Sunday, February 13, 2005

Satin-stitching cords

Today I cleaned the studio rather than set my QE machine back up & trying out the new foot. My old 1030 is now up where QE belongs, so I decided to try using the satin stitch to cover different types of cords & yarns, especially sincy the 1030 has a cording foot! First, I chain-stitched several different types of yarn into various cords, then found some string & purchased cording to add to my test samples. So far, the string covered less well than the chain-stitched crewel embroidery thread. The string is white & I used varigated red/pink rayon thread - and had to go over it twice for a complete covering. The cord created is quite nice - thick and round. The chain-stitched crewel embroidery thread was satin-stitched with deep red-purple Isacord (both top & botton) and covered beautifully in one pass. This cord is slimmer than the string-based cord.

I believe these can be well used in many ways in art quilting. Creating marvelous flower stamens comes immediately to mind. Finer cords could be used for antennae in butterflies and other insects. And in abstract art, one is limited only by imagination with regard to creating various design + textural elements.

What fun!


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