pumpkins and bodkins

down on the pumpkin patch

the pumpkins grow amongst the woolly ploughed furrows

on a bed of hand dyed silk with metallic stitched boundaries

 the machine stitching is enhanced with gold paint and gilding flakes

the beads on wire are couched down on the pumpkins fabric

and knots are stitched with "thread" torn from a chiffon scarf

 

I ripped the chiffon into "ribbons" to sew with

but I needed a bodkin with a large eye to get the chiffon thread through

sewing knots with chiffon

just a few ideas ... ahead of the tutorial on Saturday

please pop by if you would like to have a go at this very simple project

tomorrow ... landscape lines (with a message)

Surface decoration

Another sketchbook page with samples of surface embellishment


















Hand stitching and couching threads and rafia - french knots, seed stitches, running stitch, lazy daisy stitch. and chain stitch,













Attaching objects by couching - knitted wire with beads, feather, shell, wire, doughnut button, metal and twigs














Adding embellishment by attaching beads, buttons, sequins and semi-precious stones

Cushion Cover

I made a cushion cover as a finished piece for this project. I chose the circle, triangle and rectangle with some of the patterns inside the shapes

I used black fabric with a layer of sheer over the top. Several layers of fabrics were placed under the sheer fabric and then I cut back the shapes (reverse applique). I added threads couched down around the edges of the shapes, hand stitching and beads

















Inside the rectangle I used copper curls which I couched down by hand on top of some upholstery fabric
















On the back I used these "African" triangle buttons to fasten the cushion

Sketchbook pages and more samples ...

A page of samples in my sketchbook - using the same shape as before - machine stitching; machine couching (laying a thread on the fabric and couching it down with my sewing machine); and 3D paint














For the 3D paint sample, I painted it on a piece of dark brown velvet, heated it with a heat gun to "puff" it up, painted it black, then highlighted it with gold leaf

Triangles

Knitting with wire, beads and sequins














Copper mesh on dyed cotton with couched threads. Copper mesh can be manipulated into three dimensional shapes and being wire it will hold it's form














A collage of triangles in different materials and types of paper including magazine paper, painted kitchen towel paper, Tyvek, scrim, cotton, cellophane sweet wrappers, painted papers and textured papers












Plastic with threads bonded to it with bondaweb. On top of this I stitched a piece of plastic mesh/netting from a bag of logs

Silk Painting with couched threads

A small sample of painted silk with vintage threads couched on,
lightly quilted with wadding behind and machine stitching on top