Sunday, 4 October 2020

BLOG 516

 

Blog 516

 

And diverted I was! I couldn’t wait to start my jigsaw and once it had started I had to see it through to the end! I blame the rainy days when I couldn’t get out to do battle with the garden. Or perhaps it was the fact that I wasn’t making much progress with the daffodils from last week. The picture I posted was naff! And as if to prove the point, the bits were all on the floor when I went in my playroom the next day!! Here endeth that idea!!


 
Start

 
Finish

 

Bits on the floor!

As we are in lockdown again in Flintshire, I decided to do something totally different. I pulled out my drawer of silks. Most of these were given to me a year ago by one of my friends from Gresford who was having a throw out; I am so lucky that they came my way! But then the fact that I have them puts on the pressure to use them and the longer I have them the more my conscience pricks! As I have never used silks before, I decided to read up about it on the internet. I rather wish I hadn’t because all sorts of problems were raised, mainly to do with fraying. The main point that I took on board was to sew with a wider seam allowance to discourage fraying. This was doable, but the thought of lining each piece of silk before I using it was a step too far! Anyway I just thought I’d get them out and have a look at them.

 
Silks

 

Before I knew it I was pressing each piece and then automatically arranging them in a shaded palette from lights through mediums to darks. Most pieces measured 11” x 14” and it was immediately evident that that there were many more lights in the selection.


Pressing

 
Colour palette mediums

 
Complete palette

 

I wanted to do something that I had never done before so I started with a square and I inserted a strip into it using a colour from nearby in the palette. I just sliced and then I sewed so there was no maths, no precision and little thought. The strips varied in size and the placement was random. Once I was satisfied with my first square, I cut it into 3” squares, to give me 9 smaller squares. These will be my building blocks for a shaded wall hanging but it is obvious that I will have to prepare as many pieces as I can before trialling the idea on my design wall. This is scary stuff when you think how much silk costs, but then I didn’t buy it so I have nothing to lose … except the friendship of the person who gave it to me! I need to make this work so that I can show my friend that I have achieved something worthwhile with it and to prove that she gave it to the right person. She also gave me a load of variegated threads so perhaps I can incorporate them in this piece of work too.

 
Slash and sew

 
Insert

 
3” squares

 
More squares

 
String piecing

 
Building blocks

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