With these last exercises I was much more at ease that I was with drawing, besides feeling more at ease with the drawing itself because I stopped caring about so much about how it comes out and caring more about its usefulness as a working basis. Making marks with fabric and stitches seemed much easier than making marks with drawing. Even though I use drawing to prepare my future marks made with on fabric, doing it with sewing makes feel that I can express myself through it and this does not happen with drawing.
I embroidered squares trees in linen fabric using wool, cotton and polyester threads. The colours chosen aim to represent the four seasons of the year. I also made a Christmas tree to use golden thread with French knots. Well, I do not like the result but it was perfect to use the French knot stitch. The stage 6 tree was inspired in a picture of a real tree.
I truly enjoyed these exercises and I think most of them went really well. Exploring stitch techniques was nice and funny, I made things that are a seamstress worst nightmare that resulted quite well. Using different threads while using machine cable stitch was my favourite part and I used it a lot, actually I feel like it was the only stitch I used.
Along with the cable stitch and some machine satin stitch, I used some materials that were new to me. I tend to use only natural fibers such as linen and cotton fabrics, wool and cotton threads. In the last exercise I used some polyester sewing thread and window rubber insulation strip mixed with wool and linen. Actually I felt almost inventive during stages 5 and 6 sensing I used a wider range of materials that maybe is not that wide but represents a big change for me. I learned how to use the sewing machine in a totally different way, as mean of expression and no big respect for the common sewing machine rules of perfect non risky use.
I will try to use more hand stitches in the future. I have the idea that I get kind of "stuck" and tend to make everything too simple, not using a lot of different fabrics or threads, I am too much into natural fabrics and natural yarns and not able to use less natural materials. I will try to be more open to the wide world of fabric and thread. On the other hand, I wonder if this natural material choice is not an attribute of my work that I should develop instead of changing. The same happens with the colours, I prefer natural colours that I see in nature.
Nevertheless, I had the feeling of being creative and that this a change being made by the course while I am doing the exercises. Beside the materials, I also sensed as being creative while doing the stages 5 and 6. These were my preferred exercises until now. I could use different materials and colours being inspired by what happens outside my window. Some stitches and materials mixed together came out as surprise and resulted much better than any expectations I could have had before. This new for me and I see it as an achievement.