Thursday, July 06, 2023

Whitework at Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to Week 438 of Free Motion Mavericks. I did some Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) for the Table Scraps Challenge, but it needed to be posted before today, so I've included it in last week's review of Free Motion Mavericks below.

Pulled and Drawn Work (not on white!)

I keep thinking that I'm done with the pulled and drawn work (part of Whitework), but I just can't seem to let it be! I get all kinds of ideas and I just have to run with it! This one would definitely qualify as a Squirrel 😊

I bought a huge piece of burlap, the kind that you use to cover your plants in the fall. It's got such a lovely loose weave that it was a true pleasure to work on.

I used some of my favourite techniques such as the drawn thread with twisted bar and drawn thread with offset stitches. I wove some sweetgrass, sometimes with a couple of pieces in one space. I also wove some chunky yarn as well as a band of wood that was originally used as the handle of a strawberry filled basket. The bottom section consists of various pulled thread techniques.

Pulled and drawn work on burlap

I didn't take any process pictures except this one.

Weaving in the sweetgrass

More Whitework techniques

I tried doing some pulled work on the linen but I couldn't see well enough to count the individual fibres. I did try a little section but it barely showed, so really not worth it! In the image below, I created a drawn work band and wrapped thread around three of the thread sections to create overcast bars. I got bored and stopped, but if I get back to it, I'll have to use thicker thread.

Underneath the drawn thread band, I made a small grid with withdrawn thread. I used the knotted grid stitch. It's not pretty, but I did it! 😊

Experimenting with more techniques

The first three are overcast bars

This is the grid, before being stitched

Knotted grid - not pretty but it worked, more or less 😁

What I learned

After trying to weave the sweetgrass and having them break, I remembered that they have to be soaked for a short while. This makes them pliable and much easier to weave.
One end of the sweetgrass fit into my tapestry needle so it wasn't too difficult to weave into the burlap.
I also soaked the wooden handle piece for a few hours - by then it was straight!
Based on Tracy A Franklin's book, Contemporary Whitework, I tried some of the techniques on the linen. It's a lovely book and there are so.... many things that I want to try!
Today I taught a mindful stitching class for Out of the Box Fibre Artists. It was held at a local library and really was a wonderful day. I have a few pictures of finished and in-progress blocks. I'll ask if anyone else wants to share, and then I'll prepare a post.
I have so many quilts to work on that I really should leave the whitework for a while...we'll see!

Free Motion Mavericks

Thanks to everyone for participating!

Last week Gail posted her PHD report for June - she sure has been busy and FMQ many quilts which we've seen here 😊. The quilt below was her favourite finish. Look at that wonderful FMQ!

Gail's favourite finish for June

Melva free motion quilted the peace sign in one of her minis. Isn't it great?

FMQ peace sign in Melva's mini

I didn't link up to Free Motion Mavericks, but this is the blue dots placemat that I made for June's Table Scraps Challenge. It's now on my table and I love it - it makes me smile! I was going to wait for a future challenge to make placemats for my daughter and hubby, but I'm not sure that I'll be able to wait that long!