FrankenStitch: Epilogue

It was a dark and stormy night when the embroiderer walked into her basement studio and the lightbulb in her brain finally lit up. At last! A way to finish her FrankenStitch design!

She centered the embroidery onto a piece of her hand-dyed fabric that was fused to a rectangle of wool batting. As she admired the pickle color of the cloth, she decided that her choice of color was a really big dill.

After attaching the embroidery to the cotton border fabric with hand stitching, she rushed to her sewing machine. (Ok, maybe she didn’t rush.) The embroiderer casually sauntered to her sewing machine.

Dropping the feed dogs on the machine, she casually added free-motion stitching to the green fabric. She chose the famous curlicues and bananas pattern of stitching to surround the embroidery thinking it added a bit of festivity.

As she completed the project, the embroiderer sighed and glanced around the studio. Suddenly she felt at loose ends.

But wait! Was that a small unfinished embroidery peeking out from under a stack of fabric. Was another FrankenStitch project lurking in the wings? Perhaps a Daughter of FrankenStitch? Stay tuned!

Read the entire FrankenStitch Story here.

The FrankenStitch Story #9: It’s Alive!

Wherein the Embroiderer Completes the Creation

The embroiderer nestles into her comfy chair and takes up her FrankenStitch design. The artwork resembles its sibling called Natural Gardening (left) from Playful Free-Form Embroidery but with a flair for the dramatic. Just a few more stitches and it too will be complete.

And none too soon, for she is almost out of cookies

She adds blooms made with French knots to soften the horizon line. A size 12 Prinky Phlox from the now infamous Artfabrik dyers does the job.

Then she contemplates the sky. Can she transform the formidable black fabric with curved lines of stem stitches? Having no better ideas, she renders the lines on the sky with a size 12 Ocean thread. She likens the undulating lines to a crisp spring breeze or perhaps a bizarre cloud formation. Cumulus FrankenStitchius?

All that is left are a few stitches on the sun to perk it up. The embroiderer contemplates her handiwork. The FrankenStitch, a design born from unwanted step-outs, is finished. She sets it aside and grabs one last cookie. It is time to return to her real garden and the weeds that await.

The End

The FrankenStitch Story #8: A Critic’s Eye

Wherein the Embroiderer Squints Her Eyes

The embroiderer draws a deep breath cursing the needle jabbing into her thumb. Will this FrankenStitch creature never be done! Evolving from the Playful Free-Form Embroidery step-outs, it is slowly gaining a life of its own. Only a few more details to add, and maybe she can rest her weary fingers and finish the bag of cookies.

She casts a critical look over the design. What does it lack? What will breathe even more life into it? Snatching up a narrow length of green felt, she snips it into shape and places it on the lower edge of the blue fence. A fern stitch made with a size 8 Lime Frappe thread from the mysterious Artfabrik dyers cascades down each spike of fabric. This green fabric repeats the garden colors and theme and finishes the lower edge neatly.

Then she squints her eyes and gasps in disbelief. She has forgotten to repeat the red hue found in the large flowers! How could such an error escape her notice? It must be from lack of sustenance. And so she stacks fly stitches atop each other to make jaunty flowers above the pointy fabric using a size 12 red hots thread.

Shuddering with relief, the embroiderer adds a sweet little French knot to each bloom and rewards herself with yet another cookie. Yes, repetition is a good element of design to remember when creating artwork. And the repetition of color is among the best.