Stitching Soft into Hard

Do you enjoy stitching in hand, with no hoop, no stand to hold things neat and flat for you?  The advantage of this sort of immediate stitching, to me, has been the way I can feel the fabric developing under my hand, the gradual building up of a surface that may end in a draping fabric or, possibly, one stiff with stitches of many weights and pedigrees (many of these fibers suspect, but all of them holding their own unique characteristics).

In an on-line class with Shelley Rhodes, I discovered how interesting it can be to stitch into fabrics that had been gesso-saturated.  Later, I saw that Jean Draper used clay slip to coat some of her dimensional work.  Is there no end to the possibilities for combining soft stitch with hard surfaces?

I hope not.

In the first pix, above, I have mixed the gesso with water and added acrylic inks to give some color and body to a piece of linen that would normally be difficult for me to work with because it is even-weave, and the somewhat wandering nature of my work is not at its happiest on beautifully woven even-weave fabric.  But, the gesso and ink filled in those evenly-placed openings in the fabric, and when I added a few scraps of other cloth for textural interest, I suddenly had a wonderful piece for stitching without hoops or frames.  I could still feel the build-up of texture on this unusual fabric, and the raw edges that I cultivate were no longer continuing to ravel and shred the way the untreated fabrics did.  For an intuitive stitcher, that is like being served a little extra dollop of whipped cream on their dessert.

In the second piece, the page has layers of fabric stitched together with different weights of thread before applying the gesso, then a few more used afterward.  I was able to write into the areas I colored, tried some oil crayons, a stylus to scrape away wet paint, washed a place or two and went back with more color . . .

And so I found a new way of working that has many possibilities for me.  One additional benefit is the way I can control color in the background.  For years I've watched watercolor melt into a damp sheet of paper, wishing it would do that same thing on cloth and not bleed along the warp and weft lines.  Using acrylic paints has not always been a solution.  Finding this method of stabilizing color movement on wet cloth is what my sister would call a "Eureka!" moment.

This has all led to a renewed interest in Mixed Media constructions, to begin creating a body of work that uses combinations of techniques and with materials I would never have thrown together when I was younger and still trying to perfect the art of the stitch.  Isn't it wonderful that the greatest gift of Advancing Age is that we don't need perfection any more?  While I still strive to put the imperfect stitch in the perfect place, that perfect place does not always need to be a soft and lovely piece of linen!  

Keep looking, asking questions, and stitching!  

 

The Amazing Straight Stitch, Part 2: Running, Back and Outline Stitch

Now that you have spent some time in hunter-gatherer mode, sampling as you compiled your new assortment of thread and yarn, let's look at some of the marks you can make with them.

Lines of Running Stitch can divide areas from one another, lead the eye forward, curl and swirl to bring up images of winds and skies or seas and moving water.  The dip and rise of land  or contour drawings can be conveyed with these simple stitches.

In a more complex line, the stitches should be quite close to one another, even touching or overlapping.  A curving or spiraling shape will bend with more grace when the stitches almost intersect, giving a sinuous character to the lines.

Other Straight Stitch suggestions for making curling marks are Back Stitch and Outline Stitch, which are opposites of one another.  Turn your fabric over and see where the Outline Stitches you made on the front of the fabric are Back Stitches on the reverse.

In Back Stitch it is easy to make a continuous line by having the stitches share the same entrance and exit points.  This is useful when drawing shapes to be filled or making lines around something we should not miss in the story.  

Backstitch is also a very strong stitch, if you are reinforcing or connecting two pieces of cloth.  In the sample below, I have used some backstitched lines to strengthen the top of the cloth, but the stitches do not share the same entry/exit points as in the grid above.  They are spaced so the lines resemble running stitch.  Without heavy stitching, raw edges often curl or continue raveling, so the camouflaged Back Stitch is both utilitarian and decorative here.

In Outline Stitch a part of one stitch overlaps slightly a portion of the previous stitch, so that a line has an almost doubled feeling to it.

Outline Stitch also has the ability to make rough, choppy lines by moving them slightly out of alignment.  The resulting marks are very painterly, much like a quickly drawn sketch.  The lines can reinforce the movement of a line and give energy to the object or area being stitched.  It is more like drawing with a needle than simply stitching.  

In contrast, Straight Stitch marks made of different sizes and with more space between them may suggest awkwardness or indecision.  If the thread is very heavy, however, the space between the stitches becomes a useful breathing space, where we can see the pinching of the chunky thread through the tiny hole in the fabric changing the shape of the mark from flat to oval with slightly pointed ends.  There are several examples of chunky thread and torn strips of silk fabric in the wave below:

In the example below, the single curving line of Running Stitch skips and moves about, but a second line has been added to help to smooth out the curve.  Though it seems abrupt in places, the doubling of the line maintains a gentle flow as the line escapes the yellow silk block. 

In combination with appliqué, dyes, and rusted fabrics, this look at a stretch of the Appalachian Mountains has been stitched in straight stitches.  The threads are a mix of over-dyed weaving threads in several different weights and textures, then stitched as tilted and curving lines and blocks to follow the contours of the land:

As an exercise, try making as many curving lines as you can with Running Stitch, Back Stitch, and Outline Stitch.  Vary the threads as you work.  Each of the three stitches has its own characteristics that can be explored and developed in your personal style.