Wednesday, February 08, 2006

The Next Move

The time has come to thread paint the fern quilt:
I'm still liking this work
But I'm nervous about it. This is the part where fixing a screw up takes an eternity. I'm not sure the quilt and I are ready for that kind of commitment. Plus, I already have a resentful but strangely codependant relationship with my seam ripper. Adding the extra workload of a mistake will only deepen the tension.

What to do? What to do?

Hey! I know what to do! This great idea came to me out of nowhere. I opened the above picture in a paint program, created a new layer (think of it as laying a sheet of tracing paper over the original) and drew some possiblities right onto the picture:
Monkey with random pencil
I'm a card carrying genius! Surely I'm not the only genius to think of this, but it felt like true brilliance for just a weeee itty-bitty moment.

Next: Thread contemplation
how much thread can a girl have?
I keep thinking about how easy shading is with a number two pencil and a piece of paper. Doing the same thing in color, via fiber, is challenging. It requires forthought....not my strong suit. And I don't want to use every thread I own. There needs to be some editing:
like this?

Not bad. How 'bout this?:
or like this?
Maybe. I won't really know until the threads hit the fabrics. There's bound to be some mind-changing and some undoing of stitches. Mr. Seam Ripper is just going to have to suck it up and play nice.

5 comments:

Elle said...

I always get twitchy like that before I sit down to do the actual threadwork/quilting too. I always fear that I'll mess it up and pray like crazy that I won't.

Anonymous said...

Somewtimes I know just what to do and sometimes, I just can't get started. I love the idea you hae come up with. Can't wait to see the outcome. I want to say that I am so glad ou are blogging regularly - I enjoy your sense of humor.

Anonymous said...

My response to the Photoshop form of stitching was a spontaneous :oooouuuhhhhh.....I LIKE it. I also like the idea of auditioning!!

The threads are cool. Go for it!!

teri

Anonymous said...

The quilting you have planned looks brilliant! It's exactly the punch that the piece needs! At first, I thought it was to be tufted, but now I see how you have the stitching plasnned! Fabulous. I'm interested to see what the final product looks like!
P.S. What about some sort of variegated thread?

Brenda said...

I LOVE your dyed threads!