In process

Today I carried on free form embroidering and when the thread knotted up at two points, I chose to leave the knots and even made them larger because I like the added texture. It also seemed appropriate as my sister just survived a blood clot in her lung. I'm not making exact and 'pretty' stitches - I'm using the thread and needle as a tool of expression in the moment - not preplanning what I'm going to do. I also painted a stamp and used it to add colour to the yellow chiffon. I suspected that the shallow stamp might not translate to the fabric, but I decided that even without the pattern, the added colour of the paint would create more interest. Then I heat gunned the chiffon edges that overhang one side, as well as across the top to make holes. So now I'm playing with the enlargened design - trying various ways of combining other pieces of my hand dyes - two possiblilites which aren't yet satisfactory are in the photos above. This process takes me time as I'm not using any reference and I'm finding the camera is helpful not only to remember what I put together and compare designs, but to take a step back. My design wall is a few feet away from my sewing table so getting a sense of the big picture isn't easy.

This morning I was thinking that knowing more about thread might help smooth my sewing, so I dug out a book I have by Libby Lehman - one that I bought over a year ago knowing it might come in handy. I took it with me to my threads - I have mostly bought according to colours I like, but I have noticed that the ones labelled 'viscose' are more likely to cause me grief. There was no mention of viscose in the book so I looked it up on-line and discovered that viscose is the same as rayon - which was discussed in the book. I have so much to learn!