More experimentation has been happening with two different types of washaway stabiliser. I was able to watch a video tutorial created by the very talented Meredith Woolnough who creates amazing artworks using washaway stabiliser and free motion stitching. Her video tutorial was part of an online retreat called Making Zen. I chose not to pay for unlimited access to all the videos so had to make sure I logged in at the right time to watch Meredith create a thread bowl from her ORT collection. ORT stands for old raggedy threads and is the accumulated ends cut from our stitching works. The thread bowl is created over a mould and I have successfully used both a polystyrene ball and a small plastic bowl as my moulds.
The above photo is my first attempt at the process. For this one I used free motion stitching to hold all the scrap threads together and was pleased with how it turned out. On the video Meredith also did one with hand stitching as this fitted very well with the slow stitching theme of the retreat and so I started experimenting with a few different ideas...
I combined what I had been doing earlier in the year with what I was now learning to explore creating silk fibre LED tea light holders.
I start by teasing out some silk lap fibres into a thin layer and add this to the top of one piece of stabiliser. Add a top layer of stabiliser and hoop this before drawing on a design ready for stitching. Free motion machine stitching or hand stitch are able to work but give quite a different end result. Three or four experiments in and I started to perfect my process. I couldn't stop at one as each little bowl can be such a unique creation of colours from both the silk lap and the threads used to stitch it together. I bought my silk lap fibres from the
Thread Studio and just love the different colour combinations that
Dale sells.
 |
Tea light bowls - daylight view by MrsSOnline is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0     |
The night time view was totally different as each bowl showed the light shining through the stitching lines and the thin layers of silk fibres while the colours disappeared.
A very addictive pastime indeed. I am still creating a few at a time. I will need to stock up on some more LED tealights to add them to each little creation as it is made.
Would you use free motion machine stitching or hand stitching to create a little bowl? Which colours would you use? Please leave a comment sharing your thoughts.
