Silk with Stitches

My fiber art group experimented with dyeing silk several months ago. We used 6" squares and tried several different techniques to see what we would get. I cut lots of these and glued them to note cards and mailed them. The leftover pieces were too beautiful to toss, so I began applying them to a foundation background at random. There was very little plan--just place and decide if I liked it and stitch it down with embroidery stitches. This was a carry-around project. I then added a backing and borders and machine quilted it only enough to secure the layers.
It has a rather chaotic look, but it mirrored my life as I cared for my husband during his last months. Embroidery has always been a comforting activity, and this piece certainly supplied that. The border and backing are from two pieces of Heide Stoll-Weber's hand dyed sateen. The piece is 24" x 25".

More Ghost Quilting

This colorful jungle print was ideal for Ghost Quilting. I cut out a rectangle of the print featuring the parrot and added first a green border and then a wider white one. This allowed for interesting quilting as I stitched out of the center rectangle into the blank space. I had used the same print for the backing of the piece, so some of the quilting was done from the reverse or back side. This allowed me to duplicate the parrot and some of the leaves and other motifs. The piece is 21" high and 19" wide. The binding is made from the jungle print.

Ghost Quilting

I call it Ghost Quilting. I start with a square or rectangle of printed fabric as the focus, then I add borders all around and imagine what is out off the edge of the focus fabric and complete the motifs with only stitching or with Neocolor II watercolor wax pastels plus stitching. The focus fabric can be fused onto the center of a larger piece or borders can be sewn onto the center.

 The red pineapple piece has only stitching to complete the picture.

 The yellow pineapple piece is enhanced with Neocolor II plus stitching.

 In progress, showing the stitching that will complete the picture.

The first step--adding Neocolor II to extend the picture into the border.