...Need to mend this old table cloth today.
I noticed one block gathering itself ito a basket.
I made this when I was working. From fabrics that the company manufactured. I never did completely finish quilting it. Because they used it in a photoshoot. You can see some unstitched areas. This is a good example of how the cloth is gathered into the stitch over time and washing. The cloth settles into the tension of the stitch. I made this early on and might not even known that then. Not that it bothers me at all. These days I know more about tension. If it is important to the look of a piece, I can manage it. Sometimes though, it is just fine the way it might move over time. In this case it has always been flat enough and has been a table cloth for 30 years or so. With blankets, well, who cares really? Except maybe some judge of perfection somewhere. That has gone a bit out of style at this point as we have all been exposed to the global textile arena. Generally if there is some dense stitching near some unstitched area, there will be movement, especially if washing and drying is involved. A lot of "art cloth" just hangs there. Although, there is a slow flow there as well, if you look carefully over time. Personally I like a living cloth.
Looking at how cloth and stitch react to one another, well that might even give you some ideas. That happens to me. And these days I manage stitch in a different way. If I want to quilt but prefer some areas to be less busy with stitch, I alter the length of the stitch, sometimes using that very tiny invisible stitch so the tiny stich hardly shows but still hold the cloth in place. I call this Wizard stitching (and sometimes Sympathetic Quilting). Poof, the thread appears and disappears as needed yet holds all together like magic. Managing a stitch like this is not possible on a sewing machine. And there is much less play in a machine stitch because there is a more consistent compression and not the weaving in and out that gives the cloth space to relax.
Since I am at the point of finishing a lot of old work and because I have some patchwork that will become blankets soon enough, I'll be talking a lot about quilting.
To be mended today as well...
Some crazy raccoon party last night. By the light of the moon.
