Unfinished Business

I hate unfinished business but when we are making videos for Designmatterstv we often have lots of pieces that get put to one side once they’ve done their job. I’ve been rifling through my heaps of ‘stuff’ and the search revealed a cheery looking bit of piecing that only needed quilting and binding to be complete. I’m fortunate to have an even feed attachment (walking foot) for my Husqvarna machine and I’m always impressed with how easy it makes perfect straight-line quilting. I wanted to use some of my hand dyed cotton threads on this piece as well as the Madeira Cotona 30s I used for the machine stitching so I hand stitched around the contours of the stencilled and painted leaves and berries on the corner triangles with variegated, single strand threads. I’m happy with the contrast I’ve achieved by combining geometric shapes of the patchwork and machine quilting with the softer, more organic shapes of the stencilled leaves and the hand stitch.

Digging deeper into the unfinished pieces I spotted a mono print that Laura had made during a workshop she taught at her studio before the dreaded pandemic brought everything to a halt. I thought it would be a perfect candidate for a little digital embroidery. Now I’m sometimes a bit hesitant about using preset designs from my embroidery machine because the control freak in me prefers to create my own. However, I was occupied with something else at the time and just chose a flower design I hadn’t used before. I know many people regard digital embroidery as a cheat but if I can set my  machine to be stitching away while I am busy doing something else at the same time I’m more than content! Of course I had to make it my own in a small way so I ignored the recommended colour choices and chose a completely different palette. As long as the value contact is maintained it should work perfectly. I actually love the result and will be finishing this with lots of quilting to lose the bagginess you see in this photo.

I always make time for drawing and painting even when I’ve got lots of sewing projects on the go. I never have to look far for inspiration – the garden is full of fabulous lilies at the moment. This painting is a practise piece for a more involved still life I’m working on now. As soon as it’s finished it will join my other watercolours in the Shop gallery on the website.

I hope you are keeping creative too!

Bye for now,
Linda