Chapter 5 - Translations

This group was started on the polycotton with the cogs up and moving the zig zag lever to change the width of the stitch - very limited in effect.  The free machining was so much more lively and I really enjoyed producing these.

1. on scrim over a sea green curtain fabric with a gold streak.

2. on polycotton drop cloth - I think this is my favourite of the dyed pieces of cloth!

This scrim without any backing was so hard to stitch in zig zag lines as it was so open and kept pulling the stitching line flat.  After a few layers of stitch there was more to grab on to and it became easier.

As I wanted the lines of the drawing as well as the flowing circles I left in the threads as I moved back to the left:

1 on silk

2 on  organza over polycotton drop cloth.

To get the broken lines I used zig zagged cable:

1 on polycotton

2 on a metallic brocade covered with sheer organza trapping a variety of threads

3 on silk - as this was cable I stiched from the back and although I used a sturdy fabric for the backing the quilting was much more obvious on the back than the front.  I tried an ordinary zig zag on the front but the smaller spacing led to less loft.

A frottage sample.  Tried to mimic the holey lines created over the mesh with a twin needle whip stitch.

1. On two layers of grey net placed so a pretty pattern was created and three different combinations of thread.

2. Two separate layers of tulle twin needled and then overlaid.

This was a sgraffito patch which was translated three ways to get the broken covering of the crayon and the smoother scraping away.-

1. quilted polycotton cut from a drop cloth with 2 layers of whip stitch using a serpentine stitch in the machine - white satin stitch highlights which were not very successful.

2. Threads trapped between 2 layers of tulle using same serpentine stitch to hold.

3 Silk waste, mohair and acrylic yarn embellished on to acrylic felt. I like this one a lot.