Texture

In between gardening and getting the deck ready for summer, I've been doing a little sewing.  My FiberWorks group's challenge for the year is Texture.  I've been thinking about it a lot and keep changing my mind about what to do. A few years ago while making a tree trunk for a piece, I used a double needle on brown fabric backed with flannel.  I used a fairly narrow double needle and after stitching I washed it in hot water and put it in a hot dryer and liked the texture I achieved.

For this piece I used a piece of red Duponi silk backed with cotton batting.  This time I used a double needle that had the needles 1/4" apart.  I was thrilled with the results.  It looks like I have cording in it, but I don't.  I did four strips of stitching on the one big piece of silk, thinking that I would cut them apart and piece them into other fabrics. Now I'm not so sure.  I like the look of it as a whole piece.  Since our finished work is to be 30 inches square and this piece measures about 23 x 19, this would take up a major portion.

This picture shows it redder that it is, but it gives you an idea of how the silk shimmers and shines

This is more true to the color.

And here is a detail. I used two different shades of red thread for the stitching.

This is how it looks from the back.  There is no zig-zag involved.  You stitch with a straight stitch, but since there are two threads on top, the bobbin thread zigs and zags to catch both threads.

I'm not sure what I want to do in the blank spaces.  I used this technique last year on a quilt and I really liked it.  I used heavy jean's stitch thread and think that I may try this on the red, but I'll make some practice runs first.

Be sure to click on any picture for a bigger view of all.