The first two images below show a selection of the fabrics, threads, beads, ribbons and buttons I have collected in each of my chosen colours. Most of the fabrics are ones I have dyed and/or printed. Some are from my fabric stash.
To colour my fabrics I used the Shibori techniques of dip dying and tie dying as well as 'random splash' dying. I subsequently decorated some of these fabrics with mono printing or blocks that I made in the previous chapter.
3a
3c - a selection of dip dyed fabrics some with over printing
3f - large paper clip print and some fabric paint doodles
Chapter 4 - Decoration with Stitchery
Hand Stitching
I enjoy hand stitching and below are some of the samples I stitched inspired by my spiral images from the previous chapters.
4a - a sampler of hand stitched spirals using tapestry wool on a remnant of furnishing fabric
4b - a hand dyed fabric printed with a block I made from twisted garden string. The spiral is embellished with chain stitch and a machine made cord couched to follow the spiral.
4c - this sample was inspired by a photograph of the bark on an umbrella pine. I altered the colours using a photo enhancement programme and then printed the image on fabric using 't-shirt' transfer paper. I subsequently hand stitched spirals following the bark patterns.
4d - a fabric remnant embellished with two hand stitched spirals, the couched thread is one I dyed, the second spiral is chain stitch.
4e - a herringbone stitch spiral on to a hand dyed fabric with space dyed thread.
4f - Beads on fine wire couched in a continuous spiral
4g - A twisted cord couched into a spiral. I made the cord from two knitting yarns. The centre is an old cloth covered button dyed purple.
4h- at tie dyed fabric, with a twisted cord spiral couched in the centre of the pattern. (This reminds me of a nautilus swimming under the water!) The colour resulted from a mix of some left over purple and yellow dye.
4i - another tie dyed fabric sample this time embellished with a fly stitch spiral
4i - a fabric dyed with random splashes of analogous colours,
some of the spots have been emphasized with stitched spirals.
4k - tie dyed fabric with a stitched spider web spiral. The central button is fabric dyed
4l - A plastic bag dyed background fabric printed with spirals. I subsequently used safety pins stitched into chains to form a another spiral
MACHINE STITCHING
4n - three samples of free machine stitched spirals
4m - The front and back of a quilt sandwich embellished with machine stitched spirals. This is a dip dyed fabric (it reminds me of the Rennie Mackintosh rose designs!)
4p - a random dyed fabric printed with a spiral. The print block was made in the previous chapter using corrugated card. A machine made cord was zig-zagged onto the spiral and random free machine stitched spirals added.
4q - a spiral printed on a hand dyed fabric using the same block as above. A machine made cord was couched onto the spiral using a machine zig-zag.
4r - in this sample the printed spiral was made using my string block. The background has random machine stitching and a machine made cord was hand couched into another spiral.
4s - silk cacoon rods separated, dyed and machine stitched
onto a dip dyed fabric. A crochet cord with small sequins was couched in random spirals.
I felt that I wanted to do something with all my stitched interpretations of spirals. I decided to combine them into large 'crazy patchwork' style samplers with additional stitching to tie the overall designs together. Below are images of two of the samplers I have started so far. I dyed the backing fabrics and then stabilised the samplers with a heavier second backing fabric so they could eventually be used as wall hangings
4t
I think these have been the favourite chapters of my Distant Stitch journey so far. When I have a moment I stitch more interpretations of spirals. I have also been dipping in and out of other chapters making cords, braids, tassels and beads. But I decided it was time to tie some of the work together and show you what I have done so far for Chapters 3 and 4.
