Day: February 28, 2019

Poppies

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Yesterday, I started by adding fusible web to background fabric. I also did slight enlargements for a couple of parts of the image and printed them on fabric (adding fusible web to those fabric printouts). Today, I started building the background. I had laid out a piece of muslin 20″x24″ and backed it with batting; I serged around the outside to hold the layers together, then marked the horizontal and vertical centres to use for marking the 9″x12″ layout for the image. The muslin/batting functions as a canvas for the fabric/thread painting that becomes the art piece. I’ve purposely made it quite a bit larger than the image to give me lots of room to frame, then trim the piece.

Rather than trying to piece the hosta in the upper left corner I elected to use the image printed fabric and I will add definition with thread painting. Same with the poppy leaves – they are very fine and frilly and I didn’t have any fabric that implied the texture so I also chose to use the image printed fabric for them as well. The taxus, the grass, and the blue house are filled in with printed/batik fabrics. I pressed the elements into place leaving an opening for the poppies which, for the moment, are being shown with an outlined  paper cutout.

Background In Place

Once the background was set up, I traced the poppy petals based on the lines marking petal edges on the paper flowers. So far I’ve cut out the templates for the larger flower and begun cutting out fabric using the templates – I’m about half-way around the flower. I numbered each petal element both on the template and on on the paper so I can easily reconstruct the flower.

Templates Created For First Poppy

I will set up the poppy using a silicon press sheet so the fusible web on the back of the petals won’t stick to my ironing board. Once assembled, I’ll iron the completed flower in place – that’s after I build the other flower because the flower on the right overlays the smaller, one!

And then the thread painting will begin….

Turquoise Socks – Leftovers #1

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I started these socks two weeks ago. I decided to begin using yarn leftover from other socks – I have a basket full of balls large enough, when combined, to make a pair.

I selected two yarns I thought might blend reasonably well and began knitting by alternating the yarns – the effect is an overall colour progression in alternating rows.

Turquoise Socks

Here’s how I do it: To start, I knit three needles using the first yarn, then go back to the first needle and knit two needles of the second yarn. After that, I continue knitting two needles of one yarn, then two needles of the second yarn – the second yarn is always one needle behind the first which means I never have to worry about crossing the yarns and I get a continuous smooth alternating spiral.

What’s interesting about this pair of socks is that while I was able to match the start point on one of the yarns, the colour changes on the other were too subtle to worry about but it turns out the yarns were in synch and both socks knit up with essentially the same pattern! That was a lucky outcome, I didn’t expect that to happen. The areas of dark and turquoise matched up pretty well.

Here are the original socks made from these two yarns.

Original Turquoise Socks

Original Gray/Magenta Socks

The yarns combined to produce something quite different yet interesting.

I’m now working on another pair amalgamating two yarns – I have enough leftover yarn to keep me going for many months!