Saturday, June 16, 2012

Drawing with the sewing machine

If you have been keeping up with my drawing blog you know that I have been focusing on contour drawing. I thought I might try some contour drawing with my sewing machine. I laid a little bunch of leaves next to my sewing machine and decided to first draw some of the leaves on a gray/green fabric and fused them onto a piece of white canvas. Then I started "drawing" using black thread in the machine. Free motion stitching is not unlike drawing with a pen or pencil, except instead of moving a pen across the paper, you move the fabric under the needle.

I added a contour line of the shadow with gray thread.

I wish I had not stitched the veins in the leaves. Too much and they are far too tight and fussy. I removed them from the photo in Photoshop to see what it might have looked like. I like it better.

I could go back and pick out all those stitches, but I won't. Just something to file away for the next time.
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11 comments:

  1. Deborah Boschert5:40 PM

    Lovely lovely lovely. You are an inspiration. That seems to simple to say, but really... I am continually amazed by how your mind works and how you share your thoughts, process and results with us.

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  2. Susan E. J. White6:29 PM

    Terry,
    I really like the veins. I think they add impact, or something like that.

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  3. Martha Ginn6:36 PM

    I like the stitched veins, but would make the shadows closer to the stem and leaves.

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  4. Charlotte Scott10:51 PM

    That's a lovely little piece of work. I understand what you feel about the veins - they do work to designate them as 'leaves' rather than just blobs but maybe they would have worked better in a grey/green thread (closer to the fabric colour)? As Deborah says - it's nice to see your thought processes.

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  5. Joan10:39 AM

    I like the veins in the leaves, they add definition to the leaves and I like the shadow lines...adds dimension to the piece...very nice!

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  6. Annie3:58 AM

    That is so cool! The first think I noticed was how great the veins look. Don't change a thing!

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  7. Leigh11:19 AM

    I see what you mean by the veins, but I think that they actually make the shadow lines look more like shadow lines and less like odd outline. Probly just me.

    I always like hearing about your thought process on your work. Makes me think more about mine. :)

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  8. Jean S6:24 PM

    I can see what you're saying about the veins, but I also like the definition they give - maybe something in between. It's that old conundrum about when to stop. I like the softer blue stitching behind the leaves - implying other vegetation.

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  9. Kristin L7:18 AM

    I did a similar exercise a few years back, drawing with the sewing machine. My goal was to improve my free motion stitching, and while I did not create anything worth keeping, it was very informative. I think that your drawings are an even better "what if," and inspire me to revisit the experimentation. I hope you keep going crossing over between the drawing and the sewing.

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  10. PaddyAnne6:59 AM

    Hello, I love the colour of the leaves! I'm wondering what type of sewing machine you use when sewing with canvas? thankyou!

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  11. Terry Grant11:53 AM

    PaddyAnne, I am just using my regular sewing machine, which is a Janome 6500. Sewing through one layer of canvas is not a strain on it.

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