I had the greatest intentions of diving into something new, but a few commitments altered that timeline.
I was asked to prepare a Landscape workshop in March. March is not that far off so there was a rush to get the information out to the guild. Magic does happen but there is some backstage prep to do!
My own Guild has Demo nights, usually during the snowy season. If the weather cancels the meeting, a Speaker and/or Trunk Show can't be rescheduled easily.
Our demo nights, offered by our own members, are generally very popular and full of tips and tricks. I always come away with something new to try.
I decided to demonstrate Pencil Quilting. After spending the week between Christmas a New Year's stitching samples I realized it was easy to expand the demo to include parallel line quilting on a quilt.
I had done a few awhile ago for the guild's Outreach Programme and I had nothing to show other than photographs.
BUT
I did have a 60" flimsy I had made at a Mystery Quilt day that I had never finished. It wasn't really to my liking. After 4+ days, stitching off and on, it's finished. I have another week to add the binding, so that's done.
Here's what I prepared.
These two pieces show more than just close stitching. By changing the thread colour, you can alter the fabric's appearance, emphasizing and likewise minimizing a colour's impact.
These are samples on plain fabric.
The blue piece shows most effectively of the three, the impact of different thread colours.
Moving onto wider stitching, the method has been used by almost everyone. A side shoot of Sashiko stitching is Boro cloth. This is hand work but the style also shows up in machine work as well.
Hand stitching of scrap fabric is enjoying a resurgence under the name of Slow Stitching.
While both these pieces show machine work, the background for the Field Mice is much more visible using wider spaced stitching
These photos show similar effects. The center piece from the Grand River Project uses the stitching to suggest the Ghosts of trees past just visible as texture.
My final offering to the group is this 60" quilt, all stitched using 1" 'straight' lines, optically straight if you get out your ruler. I really liked it for geometric and more masculine quilts
A little variation in stitch line widths adds a bit more interest, ( and some respite to the sewer ).
Hopefully, tomorrow on to something else!