Skip to main content

Does Mood Affect Speed ? 29 Faces continued





As most of my blog readers know, I am completing the #29 Faces Challenge - this challenge is to create a face a day for the month of February - any art medium. 
I chose to stitch faces, using free motion machine stitching - basically it means sketching with a sewing machine by moving the material around while the machine stitches. ( different from the computerised machine embroidery where a design is pre-determined and completed automatically) 

This week I have been monitoring the speed  I use my sewing machine as my sketching tool  during the creation of the stitched faces, experimenting and using different ratios of speed - hand:foot - some of the results have been good and others not so fantastic.... my aim is to get better control, so it seems to be a matter of coordination,  too - a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time. 





I referred to another stitching blog ... 

Expert advice from Tigley Textiles, UK : 

 You may well be an experienced stitcher, in which case your brain is used to seeing the fabric move quickly the harder you press the foot pedal. With free motion machine embroidery, you have to forget that relationship. My motto is – Fast foot, Slow hands. It seems so strange at first, but after a while you’ll see that you don’t have to move the fabric quickly- but it helps if you keep the revs up. You are aiming for a smooth drawn line of stitching. If you move the fabric too quickly, the stitches  will be too long, equally if you leave your fabric in the same place and continue to stitch, the stitches will build up to create a raised blob of stitches. The success of your stitching totally depends on the synchronisation of the speed at which you move the fabric, with the speed at which you press your foot down. This does take practise, but do persevere. Don’t feel like it’s running away with you, you are in control. Once you have “clicked”, you will always pick up that speed next time you set up the machine, it is just like riding a bike.
Remember that free machine embroidery is supposed to be quirky and whimsical and free looking. If it’s a bit wobbly and jagged, just go over the shape a second time,  make it look like it was meant to be.  Quirky is good and gives your work character. The main thing is that you need to play! Just go for it and see what happens- yes you will make mistakes but that’s the only way to learn isn’t it?


 The comparison of machine speed to the speed and fluidity of the manual handling of the fabric obviously affects the stitching,  but I suspect there may be another factor... mood. I have also  been registering my mood as I work the machine faster or slower and the way I move the fabric around.... One of the days this week  I felt very stressed and I seemed to work a lot faster and ironically, the sewn "sketch" was in fact a lot better, I thought - as per the advice above , " Fast foot, slow hands"!  While the speed ratio is important, I am beginning to think coordination and being in  the right mood or frame of mind seems to be pre-requisites for free motion machine embroidery.  


I wonder if you can tell from the different faces which might have been stitched when I was sad, mad, happy or relaxed?





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bilby Infatuation

  Wrapped wire and fabric bilby sculpture : Wilma Simmons 2016  Over the years I have been fascinated with the plight of the bilby and it has inspired quite a few of my cloth creations... With long pinkish-coloured ears and silky, blue-grey fur, the Bilby has become Australia’s version of the Easter Bunny. Unlike the rabbit, bilby numbers are falling rapidly. There were originally two species but the Greater Bilby is now commonly referred to simply as ‘the Bilby’ as the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is thought to have become extinct in the early 1950s... Bilbies are nocturnal, emerging after dark to forage for food. Using their long snouts, they dig out bulbs, tubers, spiders, termites, witchetty grubs and fungi. They use their tongues to lick up grass seeds. Bilbies have poor sight and rely on good hearing and a keen sense of smell. To minimise threats from predators they’ll mostly stay within 250m of their burrows, but sometimes roam further afield depending on the food...

"Temari Or Not Temari?" Tutorial

 Background Information:  Temari (literally translated “hand ball”) is a Japanese folk craft that is alleged to have originated in China and was introduced to Japan five or six hundred years ago. Traditionally, the balls were constructed from wrapped kimono fabric remnants and silk threads. They were made by mothers and grandmothers for children to play with. Nowadays, decorative embroidered temari represent a highly valued and cherished gift symbolizing friendship and loyalty. Recently I've wondered if your don't use traditional techniques whether you should call what you create "temari". That is an ongoing debate but today I share what I do to make a "non-traditional temari".... 1.I start  with a polystrene ball ( traditionally the balls were wound  silk scraps or other organic materials) and begin to wrap with approx 4 ply wool, turning the ball as I wrap.  2. I then wrap another layer of wool in a similar fashion , this time a 3 or 2 ...

Countdown to Christmas 20 - Fruitcake song!

There are many songs about fruit cakes  - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary.   Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's  Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers).  This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach.    Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...