A site dedicated to fiber arts, art quilts, soft sculpture, surface design, and optimizing techniques in other artistic media.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
From Snippets to Treasures
A couple of weeks ago I spent a day with a friend sewing curtains/drapes from fabric remnants that she had picked up at an upholstery shop ages ago. At the end of our stitching marathon there was a pile of left over snippets that would have been destined for the trash had I not taken them with me.
This shows only a small part of the pile.When I got home, I stuffed them all into a large glass vase that was sitting on the counter until I could figure where I would finally store them. Ever since I brought them home, their colors and texture have teased me to do something with them. This morning I lay a few atop small block of dark, dark navy blue velvet, took the unit to the sewing machine and free motion stitched the snippets to the velvet. As I was sewing, it dawned on me why I was drawn so strongly to the fabrics. They reminded me of upholstery in my grandmother's house. There are still snippets left, so a few more small blocks may emerge. This one is just begging to be embellished with beads and other ephemera. I also used some of the strips of irregular shaped pieces to cover a small lamp shade that didn't do justice to it's fanciful little base.
While sewing the snippets to the velvet, I had to push aside left over pieces of an old felted sweater that I had cut to make teddy bears. Ah ha! There was just enough to make another miniature dress form. The cashmere sweater material is fun to work with because it is very moldable. It was so easy to manipulate that it was able to be formed into an action pose.
Before leaving the studio to go outside to tend to the tomato plants, I finished 8 more stitched post cards. This is merely an example. Each post card is different.
This shows only a small part of the pile.
When I got home, I stuffed them all into a large glass vase that was sitting on the counter until I could figure where I would finally store them. Ever since I brought them home, their colors and texture have teased me to do something with them. This morning I lay a few atop small block of dark, dark navy blue velvet, took the unit to the sewing machine and free motion stitched the snippets to the velvet. As I was sewing, it dawned on me why I was drawn so strongly to the fabrics. They reminded me of upholstery in my grandmother's house. There are still snippets left, so a few more small blocks may emerge. This one is just begging to be embellished with beads and other ephemera.
I also used some of the strips of irregular shaped pieces to cover a small lamp shade that didn't do justice to it's fanciful little base.
While sewing the snippets to the velvet, I had to push aside left over pieces of an old felted sweater that I had cut to make teddy bears. Ah ha! There was just enough to make another miniature dress form. The cashmere sweater material is fun to work with because it is very moldable. It was so easy to manipulate that it was able to be formed into an action pose.
Before leaving the studio to go outside to tend to the tomato plants, I finished 8 more stitched post cards. This is merely an example. Each post card is different.
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