Monday, August 8, 2011

More Thread Work - Design Wall Monday


With house guests coming, I spent most of last week giving this ole Victorian a good clean.  Love having friends for the weekend, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't ecstatic glad to sit down to 5 hours of thread work on the Jinny Beyer challenge on Sunday afternoon.  It always amazes me how much time the thread work  on a piece takes.  I think that maybe its because there is no specific way to do it - no technique out there that is the norm.  Thread work or thread painting is definitely in the hands of the quilter.   Because of that, I thought I would show you some of the ways I do it.
Usually when I have a project like this, I have a tendency to make little drawing in my sketchbook, testing out how lines will look on the motif of my quilt.  It seems to help and its a lot easier to erase pencils than to take out a lot of thread work.




Of course with this project, its all about the rocks.  But gosh. . . . how do you thread paint a rock??   The thing about adding free motion thread is to remember that you are applying  line and texture.  So you have to think that the direction of the line will lead the viewers' eye somewhere, along with adding texture to the piece.  I mean - geesh - if we didn't want to add texture to  our pieces, we would all be watercolorists (grin)!  When I worked on the rocks, then, I made each a little different - just like rocks.  I did anchor the edges down with a scribble stitch - rather than a satin. I don't like satin stitching unless I'm doing something that is VERY graphic.




With the rocks done, I was left with the cave and the foreground.  I wanted the inside of the cave to have more texture since it was appearing a bit flat to my eye - but also wanted for it to remain nice and dark.  The dark value helped it recede to the background.  I'm still not quite sure if putting all that movement in that section was the right thing to do - but its done now (grin).  That's the thing about thread work - in the final analysis you just have to step out and go with your gut.  Sometimes its just right - other times - not so much.

As you can see, I'm not quite done with it - almost though.  Had to stop when my eyes started blurring.  I should finish this up in the next day or two and get after some other projects.  Our local fair is in 5 weeks and it would be nice if I had something to show!

p.s. - Hint of the day - the way to build a nice thread collection is every time its on sale online or at Joann's buy just  a few spools.  Sooner or later, you have boxes and boxes and all the colors you need!

See more great design walls at Judy's Patchworks!

13 comments:

Judy D in WA said...

WOW!! Love you rocks! Can't wait to see your finished project.
Envious of your thread collection. :) Love your hint.

Jo said...

WOW...what a thread collection! You are doing beautiful work.

Bonnie said...

Thanks for the info about thread painting... yours looks great. I agree about buying thread a little at a time and on sale if possible. I'm doing that with a particular brand of thread I like. Sorry it isn't on sale though. Sigh. Love all the spools you have.

Quilter Kathy said...

What a great blog post! You sure do have an amazing thread collection! Interesting thought that quilters love texture/lines otherwise we'd be watercolorists!

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

yes! Your thread work is wonderful.

glen

sue said...

Your quilt was exciting before the thread painting so I can't wait to see it finished. Thanks for lesson too, Ive done a little piece but it was very, very basic so that's why I am so looking forward to seeing your's done!

Gari in AL said...

I have a question, are we inside the cave, looking out? I, too, love your threadwork. I have done some but not much. I have a great thread collection, too. Isn't it great to almost always have just the right color already at your fingertips?

Denise :) said...

Oooooh! Look at all the pretty threads! It looks like fun to me -- your thread painting is gorgeous! :)

Chris said...

Your rocks are gorgeous. I am always in awe of thread painting.

AnnieO said...

Looking very good! I think the texture you added enhanced it in just the way you were aiming for. Entering things in the fair is fun--I just did and won a few ribbons :)

Michelle said...

That is an absolutely gorgeous quilt -- I'm always fascinated by caves. And an impressive thread stash!

Nina Marie said...

Gari - good question - sorry for the confusion - think of it as a cave but its really a stone wall!! So you are on one side of the wall and you are looking through to the other with the horizon.

Jean(ie) said...

Love your challenge piece!!!! I'm a thread geek, too.