Having wasted yet another hour or two looking for a sample for a technique I know I tried, I am attempting to be more organised in keeping samples. When I was at Raystitch last week, I liked how they had samples of fabric sewn on to pieces of card and hung up in the shop. This reminded me of the mounting of my samples from the printed textiles courses at Morley, and a question to myself as to why I wasn't using that technique to keep my samples. Therefore,
testing out the trapunto technique from the workshop with Philippa Naylor , using folded fabric flowers from "Fantastic Fabric Folding" by Rebecca Wat. In the end I starched the fabric for these flowers before folding them and that made the technique much more manageable.
The trapunto gives a good dimensional effect when the background is quilted.
Next up, was testing out the trapunto technique on bias strips of varying widths.
Phlippa has a very straightforward technique fin her book, Applique Mastery for getting these single strips to vary in width down their length. How straightforward this will be on strips longer that A4 remans to be seen, and may call for some "design solutions." The lower strip has the trapunto, and even without background quilting, the raised effect can be seen clearly.
As part of the searching, I did find various blocks and bits, that in the spirit of " Found and Finished", have gone off to Project Linus as a contribution.
One of Philippa's comments on the workshop was about why she makes one quilt / year. Admittedly she is a professional, and makes her living out of teaching, based around her quilts. but her comment about making one excellent quilt, rather than lots of OK quilts really rang true.
That method of keeping samples is something we need to be told about at the outset of sample-making!
ReplyDeleteI have so many quilts I want to try! I'm still st the quantity stage! Great sample idea
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