Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Stitching

Over the last few weeks I carried this old stamped pillowcase around to work on in doctor's offices and at meetings. I finally finished it and washed it. It was pretty yellowed from age. It's nice, thick pure cotton--very soft.I had intended to press the case before taking a picture but I forgot until the ironing board was put away.

I should have been doing other things, but this new project called to me. I got it at the International Quilt Festival earlier this month. From Wooly Lady, it's all hand-dyed wools. Thread was not in the kit. I used the photo as a guide, because I really liked the model in their booth, and used blue floche and bright red perle cotton in the flower centers and Grape Impressions, which is mildly variegated, for the buttonholing.I did vary one thing. Most of the petal and leaf edges are not attached to the backing but float free. The lines between the petals ground them and I did stitch down most petals that were covering up the ends of leaves and other elements. This dimensionality doesn't show in the photo but I like it a lot.

There was no hanging instructions or guide for how to hang this piece. It's firm enough, I was thinking perhaps a couple of small rings on the back. I could sew on a sleeve, too, and add bell pull hardware (it's about 6" wide) or a narrow slat for support. Since I don't have immediate plans for it, I decided to just think about what I want to do for now.

3 comments:

Alena said...

The Wooly Lady project is a beautiful one!

Rachel said...

There's a real contrast in scale and style between those to projects - it must have been great to have that variety to be working on!

Jenny Woolf said...

Such a pretty pillow case!