BLOG 188

Another week, another flower and this time it is Nasturtiums; these definitely come high on the list of my favourite flowers. I love the colours and the hardiness of them and the fact that they self-seed so easily. They definitely want to be there and they give value in colourful displays when they are there! Here is the set-up in the loft (studio is difficult to heat well this time of the year), with threads, machine, reference material, a rough sketch of what I want to achieve and Super Solvy held in a hoop with coloured sheers  trapped in between.

                                       Set up

 

The sketch is drawn inside a circle made by drawing round the hoop I am going to use.

                                            Sketch

I have started the stitchery in the appropriate colours. The reference pictures are so important when creating a thread-painted picture; as well as giving ideas for colours, they offer ideas for shading and close-up detail.

                                    Close-up

 

Here is a close-up at the start of the project, where you can see leaf and flower shapes outlined in thread and the start of the colouring-in process. Several shades of thread are used to give depth. It is, of course, early days with this picture!

                                        Colouring in

STRINGING THE STARS A scrap quilt project

As mentioned in the last Blog, I have embarked on another scrap quilt using the string piecing method. ‘A String of Diamonds’ was visually so successful as a finished quilt that I wanted to try another one with the same technique. I recommend using this foundation method, whether on a fabric or on a paper base, for its accuracy and for using up a fabric stash!

For this quilt I am going to used patterned batiks and I have worked out how to create stars within the design, based on a finished 8” square. The background squares will be trimmed to 8 ½”.

Aside: A4 paper is just a bit on the narrow side so I have to mark one edge to remind myself to extend the fabrics an extra ½” on that edge.

                            Squares for the background

For the stars I need a 4 ½” centre, four 2 ½” light squares and eight 2 ½” half-square triangles.

                                Squares for the stars

 

The fabric strips are prepared and placed into 3 separate bags as follows:

Bag 1:  Light/medium fabric strips cut at 1 ¼” 1 ½”, 1 ¾” 2”

Bag 2: Dark fabric strips cut at ¾” and 1”

Bag 3: Medium/light fabrics cut at ¾” and 1”

 

                                     Fabric strips