Travel and Trapunto
I’ve spent my week prepping for Craft Napa. After losing a week to an annoying rash, I had some catching up to do. I am so excited to be teaching at Craft Napa again! It is an experience like non-other and I have added many new friends from my time with Craft Napa. I pinch myself that I’ll be there again; could it possibly be my fourth year? This year I won’t be taking any classes because the ones I wanted were either on the same day as I am teaching or were already filled.
I will be vending for the first time at the Friday Artist Market. I’ll have my book and some fun and useful free motion quilting notions and accessories for sale. It will be interesting to see what it’s like to vend. Each year the Market has had vendors with unique and tempting wares. Coincidentally, I will be giving a lecture and Trunk Show to the Napa Valley Quilters on Saturday morning so it will be a full weekend for me.
In between all of this I have been working on a project that I am so excited about – a whole cloth with trapunto on metallic linen. These photos do no convey the divine beauty of this fabric! I swoon.
Many are not familiar with trapunto by machine. There are 5 basic steps:
1. Mark your areas to be trapunto’d on the quilt top.
2. Layer up your top with wool batting.
3. Stitch over those lines with water soluble thread top and bobbin.
4. Cut away the excess batting around the trapunto’d areas.
5. Layer up with batting and quilt as usual. When quilting around the trapunto’d areas you hit just outside of the water soluble thread line. This results in an extra layer of batting in the trapunto’d areas, giving it glorious dimension. Once the quilt is washed, the water soluble thread goes away, leaving only the decorative quilting thread behind.
But…..nothing I do is ever easy. This linen is giving me fits. Its sheen is so intense that it glares back at me, making quilting difficult. I taped off all of the lights on my machine and it still glares.
Furthermore, the deep texture of linen “hides” the water soluble thread, making it almost impossible to see. And if that is not enough, the color of the linen is light, making it even more difficult to see the water soluble thread.
I have tried many things, all to no avail so far. Stay tuned. Short post this week since I’m on my way to Craft Napa. Wish me luck. I’m gonna have a blast! Look for my link at Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.
Regarding the annoying glare off your fabric…Have you tried some of the yellow tinted night driving glasses that eliminate glare while improving vision? If not, you might find that they might help.
Kathie I can’t wait to try this! Thank you, great idea.
Kathie’s idea is fantastic but I’m also wondering whether you might be able to adjust the brightness in your machine’s settings? Did you ask your Bernina dealer? Glare is the worst… Your trapunto class sounds great. I’ve only done trapunto with polyester batting before. Have a WONDERFUL trip!
I’ve turned the lights all the way down and it’s still too much! I’m having a blast!
I’m curious – would it be possible to sew with the water soluble thread in the bobbin and regular, visible, thread in the top? So you could see the basting lines? And then when the piece was washed, the top thread should come off.
Unfortunately I tried this and it was very difficult to pick out of the rough textured linen. Sigh!
Your comment “nothing I do is ever easy” made me smile. You could take this in two different ways, the less obvious one being “I choose projects that are very challenging.”
I feel the same way when I’m struggling with a quilting project. Maybe we should just say “why do I do this to myself?!” and have a laugh about it. I don’t know any other way to learn more about our hobby/calling than by choosing a more difficult project each time. So glad that you share your learning with the rest of us!
Luanne, how wonderful to hear from you! What a great way to think of it. I do need to laugh this one off and accept that yes, “I choose projects that are very challenging.”