Progress on the resolved sample

I had been hitting a bit of a brick wall with my resolved sample and was not so sure where to go, so I looked back through the module and then headed for my sketchbook. I decided I wanted to go somewhere with the arms of the star being made up of disintegrating fragments, and hit on the idea of triangles/arrows in big groups, splintering out towards the ends of the arms. The red lines could be machine or hand stitching. I also wanted to look at using some reverse applique.

Then I decided I needed to prepare a few more pieces of material to work on, so I prepared some more bonded surfaces (not shown) and also some printed star fabric shown here (using stencils and acrylic paints).

Then I pinned random strips of fabric to a backing cloth and added the yellow printed fabric on top. So far so good. Then I machine stitched from theback and cut back the top layer ... only it seemed to leave much too much of huge hole in the middle...

However I still had the central piece complete, so I decided to try a rescue bid and reattached it in the middle, and then started to distress it. This is beginning to look better again.



I think I will add hand stitching in purple to the centre star to blend it in more with the first piece (see further on).

Then I worked on the idea of the arms of the star being composed of separate triangles. It took ages to place all of the traingles (pieces of ribbon) and then they were bonded along with some random bits. I've started adding some detached wheat ear stitch. I wanted a stitch that gave the feeling of an arrow, and something I could use in varying sizes. I'm feeling really pleased with the delicate ephemeral effect this is creating.

The final conundrum now is how - and maybe if - the current three pieces should be pieced together. On the left is one possibility. The left hand piece, as mentioned above, is going to have some central stitching similar to the central piece - probably looking more ragged and disintegrated though (maybe some threads hanging down). I have sprinkled a couple of offcuts from the reverse applique over the top of the central piece (not attached just lying there to test the effect). My thought is these would maybe help 'join' the pieces into more of a single item, as they are looking too separate at the moment. The final floaty piece could perhaps be a little higher, floating away from the others. I am thinking of adding some purple chiffon over part of the top of it to blend it more with the central piece.