My new project involves making a series of small panels of little Saint Lauras. I started by making a biggish piece of machine-made crazy patchwork, using my faithful Bernina and the Singer my mother gave me which does a wide range of fancy embroidery stitches:
I made a large piece and then cut the small shapes out using steam-a-seam which I really like and much prefer to bondaweb. I was using tiny scraps – which is the point of this work about preserving shreds of the past. Some of the scraps are quite nasty late fabric and again I found myself transforming them a bit, either with an organza over the top or gold markal paintstick over the quilting:
I put in some bits of silk to give it more richness and depth. Then I waited, cured the markal, set it with a heat gun, and started to cut out the shapes:
Entirely by chance I had been to a sale at Heartspace, a great gallery/shop/sewing class venue in Bristol, and had bought some old Laura Ashley fabric, the heavy cotton in the background here, so I could get on with the application of the pieces and their decoration, which will be the subject of a subsequent post.
I loved working on this piece, and just felt better in myself after I had stared to make something that I had been planning for some time. Stitching is definitely good for my soul.
