Stitch and Slash

I spent today at a workshop revisiting a technique I'd not used for some time - faux chenille or stitch and slash work. I'd forgotten what a pleasure it could be - though one basic thing about it hit me fair and square as I was working.

While colour choices are always central to the kind of textile work I do, in this case it seemed absolutely vital to work with a good colour palette since, in a way, that is what the whole thing is about - the juxtaposition of glimpses of colour against a textured top surface. Plenty of contrast was needed, both of colour hue and intensity.

The idea was to work some samples, playing with the process - placing layers one on the other, mixing colours, varying fabric texture and pattern, and top-stitching the surface.



I began dutifully, stitching a small cream on cream piece which had alternating layers of calico and cotton scrim using waving wandering lines (now there's a surprise). This was not exciting to do nor was the result worth a photo but I felt it was a warm up to the process. As I progressed, it proved useful to practice the technique again and later to experiment with top stitching.

The thing I found most fiddly (I remember this from before) was cutting through the layers accurately and without cutting right through the whole thing. Our tutor, Sue Fereday, came up with a  hint worth a million - a slim knitting needle to slide down the channels to separate them as I cut - what a great idea!

The sample I include here was my most successful. By this time, I'd stopped following the rules, varying the width of the channels stitched, putting on some top stitching which spread over from one row to another ... and deliberately cutting right through all the layers to make lozenge-shaped holes.

The detail left shows the stitching completed using some of the automatic patterns in my machine. It needs further work if it's to turn into anything but I was quite pleased with the colours and patterns I'd chosen to combine.

If nothing else, I will need to give the whole piece a 'haircut' to remove all the untidy, shaggy ends - not so that it's too neat but just so that the eye is not distracted.

Then of course, there is always the problem of what to do with the edge and how to mount it or use it ... or maybe it will just go into either my UFO or my sample box or into my current sketchbook. Time will tell.