Free-motion embroidery connections

A dozen years ago, my NSCAD professor Robin Muller gave me a bag of small indigo-dyed scraps leftover from an antique kimono that she was repurposing. Until a week ago, they were too precious to use. Then, BAM!, I knew how I would use them. Last week I returned to doing free-motion embroidery (FME) after a two-year hiatus. When I haven't FME'd for a while, I need to warm up to remember how to coordinate needle speed and hand motion for optimal results. Inspiration struck while I was in warm-up mode stitching old hand-painted fabric from my stash. After ditching the practice fabric, I reassembled every single bit of kimono fabric using FME on the base of an old dress shirt. Some of the bits were smaller than my pinky fingernail. To my surprise, the small bag of scraps yielded two tags and two pieces of reconstituted fabric that I'll probably cut up once I've had a chance to think about how to use it. For now, it's back to being precious.


The warm-up FME on painted fabric inspired me to piece the kimono scraps, and the pieced kimono scraps inspired me to begin another project that is top-secret until I work out the details. All I can say is that I'm excited about the new TSP (top secret project) and to see where it will lead me next.