And the Devil's in the Detail

I spent another whole day creating a background. I really liked the effect of the tight rows on the longarm but there were too many flaws. I found my fabric was actually dirty. Heaven knows how long I've had that piece but there was a line where the fold had been, that wouldn't iron out or erase. I had to conclude it was soiled or discoloured.
 But I will use that piece for something sometime in the future.

I bought fresh material and sandwiched only with cloth and batting. I also followed the idea that some threads only like to play out in a certain directions. This was certainly true for the embroidery thread. As long as I sewed from left to right, everything behaved. If I went right to left, it almost immediately frayed and broke. It worked but it did slow me a bit.
This piece is bigger too. The ratio of the original background was okay but I wanted the ability to place the goose on the thread composition and see where it looked best.

 

 I chose to not add the canvas at this point because of its shear weight and the difficulty

 

 to would add to the handling. I wanted to do as much of the detail as possible before adding that item.



 

 

But I needed to use stabilizer to control distortion. Before I added that, I cut away as much of the cotton base as I could.

 

 

After tacking the bird to the stabilizer, I started stitching feathers. The ones on the breast and belly of this bird are tight and small.

 

 

This backside view shows the head and neck. When I have done smaller versions of the Canada Geese, I have always stitched the neck solid. For this one I made tight, small, overlapping V-shaped stitches. It filled the area and at the same time added texture. Changing direction on the beak defines it's location and parts.

 

 

I'm now at the point where the final work, the large flight feathers, needs to be done with the bird on

the backing. As those stitches would not be dense and cause distortion, the remaining, unused stabilizer was trimmed  away.

 

I decided the top four inches of the backing were to be cut off.

After anchoring the top edge of the goose with invisible thread, I then ironed down the loose wing feathers. With the bird anchored to the backing I turned to the canvas.

I decided to place another piece of a batting under the whole piece. The top was carefully pinned and smoothed and then I anchored the top to the canvas by following the horizontal lines with invisible thread at about 4 inch intervals. After the bird is finished I'll go back and revisit how much stitching I'll add to the backing.

The discrete edges, wing, neck, and belly were finished with a satin stitch, both on the external edges and the interior edges. Now its is secure enough that I can roll it in any direction and finally get to those big flight feathers.

 

Tomorrow...........