Pages

Monday 30 December 2013

The Last Secret Project

30th December 2013

This gift was for an amazing lady who LOVES New York!

 The finished, unframed picture in stitch- my interpretation of Brooklyn Bridge!


Now for the process....

I began by drawing the bridge on A4 tracing paper from a photo in the web....


...transferred onto card and cut a template...


...this was pinned to a bluey/grey linen backed with firm Vilene and I free machined around it....


...then with some anxiety I started stitching!!


I only stitched one half first as I still didn't know whether my idea was going to work!

I used 3 different threads, 2 shades of variegated grey and a plain grey for the outline and free machined using zigzag and straight stitch with the final outline in narrow 0.8 satin stitch.



Although I had backed the fabric the dense stitching caused it to pucker so I cut around the bridge, backed this with Bondaweb and ironed it onto another piece of fabric!!

 I still didn't know whether it was going to work!

I backed the new fabric with a firm Vilene and placed the tracing over to mark where the lines would go and with feed dog up I stitched. 

Then came the stretching....



 ....another learning curve, it took two attempts but finally I felt it was good enough to give as a present and think it will look much better when it is mounted and framed.

No more secret projects so now must get back to Unit 5 and my remaining extended samples.














6 comments:

  1. This is incredible and I am such a lucky lady. What a treat to see how such an amazing piece of art was made! x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, this was my most challenging piece so far but I enjoyed making it for you x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had problems with puckering when I did some free motion stitching recently. Cutting it out wasn't an option so I decided to accept it as part of the item I was making - a design feature!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I know what you mean. When I did my soft applique sample I really liked the texturing effect, it was fortunate that I was able to cut out and re stitch. Do you have a blog??

    ReplyDelete
  5. So nice you took the time to make such a special gift. It's such a touching gesture. Have a great New Year with tons of projects.

    ReplyDelete