Thursday 31 May 2007

Designing directly onto fabric

Why would you design your quilting before you even piece?
For me on this particular quilt it makes sense. The feathers have an organic form but still have a common spine on all four corners. They will also be trapuntoed. The trapunto means the quilt must be premarked so I know where to sew my water soluble thread and because each spine must match to add unity to the quilt they must also be drawn on exactly how I need them. Because the feathers are organic, each one differs and this can lead to mistakes. If I marked up the quilt once it is finished and I make a mistake all the quilt markings on the whole quilt would need to be washed out. By marking first if I do make a mistake it's only the piece I'm working on which would need to be started again.
I mark using a Berol Handwriting Pen. This gives a nice fine line and the pen doesn't 'drag' the way it does with some other marking methods. It washes out on a normal machine cycle. It does NOT rinse out, but does wash out.

2 comments:

Ferret said...

I am so glad you have put up a picture of your organic feathers. I think I might reduce how much I beat myself up for not getting my feathers perfect. Why is it that when someone else does somethng it looks great and when I do I am dissatisfied. I just don't get it. I'll have to give these curvy feathers another try.

The WestCountryBuddha said...

Hello Sally, I thought I'd reply to your email by leaving a comment and a link! Good to hear from you and see your blog; I shall come and visit you all the time to see what you're up to! lol annabel ps now my art course has finished I'm hoping to spend the summer making 2 pieces that have spent the last month circling my mind and driving me nuts.