Project 2, Stage 6, creating texture continued, review

Today I spend most of my time working on this embroidery sample. I started out with 2 pieces of handdyed fabric and on those pieces I did my embroidery. With white pearl cotton I made the spider webs and the French knots, with 2 colors of yellow/brownish I made the interlaced running stitch and the roving was held in place with irregular herringbone stitches. Also in between the roving I used these stitched. And finally with the dark green I used the feather stitch. Although it took me many hours I like the result:

On this strip of cardboard you can see the colors I used:

Here is my review for this project:
- Do you feel happy with the work?
Yes, I like the result I got. It is not an exact copy of the picture which inspired me, but that is not necessary.
- Do you prefer working with stitch to drawing? Can you begin to see the relationship between the two?
Yes, I do like it. As a quilter I have been doing this for years but I have to admit that I work mainly with my machines. Especially with thin lines stitching is essential to duplicate these lines. Bigger areas can be done with pieced fabric, but with lines that is practically not possible. I have not much experience with hand stitching/embroidery, but I really see where that can come in useful.
- Having worked through Stage 2, were you then able to choose stiches which expressed the marks and lines of your drawings?
Yes, I was. If I had more experience with hand embroidery I would have been able to use more different stitches, but the ones I knew - or could find - were useable for my marks and lines.
- Do you think your sample works well irrespective of the drawing? Or do you think your sample is just a good interpretation of your drawing and nothing more?
Yes, my sample works well. It is not an exact copy of the texture in my picture, but the effect of the different textures shows in the sample.
- Which of the activities did you prefer - working with stitch to create textures or working with yarns to make textures? Which worked best for you and why?
For this question I have 2 answers. If I work with my machine I prefer working with stitch. Machine embroidery is limited to certain thinner threads as my machine does not like bobbin work. If I want to create really thick texture I would have to do this by hand.
- Make some comments on individual techniques and sample pieces. Did you experiment enough? Did you feel inhibited in any way?
As I mentioned earlier on, my experience with handstitching is limited. No doubt that there are many more stitching which I simply do not know now. This is the reason that I signed up for an online embroidery class which starts coming month. With this class my experimentation will continue. And so will my collection of different types of yarn/thread :-).
- How do you prefer to work? From drawing or by playing with materials and yarns to create effects? Which method produced the most interesting work?
I love to play and experiment and see where this leads to. Okay, sometimes the result is not great, but very often I find very intesting combinations.
- Are there other techniques you would like to try? Are there any samples you would like to do in a different way?
I would like to play more with texture and also use different materials with that. I am thinking along the line of strips of fabric instead of yarn and adding gesso and paint to make it much more dimensional.
- Is there anything you would like to change in your work? If so, try to think out why and make notes for future reference.
I want to have a bigger stash of different types of yarn/thread. This is something I am working on as it takes time to find the stuff I want. With the samples - especially the ones in the beginning - I was really held back because of the limited material I had here. Now some of the threads I have ordered have arrived.

Project 2, Stage 6, creating texture

For this sample I had to look for a picture with an interesting texture in my sketchbooks. Well for me, this means go through the pictures I have on my computer. For years I have been taking pictures of textures and other odd things. There were a couple of interesting ones, but for the moment I decided to work with this picture of a creek in Yellowstone park.

And more specifically this area of the picture:

I love the difference between the flowing weeds and the white lichen(?) at the left. My plan for this weekend is to work on this sample. Stay tuned :-)

Project 2, Stage 5 embroidery

This is a continuation of yesterday's post, only this time the samples are done with machine embroidery. I experimented with different designs - and not surprisingly they gave different results.
Starting with the top row from left to right. The zigzaglines were done with white (rayon?) thread. The thread does not have a brand name, so this is a guess. I like the way the lines cross. Difficult to see on the scan, but the color changes a bit where they cross as the density is higher there. Next sample is not a succes. I tried one of the fancy stitches on my machine but I am not impressed with this one. But the triangles gave me some further ideas. The wavy lines were done with yellow Madeira, again a rayon thread. I like the way the color shows more dominance where the lines are close together (the left side). Next one - the one most to the right - is one of my favorite designs. A great filler. I used 2 yellows on it, but that does not show very well. The color on the cones were orangy yellow and lemon yellow, but in this sample they look a lot alike. By playing with the length of the zigzag and the length of the connecting lines this design can be made more - or less - compact.

Bottom row at the left is one of the triangles I played with. I used a yellow and a blue rayon thread and were they overlap you can see a bit of greenish. The same triangles in white are next to it. Here again, the density influences the strength of the color. I really like this effect and of all the samples I did the last couple of days, this one is my favorite. Next to that is a combination of dark blue metallic thread and a lighter rayon. It does not show very well on this scan, but it is a nice one. Nothing special, just nice. And the last sample for today is a two colored yellow one. I did this one with straight lines to compare it with the way lines in the top row. Same with this sample the difference in yellow does not show much and I have to say I like the wavy lines more than the straight ones. They give more dynamic to the design.

Project 2, Stage 5 embroidery

Missing in action? Well not really. I have been revamping my website - not yet published - and working on some quilts, but today I started working on embroidery samples. Both samples were done on snowdyed fabric. For the first leave I used a combination of threads: pearl cotton 8, handdyed embroidery floss, metallic Sulky thread, embroidery linen and  jewel effect from DMC, a polyester thread. Yes, some of the supplies I had ordered, had arrived.

The shiny effect of some of the threads got lost a bit with the scan. I used a combination of outline stitch and random herringbone stitches or cross stitches.
For my other sample I used a double running stitch and filled the leaves with satin stich. For this sample I used pearl thread 8 in various green/yellow colors.

Of these two samples I like the overall effect of the second one best. The color coördination is better with this one too. What I do like of the first sample is the shiny effect of the jewel effect DMC.

Project 2, Stage 4 embroidery

More exploration of stitches and the effect they give. My books have not yet arrived, but through Google I found this site on which a huge range of embroidery stitches is mentioned. My collection of yarn is still small so the choices I could make are limited. The designs are based on some of the mark makings I did earlier on in this project.
On the first picture at the right I used a splitstich done with hand dyed yellow DMC embroidery floss. The design on the right is made from a blue fruit nett and yellow floss.





On this picture is a variety of stitches. The top one on the left is a coral stitch, next to that an open Cretain stitch. The long one at the right is an interlaced running stitch. The spiral in the middle is a white yarn couched down with a herringbone stitch and the crescent shape is made with French knots.

My experience with hand embroidery is limited. It is something I will have to work on the coming months. That is the reason I signed up for Sharon's class (see link above). It will give me more change to experiment with stitches and I will end up with a range of fiber cards :-).

Project 2, stage 3 sample

For this sample I looked through my mark makings for an inspiration source. And this is the one I have chosen:

Cris cros lines of different thickness. As background fabric I picked one of my sunprints. The sample is made of contrasting colors, but I wanted to do the fabric sample in softer closely related colors in a combination of machine and hand stitching.

As you can see the colors are closely related. Actually too closely related. Depending on how the light touches the fabric some of the zig zag lines hardly show. This is the main thing I learned when making this sample. To balance this a bit, I did the hand stitching in rather deep purple/brownish rayon thread.
I like the combination of machine and hand stitching. Only as I said the colors of the thread don't show enough. Lesson learned for a next case.

As I mentioned above I was not happy with the result so I decided to make another sample using the same mark as inspiration source. Again in the same color range, but with a much better contrast:

With this sample I used only machine stitching because I did not think this sample would improve if hand stitching was added. As you can see, the same sunprint as background fabric with two different yarns couched on it. Simple, not very time consuming, but it gives a nice effect.

Project 2, Stage 2 mark making with stitches

Again mark making but this time with different white/whitish thread/yarn on a black Kona fabric background. I experimented with different thread and distance between stitching lines. The 'squares' are done with machine stitching, all the other ones are hand stitched.

I am not happy with the couched yarn. It does not fit in with the rest. But that is the good part of experimenting, you find out what works and what does not. Same goes for the spirals. The one at the left is only done once with a thin thread, the one at the right has multiple stitching lines close to each other which make it really stand out. For the lines at the bottom I used a lose stern stich and I have to say I like the effect. It is more flowing than a straight line made with a double running stitch.
What else do I like? The different effect the squares give, depending on whether the lines are straight or more flowing and how dense they are stitched. Each one is different, but they fit very well together too. The loose stitching under the squares I love. I stumbled upon this type of hand stitching by accident when I saw how the couching of the yarn looked like. No idea whether there is an official name for this type of stitching or not, but I will use it more often. My book on stitches has not yet arrived, so I cannot check for a name.