Stitching a Galaxy

I'm making a start on one of the pieces I dyed recently at Studio 11. It's sort of a practice for something else - a Winter Solstice cloth - but I want to find out how the stitching will work on this piece first; trial techniques, see what the needle feels like moving though the three layers of cloth. The middle layer is a dark blue linen, not the dull browny colour you can see at the right. It has a lovely drape and texture, then there's muslin at the bottom to anchor stitches in. The top is a piece I dyed using shibori techniques - a process I could get very addicted to! I'm just tacking the three lays together at the moment and plan to extend the stitching into the border so have left plenty of edge for that.

And before I forget - here is the second white work piece for City and Guilds. I love the strong shadows the trailing border gives, and the light and shade where the stitches run in different directions, which doesn't show up too well here.  I'm still debating whether to redo those rectangles at the side with their wobbly bars and uneven division!