
Slow Stitching
This is the landscape (on the left) that I showed you in my last post. I made a few changes including some new felt to indicate mountains in the distance and changing the diagonals in the foreground. I was originally going to machine stitch this in place on its background of white felt but decided to do some “slow” stitching. So I am hand appliqueing all the pieces down. I didn’t want the machine stitch to overpower the simple shapes.
Here you can see the stitches a bit closer. I am using a machine thread and a short sharps needle to stitch each piece in place. Some of the pieces are overlapping and some are butted up against each other.
Most of the sky is stitched down and because I didn’t have a big enough piece of dark blue felt for the sky, I cut up the pieces into irregular triangles. I’m not sure if you can see or not but this is felt that had been printed and then over-dyed so there is some pattern in the sky that along with the triangular pieces is definitely giving some interest that a single, plain blue piece of felt would not display.
I have now started stitching down the blue mountain shapes and as I stitch, some of the felt pieces have shifted a little. I may also add either some more color to some of the mountains as the white is definitely bringing them to far forward and is distracting. But I will work on that once everything is stitched in place.
I do have a piece of silk that is shown in the upper left of this photo that I am considering using as clouds. I would have it in much smaller pieces and I’m not sure I’ll even use it but I might. What do you think? Do you think it needs clouds? Is that fabric too light in value against the really dark sky? I hope you don’t get bored with this piece as it will take me a while since I am stitching by hand.
18 thoughts on “Slow Stitching”
Fascinating.
Compared to your original layout your work now has a lot of movement and is more representative. I like the way you are slow stitching it.
Seeing the silk has made me think not of clouds but of a bright moon that is lighting up the landscape. Using the silk might also act as a counter to the lively bright greeny foreground.
Thanks Antje! It definitely has more “movement” now. I like the idea of the moon. I will think on that. It does feel a bit too bright for clouds in such a dark sky. I still haven’t decided if more is going on the foreground. That was the plan initially but I am adding as I go along so we’ll see.
Yes Antje – a bright moon would look good – great idea.
It’s developing nicely Ruth and it comes through that you are enjoying the slow pace of work.
The pins in the sky look a bit like stars don’t they?
Thanks Lyn! I agree about the moon so I will see once I have gotten everything stitched down. I do like the slow pace, I always forget that I enjoy hand stitching in between times, not sure why. The pin heads do look like stars so that may be a consideration too if I add the moon.
I really don’t think it needs the distraction which the silk clouds might bring. It’s beautiful as it is.
Thanks! I am tending away from the cloud idea but will see if I want to add a moon.
The piece is compelling as is! I love the dark sky and mountains. I agree the colour of the silk would be distracting. You could stitch some lines in the sky using a different value, however I honestly love the changes you have made.
Thanks Lise! I do think that the changes have made the composition more dynamic. I’m glad you like them, I do too 🙂
I will do further sampling before I add anything else. I am still working on stitching the pieces down at the moment.
I love the idea of wispy clouds…what if you used silk threads or tops and needle felt them in place to get a thin cloud?
Thanks Patti! That’s a good idea, I will sample that idea for the clouds as I think the silk fabric will feel too heavy.
A beautiful piece. I think silk clouds would help balance dark and light. Perhaps not big ones, but like Patti suggests wispy clouds.
Thanks Marilyn, yes, I think the wispy idea is the best for clouds. Will have to try and see how they look.
Lovely, Ruth. No clouds for me but a moon and some tiny stars might be nice.
Thanks Lindsay, I haven’t decided yet. But I will test out the options.
It seems we all thought the same thing, a moon. I like the changes the old one looks to much in strips beside it. I like stitching too. It’s funny how we always think it’s going to be too much work and then we really enjoy it.
Thanks Ann! Well I will try out the options and see what I come up with. Haven’t gotten much more of the stitching down done yet. And yes, I always think, oh hand stitching will take too long and then it really doesn’t take that long and I do enjoy it too.
I love this, Ruth 🙂
I prefer it without the silk, the way you cut and positioned the dark blue piece just works perfectly on its own.
Thanks Zed! I still haven’t made any decisions on this yet. I am still stitching down the main pieces, then on to whether or not to embellish and add other bits or not.