Forward Progress~

and on making them come together… somehow.

Can’t tell you why exactly, but I felt like orange was the color to add.  There’s a hint of it in the commercial batik, and in the strip of fabric that is a hand dyed of my own. I also happen to really like orange and purple together, and I felt it helped to take some of the attention visually, away from all that sweet pastel color story going on, too.  And so I added the orange heart, the orange yarn on the bottom right against the hand knitted lace, and along the strip of raw-edge lace edging on that left strip of fabric. 

And I felt the need to add more lace ~ and some more white on top of the left strip of hand dyed pink-orange-yellow strip.  This (I’m hoping) adds to the continuity of the white feel I’m adding to the overall piece, with the white patterned screen printing, as well as the Gelli printed pink fabric that is the majority color story of this pieced patchwork.  

I added yarn, via my Bernina 12C foot, as you can see in the earlier picture. Easy-peasy to feed the yarn through and I set a zig zag the width of the yarn to couch it down along the lace edging in both areas of the piece.

Been waiting soooo  long to use this purple hand dyed from Dye Candy and Chris Daly on Etsy – which I bought last spring! This happens to be a ‘snow dye’ fabric of hers she actually dies with real snow.  Beautiful technique. I adore the white tint to it… isn’t it just gorgeous?  Oh my.  It makes me realllly happy, just to touch it, and JOY to add it to this piece!  No, it doesn’t match the other purple (screen printed one), which appeals to my sense of design… or of being a rebel…?!  Well, you’ll decide when you see the finished piece in tomorrow’s post.

There was only one thread choice for the quilting on this snow-dyed fabric strip.  You guessed it ~ white!  And I chose King Tut for the thread with white Masterpiece in my bobbin.

Now onto that flowery flower!  Pink.  Definitely pink.  And I decided to go with pink for the free motion applique stitching I wanted to do around the petal’s edges… and Rainbows… my go-to-girl thread.

I only had a more purple tone in Masterpiece thread, but that works, and I’m using it on my bobbin, attempting to match the top thread color the best I can.  As you can see, the pink Rainbows is variegated, and by the time they come together in a stitch, it’s not very noticeable, should you have any tension issues…

And the best way to audition thread… is to lay it out in a single strand against the fabric you are going to use it on.

Masterpiece is the top thread, and Rainbows in the bottom thread, a variegated.

Most excellent!  And I mean that in my excitement level!

Now I don’t want be presumptious — but this makes me really happy when I look at those little curley’s and the sweet, subtle color of the variegated thread.  You can see a bit of the bobbin thread poking up, and I adjusted my top tension a tad bit lower to take care of this.  Then, on to a solid aqua green for the flower center.

Another free motion applique design on the heart, in the same thread as the flowery flower’s center – aqua green thread.  But it looks ‘bare’ to me… so here comes the yarn… the same one that is on the lacey edge above.  And this time, I used my free motion couching foot – the #43.  I hear BERNINA is adding one of these feet to fit the older models of their machines! YAY.  It’s… about time!

Well, I’m almost finished!  Will share with you tomorrow, the finished piece, and some other challenges in the choices I made… and how the frog came to my studio.  Rip-it!  Rip-it!

Happy Sunday and Monday is a day off! YAY!
XO
Leslie