Thread Painting

How far have we really come in machine embroidery? I was just thinking out loud the other day. Ten years ago, I had to purchase a design card out of which perhaps I would use one or two designs. Moreover, the imagination was limited to only a handful of florals and nursery type designs. Today, the sky is hardly the limit….let’s go for galaxies, shall we….LOL. I had written about the Photo stitch or Sfumato type stitch used for creating embroidery designs out of photographs, images etc. Finishing the “Secret Garden II”….(yes, it is finished!) I have to say that one can use the same concept but without the use of the photo stitch or Sfumato software. The end result is a much better product….low stitch count and definitely less of the clutter of threads and the beauty is that it can be created with just about any software. Mind you, the Secret Garden 2 is completely created in Embird Digitizing Studio but most of the work is manually punched without the use of any tool but the pen outline tool. It does take an awful long time but the end results are absolutely stunning and give the look of thread painting which is what Photo stitch or Sfumato actually is.. Some of the larger areas, like the wall, the steps, the pathway, the fountain and the initial color of the flowers are simply fills but the blobs of fills are given life by using threads to create the dimension and texture.

My final run of the designs is stitching as I write and even I had to do a double take on the feel and the continuity of the stitches…..It was a challenge indeed to create this large a design and not use an enormous amount of thread colors. Yes, the final look is again a bit different, LOL….but I think I like it the best. Well, if I did nothing but work on this I think I could come up with several different looks but at the moment this is what appeals to me the most. The gazillion number of files that it took to create will now be archived with a prominent note to myself….”don’t go there again without thinking”.

What exactly is thread painting? If you have ever stitched out a Photostitch or Sfumato design you will see that there are just meandering stitches which finally start to make sense after a couple of different threads are used. My first attempt at Sfumato was to create a design from a floral clipart. This was quite some time back and although I was impressed with the technique I was not totally taken by the idea of the software doing the work and myself being at its mercy and then cleaning up afterwards. Not to mention the number of threads used to give the shading effect and also the number of stitches! Ofcourse one can go in and program the software to allocate fewer stitches but it truly is a sort of a hit and miss type thing and being at the mercy of the software is not my cup of tea.

Creating a tutorial for Sfumato some years ago, I had created a whole series of lessons and had played with a variety of photographs etc. For one of my classes I had created a photostitch design of the late Princess Diana (with permission to use the photograph) and it was an extremely lengthy and detailed lesson. However, the work was so tedious that I often wondered why not simply use the tools and create the design yourself from the photograph…..much faster and ofcourse more control. If one looks deeply at a photostitch design you will see that it is composed of a lot of squiggly type stitches. Well, one can create those as fills and use them to fill in areas and then using your outline pentool go in and enhance the rest. Simple! It certainly is and that is one of the lessons that I am now working on for my Forum members. Besides, I detest the look of a bullet proof fabric when stitching out something like Sfumato. The Secret Garden 2 uses a lot of this technique where it seems as if there is a fill yet it is a type of a motif fill which creates the backdrop for the top outlines to give the impression of whatever object one is making. One can really create so much detail with a lot less stitch count.

As for the Secret Garden 2, I think this is the last of the work files and I am excited in finally placing the stitched out product on my wall. My desire had been to create a garden scene which was not kept yet had a look of intrigue about it. The grasses growing out of the cracks of the stones on the ground with some growing within the steps and the overgrown creeper vines gives it the mystery that I had originally thought of. Hopefully I can now say this is finally over and work on something else. One can get quite tired of working on the same thing over and over. As for the release of the collection, I’m still not sure as I want to think whether I want to release it with the Southern Charm II collection or separately….time will tell.