I just finished a new little wholecloth piece. I had made one of these a couple of months ago, but I was not happy with the end result. I decided to give it a second try. What I did differently the second time was to do the entire background in a light cream thread, and I only used two different quilting designs. This piece was made with cotton sateen, merino wool batting, and taupe and cream colored Mettler threads.
On the first piece, the quilted section in the very center detracts from the whole piece. Although I had chosen a very light gray thread, it came out looking very dark on the piece. When I designed this piece, I paid special attention to the negative space. However, when it is over-emphasized, it becomes the focal point which was not my intention.
To avoid duplicating what went wrong the first time, I took my original drawing, photographed it, and then created multiple small images on one piece of paper so that I could draw in my quilting lines with pencil first. This helped me to better visualize the effect I wanted to achieve. This is much easier than ripping out unwanted stitching.
Here are a couple of close-up shots of the machine stitching process. Whenever I have a somewhat large area to be filled with lots of stitching, I will stitch through the center of the open area to divide it into sections as I work. This helps to keep any of the fullness evenly divided: helps in avoiding puckers.
You might wonder why I have a photo of a bowl of orange peels included in this post. Well, I am a person who has a very rapid metabolism which means that I have to eat about every two hours. But, when I am engrossed with an art project, everything else fades into the background; including the need for food or other minor issues. The two little mandarin oranges of which you see the remains were my dinner on the evening that I was hell-bent on finishing this piece.
I mounted the finished piece on a piece of archival foam core that I had covered with a beautiful piece of European linen. I have three of my larger original wholecloths posted here if you are interested: https://www.sproulestudios.com/gallery/132
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| Tropical Leaves: 20" x 20" ( final piece) |
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| First attempt |
To avoid duplicating what went wrong the first time, I took my original drawing, photographed it, and then created multiple small images on one piece of paper so that I could draw in my quilting lines with pencil first. This helped me to better visualize the effect I wanted to achieve. This is much easier than ripping out unwanted stitching.Here are a couple of close-up shots of the machine stitching process. Whenever I have a somewhat large area to be filled with lots of stitching, I will stitch through the center of the open area to divide it into sections as I work. This helps to keep any of the fullness evenly divided: helps in avoiding puckers.
