Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 8

Just a few more stitches today with the aim of getting a nice big area laid out to begin decorative stitching. I'm still using the cotton core thread that I use when pole wrapping cloth for the shibori indigo vat as the stitching thread. It's a nice weight, and given it's a poly core under the cotton it's very strong. The cotton top layer of the thread takes the dye nicely. The pole wrapping creates interesting variations in color, all the way from clearest white to dark indigo blue.

Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 7

And I've finished the first week! The middle fabric is another Indian block print, and the bottom piece is a scrap I found leftover from my daughter shortening a pair of pants. Every scrap I save eventually finds a home somewhere.

Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 6

Found a way to use a piece of indigo dyed shibori that didn't do at all what I was hoping. In a small piece like this it works fine. Fortunately, this happens a lot (pieces not turning out the way I'd hoped) so I've got plenty of scraps that I can use in this project. In fact, I'll need to do a few of these to get all the bits used up.

Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 5

I found a couple of bits of fabric that I used today. On the right is a scrap of and Indian block print and on the left is a little piece of an overdyed cotton. The close-up picture makes the overdyed piece look much more abstract and interesting than I think it really is. Guess that means it must need more stitching. 

Folding and Dyeing

Because the indigo vat is a living, changing thing some days yield more intense color than others. I was particularly happy with how this batch of cotton took the color. The color had really rich tones and the darkest blue is almost black. This is a percale cotton which folds easily and sharply and gives very crisp lines and an interesting variation of color. It's a very tight weave which makes it easier to seal off the white areas and not have that shadowy, hazy line quality that you get with Kona cotton. It's a good weight for quilting, and I think this square can be cut up into some interesting squares for piecing.

Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 4

Used some lighter shibori dyed thread and added some decorative stitches.

Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 3

I found a scrap of a roughly textured cotton check that picked up the lighter colors of my shibori dyed thread. Had a bit more time today, so was able to add a few extra stitches.

Stitch A Day, 2017: Day 2

I had a small scrap of upholstery fabric left from a client's project that worked perfectly with the thread I had leftover from my pole-wrapped shibori indigo dye vat. At this point I'm most stitching around the edges of the scraps, just to get them attached, then I'll come back through and add stitches to make sure there aren't any gaps and sags in the finished piece.