Unsewing
October 10, 2007
If this were a happily-ever-after blog, I would only show you the good stuff. But that was never my intent. My intent was to write a creative-process blog. So this is a picture of the creative process gone wrong and frustration.
The frustration is not the traffic jam of cars, but the gnarly mess below the cars, something that’s called unsewing. 
I had done many samples with different threads for this area, but then halfway into the real thing, I realized my final choice was wrong. It wasn’t the effect I had hoped for, and ripping out machine stitching is a terrible slow thing that I try my best to avoid.
In the end, trying all these threads was like poking my finger into the bottom of every chocolate in the box, frustrated that I couldn’t find the right one. But then I realized, it’s because I wasn’t hungry for chocolate, what I wanted was a lemon sour.
Usually complimentary colors of thread work well, but this time, I found it was more interesting to use a color pulled from somewhere else in the quilt for a subtle contrast of colors for the maze-like pattern I was trying to create.
Emboldened by this new idea, I happily charged ahead to finish off the final part, the background. Now I have a new problem. ggrrrr
While this effect is interesting, it’s not in the best interests of the overall piece. Now the background stinks. So today I have new choices:
1. Rip it out
2. Live with it
3. Burn it
4. Paint it
5. Start the whole thing over from scratch (probably would take less time than ripping out the stitches)
6. Or something I thought of in my sleep and now am anxious to get to the studio to try
Filed Under process
Comments
16 Comments so far
PaMdora's Box
The adventure blog of an artist who is currently making a series of humorous quilts and shares a studio in an old peanut factory with her husband, an artist who makes kinetic and interactive sculpture environments.
Follow PaMdora on Twitter
subscribe
-
Enter your Email address to receive new postings via email.
Recently Written
- Musings on the Creamery Art Center
- Fabric scorecard
- Meet me in St. Louis
- Why I like drawing with pens
- I’d better brush up on my Greek Architecture
- Message in a Bottle, uhm, I mean Box
- When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Evacate
- Can O’ Worms Sandwich
- We’re talking Really Big Hair
- Working on a series
|
|
Categories
- awards
- disaster
- drawings
- dye
- exhibitions
- illustration friday
- Inspiration
- journeys
- media
- mixed media
- mochi
- other artists
- painting
- photography
- process
- quilts
- sculpture
- studio
- technology
- uncategorized
- uncommon threads
- writing
Archives
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
Blogroll
- 3191
- Deidre Adams
- Distinctive Directions
- Drawn
- Emmie Seaman
- Gerrie Congdon
- Illustration Friday
- Jane Davila
- Jeanne Williamson Ostroff
- Jill Rumoshosky Werner
- Joanie San Chirico
- Judy Perez
- Kit Vincent
- Lisa Call
- My Little Mochi
- Olga
- Planet Textile
- Ragged Cloth Cafe
- Rayna Gillman
- Susie Monday
- Terry Grant
- Tricia McKellar
- Virginia Spiegel
Ouch! How about a very fine tip marker over the threads?
May the best choice win!
No….change that. May the RIGHT choice win!
My idea mirrors Bev’s. Something to trace over the lines but not bleed. It’ll look like wallpaper designs then..maybe?
Or you could send it to me and I’ll unsew it. Basking in your glory? Oh yeah. Even in the unsewing catagory. *snerk*
oh no! I just went through this same thing. I knew I couldn’t live with it but I had covered about a square foot with irregular FM stitching.
My solution - I turned the quilt over and worked on the removal of the stitched from the backside.
Somehow, not seeing the ambivalence of the front let me attack the tedious chore more easily. I clipped every half inch or so on the backside and then used sticky tape and tweezers on the frontside. Mindless TV helps - just don’t stray from the “deconstruction” zone on the backside.
I was very happy when I got it right.
Could you stitch over the top of it in another colour to merge it into the background fabric more? Can’t you tell I hate ripping out too?!!
I always remember a quote from an embroiderer about if you make a mistake, just stitch over it. Something about not being mistakes but part of the whole effect….
I like the painting over the top of it idea too!!
Liz, I love the idea of stitching over with another color. I often think about experimenting with this idea, must make time for it!
I always like how a good night sleep can bring on a new perspective to a particular problem.
Pam, I’m confident you will do what’s right for you! In the longarm world, we call the unstitching process “frogging” a quilt. I absolutely dislike doing it, but a good tool (I use one that looks like a surgeon’s scalpel) makes the job easier.
Carla, that’s really weird. I never heard the term frogging, I wonder where it came from?
Can’t wait to see how you finish this wonderful piece!
In england they call it “unpicking” which I couldn’t understand. It seemed that picking out the stitches was what was going on
Hi Kim,That’s another weird term I haven’t heard. I kind of like it though. Now I’m torn between “frogging” and “unpicking.”
Frog stitch: “rippit rip-it” - get it?
Oh, I get it now!
I have done this as well. I was happy with the results in the end, but miserable during the unsewing process. You can see the quilt at: http://www.artquiltmaker.com/sub_pages/seeingRed.htm