Sketching with your Sewing Machine

Coleus Plants Sketched in Pencil Crayon and Stitched onto Hand Dyed Fabric

Last week it was so much fun using recent sketches from a trip for reference when free motion stitching on my hand painted fabric that I decided to flip through more of my sketch books for additional ideas. To get started, I laid out about a dozen card size pieces of hand painted fabric in various colour combinations so I could see them as I was going through the sketches. Sometimes it was quite evident which image would work on which fabric and sometimes it was a leaf of faith.



This Sketch was done while riding the train into Rome from the airport several years ago. Part of it was used to look at when adding the tall leaning weeds to this autumn coloured textile. 

This Spirea plant has never looked more beautiful than this fall. Although the gold and the reds are reversed on the fabric to what is in the photo, I thought the colours would remind us of autumn.



 

Gail, my friend created this beautiful card. Isn't it a reminder of the beauty of autumn. How did she attach that delicate leaf to the burlap fabric? I thought of asking, but sometimes things are even more special when they remain a mystery. What a treasure.

 

 Simplifying a sketch of pansies worked for this fabric that was actually painted with pansies in mind. As I was painting with liquid dyes, the edges are diffused therefore the stitching helps to bring definition.



This piece was inspired from a sketch of cormorants sitting on top of pilings with their wings outstretched to dry them. It feels great to not only be using my sketches in further art projects but flipping through the sketch books evokes so many memories. If you like to sketch and like to free motion stitch, try combining them in your own creative way.