Samples 2016: Week 34, Happy/Traffic Lights

Happy? How about hearts and flowers, and celebratory stars? Ah what a coincidence, my Bernina happens to do those all by itself ;-)
 

On a background of black cotton drill over pelmet Vilene, I machined a tangle of overlapping motifs. In red, amber and green of course.

I don't use the built-in embroidery patterns much, but I quite like the effect when they're massed together, a bit distorted, worked in all directions and interacting with each other.

Samples 2016: Week 33, Slashed/Toy box

Toy box just has to be bright primary colours, right? Maybe not the obvious partner for "slashed" though... so I took the toy box theme into the design too, thinking about those shape sorting toys.    

I started with red, yellow and blue fabrics over green felt. Then I filled the simple shapes with patterns of parallel lines in green thread (machine stitched, of course!). Finally the slashing - cutting the top fabric between the lines gives a slightly 3D effect as the felt tries to peep through. 

I do like the light and shade effect of this technique; no surprise there, I can never resist introducing shadows into my work.   

Samples 2016: Week 32, Coalescence/Amethyst



I confess, I hadn't really thought what coalescence" meant when I put it into my sample generator. So I was stumped for a while when it popped up. Hmm... drops bumping into others to make bigger drops? 

 

A bit tricky to realise in embroidery, so for a quick but different sample I used my Japanese screw punch on coloured paper.  I went crazy punching different sized holes in purple origami paper, then mounted it on contrasting purple paper.

 

Samples 2016: Week 31, Mosaic/Sweets

I suppose I could've used humbugs or toffees, but come on... "sweets" is a chance to get colourful!

So I chose Smarties. Not the ones of my long ago childhood, but new ones so I could have some zingy blue in there. 

Scraps of bright fabrics were Bondawebbed onto pelmet Vilene and then covered with white cotton. To get a mosaic effect, I machine stitched a diagonal grid all over, and then snipped away the white layer to reveal the colours below.

Samples 2016: Week 30, Layered/Opal

White cotton with pale sheer fabrics overlapped on top, then irisee film. Randomly free machined in variegated pastel thread. Zapped with heat gun. I've had this film for years but never used it - its response to zapping is disappointing compared to others I've tried, just a few big holes instead of a lots of pretty little ones.