragonfly panel stitching

Posted on January 3, 2025January 1, 2025 by Laura Kate

For this week, I made a promise to myself that I would complete the hand embroidery on one of the Here Be Dragons art quilt panels. By New Year’s Day, I had finished.

The goal was to emphasize the painted lines while quilting the fabric layers together. I used DMC stranded floss in colors compatible with the fabric paint.

Here is the panel before stitching the background. The dragonfly is already stitched.

Using primarily stem stitch I outlined the botanical shapes of leaf and flower. With rice stitch, I worked the blank areas of the panel to secure the batting and backing.

Here is the panel completed.

I feel pretty good about my work. To me, the piece has variety but also cohesion, achieved by using repetition and a limited color palette.

I now have only one panel of this quilt left to stitch. My goal is to have the work finished and framed in time for an exhibition sponsored by my local art association. It will open in early February.

There’s nothing like a deadline to keep an artist motivated.

embellishing, painting, quilting

Friday Finish: Creation Wall Quilt

Posted on February 17, 2023 by Laura Kate

Today I’m showing the finished wall hanging that I made based on a 13th century illuminated manuscript. The project got its start when I wanted to try out my new watercolor pencils on fabric. This link shows the original artwork that inspired me.

More Fun with Watercolor Pencils

After getting the blocks sewn together, I quilted the sections in a dark blue thread. I was proud that my free-motion quilting skills were proficient enough to make swirls, wiggles, spirals, shapes and lettering.

Most of the fancy stitches were done on the pale grey fabric. In each of the four cardinal compass points, I stitched images that were in the style of those found on the medieval manuscripts. That style is typified by drawings of flowers, animals and figures worked into lots of filigree lines. I love the flat imagery and the primary colors used by the artists of the time. They were simple monks living a simple life.

The giant focal point, God’s eye, is sewn with spirals: symbol of the cycle of Life.

This quilt done, I can now focus my time on the Stay-at-Home round robin quilt. Right now I’m working diligently on a large number of flying geese blocks. If I stick to it, the border will be finished in time to post to the Linky party before it closes.

embellishing, painting, quilting

Experiment with Stitch and Slash

Posted on July 20, 2022 by Laura Kate

While perusing available art quilt technique tutorials, I discovered another use for my hand-painted fabrics. Carol Ann Waugh teaches a modern take on reverse applique in her class on Craftsy. She calls it Stitch and Slash. It was inspired by the traditional molas made by the Kuna women of Panama.

Molas

In Carol’s interpretation of the mola, four pieces of fabric are selected and layered together. Then a design is chosen, marked on the back of the pile and stitched into layers. The similarity with the traditional molas stops here, when Carol gets out her seam ripper and slashes away at the assembled fabric Instead of nice, neatly stitched edges, she ends up with frayed, textured ones.

Okay, I thought, I have the perfect set of fabrics to try this out.

The two painted pieces are layered with a dark green batik print and a brown textured print. You see here the back side of the brown fabric, which I will be using for the top layer. Nearly all of the this layer will be cut (or torn) away.

Here is the back of my piece, showing marks stitched through.

Getting started with the slashing: You see in this photo all the top layer is gone, part of layer two gone, and the center of the circles showing the bottom layer.

This ripping took more time and was a little trickier than I expected.

All the excess fabric is now removed.

I was excited by how well the painted design is showcased.

The next steps are really just embellishments. To start, various ribbons and yarns are couched down over the seams. (Couching is just a zig-zag stitch worked over the ribbon/yarn/cord.) After that, it’s time to explore thread and machine embroidery options. I went with metallic yarns and threads in warm colors and dark shades.