TAST Week 11 - Whipped Wheels

 Yes I'm a bit behind with my TAST Challenge, but here finally is last week's stitch - Whipped Wheels. Each week when I look at what others around the world are doing in this Challenge, I feel I am not being terribly creative. I guess it depends on "where you're coming from".. I am using this challenge to learn new stitches or variations for Crazy Quilting- i.e. I will be using them along seams. So I am taking the sampler "route" rather than the creative approach some are taking with pictorial pieces, etc. I LOVE looking at what others are doing, and am sooo enjoying seeing the wonderful variety. But I feel I have not been very creative in my work so far. So this week I thought I'd do something a little different (although it didn't work out quite the way I had planned). I have collected so much "stuff" over the years- fabrics for quilting, threads, beads, etc... and I continue to take classes to learn new techniques.. which often leads to buying more "stuff", and leaves me with samples of techniques I have tried. (Tell me I'm not alone in this...)

 So this week I decided to  use a piece of silk "paper" which is a "leftover" from a Silk Fusion class taken at Quilt Canada 2006 in Ottawa. This "paper" was made by layering dyed silk fiber between screening, soaking it with a textile medium, then letting it dry. I made four different pieces in the class and have used only one of them. (You can see it in my Crazy Quilts Gallery on my sidebar- the piece is called What Lies Beneath, with the silk "paper" representing a landscape.)
  So.... I had planned to use this as my "background" this week. However stitching my wheels through it did not give me the effect I wanted, and as well it was too "flimsy", so again I have used Aida cloth for my base but have mounted my aida pieces on the silk fusion paper. It gives a little color, if nothing else... If you look closely you can see several skeletal leaves embedded in the paper.
  I just had fun with the wheels, doing them in various sizes, with a variety of threads. I did a bit of beading as well and did one wheel over a washer to give it some thickness. As with most pieces I've done in the challenge, I get more and more ideas as I go along and just have to make myself stop or I'd never finish!
 These whipped wheels are not hard to do. You simply make as many "wheel spokes" as you want, then starting from the center, wrap your thread around each spoke as you circle the wheel until it is filled up. Simple as that. I have left several not quite "full" to get more of a "star" effect.
You can see the Highlights of the Week by clicking here. Do have a look to see the creative work being done by others in this TAST Challenge.

Peace,
Linda

"Your own self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world." ~ Ramana Maharshi