Wednesday, March 25, 2009

FABRIC CUTTING UPDATE

Well......I'm forging on......with new ideas from all you clever readers.  I think Kay might have hit upon the solution.  Interestingly......Kay is very much responsible for my leap into quilting. We met, probably 25+ years ago and if I remember correctly, it was at a WI quilt event where my wonderful Mother-in-law was presenting a fashion show.  Kay encouraged me to join the Chicago suburban's Northwest Suburban Quilt Guild and went out of her way to introduce me to her friends and make me feel welcome.

Here's my update......I've continued drawing patterns on the paper fusible backing which was secured to a 4" x 5" rectangle of hand dyed fabric.  It took hours to carefully cut them out......with less perfection than I desired....due to the size, this was much more difficult than it looks. 


Kay wondered whether fusing tissue paper or light-weight silk might allow the back to acheive a finished look, which would then allow the motif to be attached so they could hang loose at the top of my wall quilt.


Tissue paper didn't work.....the glue melted right through the paper....what a mess.  But after digging for what seemed like an hour to find a stash of matching colors of silk, I fused a piece onto a sample.  With more tedious cutting, I was able to trim away the silk in a fairly tidy manner following the outline of the already cut designs.

It didn't seem to matter which side I cut away, the front or back.....both worked about the same. My plan now is to remove the paper from one of the 'real' pieces and fuse silk to it....then spend (goodness knows how long) cutting the silk away and judge the result of that one piece before moving on.  It doesn't make any sense to me to start completely over by fusing three layers and redrawing all the patterns.  But....it may come to that if the silk doesn't hold up.......

With fingers crossed........

This is what quilter's are all about....someone always has a method, solution to any situation.....and best of all.....we are all so willing to share.....thanks again Kay......  The finished piece would fit right in your FL home!!

2 comments:

Jane Moxey said...

I LOVE the four in the first picture -- I feel sure it will be worth all the fiddling you have to do with the cutting part! Only other thing I thought of is that you could fuse the hand dyed to some light weight dressmaking interfacing, having painted that to match the fabric? Painted with Rit dye or something simple.

The Inside Stori said...

Jane....tx's that's another good alternative.....this sure has been a lot of trouble that everyone has gone through for me to make just 4 tiny cutouts. I think I'll have to make another quilt using this theme again....that is after I finish this bugger!!!