TAST Palestrina Stitch

I really loved Palestrina stitch. I started it the week it was set - but wasn't inspired. I was away on holiday with just boring plain felt and couldn't get going. It wasn't until I got back and saw this piece of fabric I printed with wrought iron swirls that I suddenly saw a way forward! I really have to have the right background before I can move forward and get inspired with a stitch. It makes all the difference for me. Somehow the fabric tells me what stitch would set it off the best!!

The background fabric is a bought blue, slightly mottled, cotton. It has blue and red wrought iron swirls printed on it and also a henna hand print shape. You can see the fingers and thumb if you look closely. I'll post a pic another time. It is from a template for doing henna hand designs and I got it at an art exhibition called Goddess, here in Sydney, last year.

Below is a close up, because I just loved the texture and shapes in this section!

Running Stitch

Today I was so inspired by what everyone is doing as part of TAST that I couldn't wait to get back into it.

I decided to go through my stash to find an interesting background. I recently went on a fabric printing course and have accumulated quite a few experiments that I thought could make interesting backgrounds.

I decided to keep it simple - as I have a few weeks to catch up. Much as I would like to have spent all week weaving lines of running stitch at different spacings! I'll have to save that for another time. Often that is part of the problem - too many ideas - not enough time!!

I really loved the fabric printing - it's going to be a big passsion. I love the bleeding edges against the sharper ones. The sharp ones are printed straight on top of the fabric. The blurry ones made by putting the fabric onto a paint covered surface and pressing the print block on top of it. The longer you leave it the blurrier the edges.

The blue shapes are made with a wooden block - an offcut found on the street near a building site.

I love this stamp (below). It is an old door handle that I found thrown out by a neighbour. It is repeated 5 times here - so the print is each row of 4 shapes.



This is my very favourite stamp - another door handle. There is just something about it that I love, expecially when it is repeated lots of times.

OK - so it is now in the open. I confess...I'm one of those people who just has to pick things up off the street to see what I can make or do with them...Fortunately I have a very tolerant hubby!!