Process to Puzzle
In my last post, I published a snapshot of our beautiful Tanner Springs Park. We sit above the park and enjoy it all year. From June to October, we spend happy hour on our patio watching people and resident water fowl come and go. During cooler months we admire the park from our family room. Regardless of the time of year, there is always something going on in the park. My husband and I chuckle that we attend more weddings and photo shoots than anyone in Portland. It is our love for the park that motivated me to try stitching it. It was a challenging project. Most of the complications were self-inflicted. The steps and a few photos follow. I have noted the lessons learned that will make the next picture project easier.
As I examined the original photo posted last week, I
realized that the photo was missing the graceful arch of the Fremont Bridge. I rushed outside and took another photo. I caught a street car gliding by and decided
to add it as well.
You can see the photo without bridge and streetcar is not straight. It is a simple fix in Photoshop, but I did not recognize until later that it would become a problem. I forged ahead.
Shown here, the photo has been sketched onto freezer paper,
size 18x24. Water-soluble stabilizer has
been taped over for tracing. For this project, colored pencils helped define the green and gold grasses. I refer to this sketch many times during the process.
I used permanent marker to trace the major objects and lines
in the sketch. Sharpie Ultra Fine works
best. Here, I used a regular Sharpie so it would show up in these photos.
You can see that my sketch follows the line of the photo. Had I straightened the photo, and then carefully
marked a vanishing point and perspective lines, I would have avoided many
complications and thread-picking.
The stabilizer has now been pinned to the osnaburg cotton fabric. The fabric was prepared with an iron-on stabilizer
and backed with Pellon Extra Firm #926.
I used these stabilizers because I buy them in bulk and keep them in my
stash for bags and other crafts. There may
be better options for preparing the fabric for heavy stitching. Please make a comment below if you have
suggestions. I would love to hear from
you!
Here, the marked lines have been stitched with a single line
of black thread. I used free motion
stitching without a stitch regulator. My
new Bernina 770 has the option, but I like a longer stitch and it is
easier for me to do that without the stitch regulator. Perhaps, as I become more familiar with the Bernina
stitch regulator, I will be able to control stitch length.
Already, you can see on the right that I am struggling with
the lines of the boardwalk and with the distant buildings on the left.
Once the basic lines were stitched, I cutaway as much
stabilizer as possible, then rinsed away the remaining stabilizer. The less permanent marker used the less
rinsing required. As the water-soluble stabilizer
dissolves into the fabric, it provides additional protection against puckering. The fabric was allowed to dry flat.
Once dry, I stitched the detail. In my early projects, I tended to
under-develop the background. Now, I may
be over developing. I think the railroad
track art wall may have been better depicted with fewer, well-defined lines.
I try to do the background first, keeping in mind the areas
where foreground objects will be stitched.
I like to see a bit of detail behind the leaves of the trees rather than
have solid green, but care must be taken.
Too many stitches in the same area going different directions can look
messy.
This close-up of the railroad track art wall has been
sharpened in Photoshop making it easier to see the lines of stitches used to
create the wall and its shadow on the boardwalk, as well as the tree leaves on
the right.
Three thread colors were used in the train track wall art. For the leaves I used four colors. I roughly defined the leaves by moving the fabric in very small ovals using a mid-range green.
Then the ovals were filled and surrounding tree area was stitched with light green. I finished with dark green, taking more care
with the shapes of the leaves around the edges. Finally, I highlighted a few of the leaves with a gold-green
thread.
The finished project:
This was my most aggressive stitched art to date. It took three weeks to complete. The finished project is not my favorite, but
I learned a great deal while doing it. I
have several projects in the queue, but will eventually come back to this view
and do it again in smaller size.
***
A Puzzling Process
Perhaps the reason it took three weeks to finish the stitch
art is because I spent a great deal of time fine-tuning my blog page. A visitor on any given day this past week,
may have seen as many as a dozen different gadgets and widgets doing (or not
doing) their thing. Each one seems to be
a puzzle that must fit in just the right spot or it does not work. I love puzzles and will keep at it until I
have it right or tire of it completely. Here,
again, comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Thank you for visiting. I hope to have another project to share in about two weeks. I hope you come again!
