Fun Design Finished

     Isn't it nice when it comes together and you finish a piece and you are happy with it? It turns out my silly design exercise that you can see here really worked for me. I ended up combining the abstract design with the nature design.
     I decided to put a sun under where the tree was going to be and knew that once the tree was sewn on it would need a strong element on the bottom right. That's when I got inspired to add the abstract element. To add the sun and the abstract element, I used sheer fabrics and hand sewed them using a stitch with a single strand of embroidery thread. I grabbed just a few threads of the fabric on the front and took a large stitches on the back so it looks like a basting stitch on the back and you can barely see any stitches at all on the front.

sheers sewn on with chosen embroidery thread

    To sew on the tree, I printed the tree onto printer paper, and then traced it onto yellow quilting paper with pencil. Then I pinned the yellow paper onto the top of my art piece and free motion stitched along the pencil lines. The paper rips off very easily after stitching.

tree stitched with quilting paper

     Then I felt that it needed some balancing with something in the top left and I tried several different things there. I love circles by using them there they helped unify the piece since I had a circle-like thing in the bottom right. The circles are strands of embroidery thread. I hand couched them on. I felt that it didn't need a border so I finished it with a pillowcase backing. All it needed was a name. Because the fabrics had layers of designs and the sheers hid parts and the tree and the bird were just suggested, it seemed to me as though the elements could have been from the past or the future so I decided to call it Rings of Time.
   

Rings of Time

It's about 12 inches by 12 inches. Now back to a larger piece. I have a piece of batting up on the design wall about 30 inches by 30 inches and a sketch done and the gelli plate out. I'm linking this to Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts to let them know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.

Step 4 of The Stamping Experiment

I added straight stitches today in a variegated light blue perle cotton thread running along curvy diagonal lines (5 of them). You may have to look hard to see them in the photo. Has the image changed for you now, or do you still see the same thing as before? For me, it is coming to life more. This latest stitching has given it more movement. Here is another link to a very detailed site of many embroidery stitches and tutorials on how to do them. http://www.embroidery.rocksea.org/reference/picture-dictionary/ People are so generous to take the time to create these sites aren't they? Please take time to add comments or questions. Thanks.

Step 3 of The Stamping Experiment

I stitched with the first color of thread. I used a perle cotton thread in a bright blue. I chose a favorite stitch from childhood called the Lazy Daisy Stitch. But since I didn't make a flower and connect the loops it's actually called the Chain Stitch-Detached. (I found that out when I looked it up last night in an old embroidery book I have.) Here is a link to some handy stitches and to another blog that is helpful, colorful, and fun from  Jane LaFazio .

Step 3 of Stamping Experiment

So what does this look like to you so far? Please tell us? The more opinions we have, the more interesting this will become.

Step 2 of The Stamping Experiment

The next step is to choose the color palette and focus in on one part of the cloth on which to begin.

Threads I will probably use

I plan on doing this artwork mostly by hand. I need a break from machine sewing after the weeks at the machine I just spent. Plus, it will be fun to practice hand stitches and maybe learn some new ones. Do you have anything you want me to show you in detail as I go? Please ask.

What To Do With A Stamping Experiment?

I'm a member of an art group called ArtsEtc. This fiscal year, we are working through the exercises in

Finding Your Own Visual Language: A Practical Guide to Design and Composition by Claire Benn, Jane Dunnewold, and Leslie Morgan. http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Your-Own-Visual-Language/dp/0955164923  One of the exercises is to carve stamps. We did that at one of our monthly meetings. At the next meeting, we stamped fabric. Our goal was not to create an artwork at the meeting. It was to discover patterns that spoke to us and to explore those patterns more at home during the month. Here is one of the pieces of fabric I stamped.

stamped textures

All of the above textures were stamped with acrylic paint mixed from black and white to make a gray. The fabric is white cotton muslin. The stamps I carved were all from Easy Cut blocks from Dick Blick

http://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-e-z-cut-printing-blocks/ I used a combination of a lino cutter and an Exacto knife to cut them. The only texture you see above not from Easy Cut is on the bottom right. That was made from sticking pieces of styrofoam (that I cut with scissors) onto a square of sticky-backed craft foam.

So over the next few days, I plan to make artwork out of it even though that wasn't the intent of stamping it. I like the look of sections of it and can see promise for it. More promise than just stapling it into my journal with some notes about it. I'll post pictures as it progresses so that you can get ideas on how to use your stamps.