Sampling with silk fibres and muslin

Sampling  is a huge part of Simply Stitch 4, trying out new and different techniques and materials. Now I'm not really used to this, making something that isn't going to become part of a finished piece, but I have been trying. 

This first one is made from wrapped threads. It's been created by cutting to slits in muslin on an embroidery ring and removing the horizontal fibres on the piece of muslin in between the two slits (I'll try to remember to take more pictures of the process next time). Next, catching a few of the vertical threads you 'wrap' them by over sewing them on your sewing machine using a zigzag stitch. You can join lines of threads together in the odd place to create any shape you want.

For the next sample I used hand-dyed silk threads. I cut off a section of threads and then took strips of the fibres, which I rolled together with my fingers. Once I had a few strands I laid them over an embroidery hoop and, using blanket stitch, I hand-wrapped the fibres (the fibres would become entagled on the sewing machine). I also added some beads, and again, joined some of the threads to each other. I bound all of the threads at the top and bottom to secure it has one piece.

Both of these samples will end up in my journal.

TTFN
Louise.