Member Approach - 4

Lezley Zwaal continues to work on her Trend Tex Challenge quilt....

Tracing, Tracing and more Tracing
It’s amazing how much time one will spend on a project that is close to your heart.  HOURS whiz by – dear hubby has long since gone to bed.  Here I am tracing, re-drawing a little, tracing over those lines with a dark marker so I can see through the backside of the fabric.  Yes, it’s late.  Some of the tracing was done during the day, when I can use the window.  Oh, I know there are those great light boxes – but my windows are bigger.
After making the backwards copy of the outlines, I trace the backwards copy of the individual pieces that will be appliquéd, adding room for “under” lap onto the paper side of the fusible web. 

back of Wonder Under

These pieces are numbered so that they can be placed properly on the background fabric, with the “behind” pieces going down first (not pressed yet), and the foreground pieces on top, with a bit of overlapping the under pieces so no space shows between sections of the kite. 

piece layout

The next step is to determine which fabrics will be used for the pieces – and sometimes they are re-traced for a different fabric if the first chosen really doesn’t work well.  The traced fusible web paper pieces are cut beyond the edges of the actual pieces and laid out on the side of the desired fabric.  The batik/bali fabrics are great because you can be very fussy where you choose colours or pattern to aid a 3D look.  The pieces are then fused to the backside of the desired fabric with a dry heat press (big difference between pressing and ironing) and ready to cut on the line.

ensure stick down

You must be sure the fused pattern piece are entirely fused to the fabric. The fabric is easier to cut with the larger-than-needed fused paper left on outside the lines.
The backing paper is left on so I can remember what piece is what.  

Magic on one of my oqn quilts

Oh – and if little Magic decides to help scatter the pieces, I have a chance of putting them back correctly. 

using large scissors

 Something I have found after doing many appliqué style quilts, is that the tiny scissors hurt my hands.  I use the really large scissors–and turn the fabric rather than turn the cutting hand.  I have much better control cutting deep slices and points such as these.


You are then ready to cut out the pieces.




In order to place the pieces onto the background as per the pattern – more tracing is needed!
Lezley


Coming next is the final edition of the work in progess from Lezley and just in time to get it to the Vice President by the deadline of Mar. 31, 2015.