Monday, March 28, 2011

stalling



 one of many neocolor sketches from last night. it's still on my mind.









I'm still thinking about how I want to proceed with the new piece on the wall. I like it for it's simplicity and vigor and don't want to screw it up, bog it down with a technical misstep.




I gave fleeting thought to finishing it like "Beach" - only two layers, aside from the design elements and all hand stitched. It was finished as a functional summer quilt, one of my "flings' and I spent most of last summer stitching on it. The pale blue in this one is cotton lawn, the blue in the one on the wall is silk chiffon. Is the energy and immediacy of the new design cancelled by miles and hours of my very small Kantha stitching?

It feels that way to me.  I am more inclined to layer it over a light batting and machine stitch it, the way it did with "Innocent Bystanders" or "Roadkill"

So the question, dear readers, is machine or hand stitching..and why?

detail from Roadkill

7 comments:

arlee said...

What about both? Machine on the "background" to give the texture and shading, hand on the foreground for depth and detail? Make the hand look like some machine, the machine some like hand--best of the both:)

Penny said...

I always go with hand stitching -- unless its is very, very large which for me would mean it would never get done. I just love the feeling of meandering hand stitching.

Sherrie Spangler said...

I love the bright, breezy feeling and would go with light machine stitching to carry through on that feeling. I think you're right that hand-stitching and too much texture might bog it down. Either way, the color is fabulous.

Judy Sall Fiber Art said...

My thought is if it is to be a wall piece, hand stitching would be best, but if you (or it's new owner)will be using it, machine stitching because of the size. The other thing is... which do you enjoy the most? Obviously you love hand stitching, but I'll bet most of your hand-stitched work is a manageable size, versus blanket sized, right? BTW, I love the sketch! Hope you can convert it to fiber!

Bookhandler said...

It is such an amusing, flowing form and so BIG, I'd like to see flowing stitching with space around it, maybe looping, and only touches of tight and krinkled together stitches. I like the idea of some hand and some machine. You could lose the whole summer if you did it all by hand. But those are just my thoughts.

Deb Lacativa said...

Worse yet, I could cripple myself trying to hand stitch it. My day job depends on my ability to keyboard and my right hand hurts me too much of the time. I'm going to backburner this project until the Big Pink is finished and give my hand a rest. There have been back to back small, hand stitched things. too many at once.

Cheryl Razmus said...

After a whole winter of handstitching with Jude and friends, I almost felt guilty using my machine. But this week I have been working on a mixed media piece that became the center of a small quilt, and using the machine actually feels like a sweet treat. Loving that I can make something quickly, sew through many layers and still have a wonderful "embroidered" result. Then I can get back to my other handwork.