Trapunto Workshop

Today my friend Zegi and I took a machine quilting trapunto workshop with Nelly Vileikis. This was really fun and pretty easy (to understand that is). My biggest challenge is that I really haven't worked much with free motion quilting, so following the lines for me was a bit rough. Back in March I took a beginning machine quilting class and have only practiced about 2 times since. I'm hoping that this class has brought enough encouragement to my quilting desire to push myself to complete my sewing room organization. All in all, I don't think I did that bad. What do you think?



I think I need a little more practice time on following a line but otherwise, not bad.

You start off with tracing your design onto your fabric with water soluable pen. Pin traced fabric to poly batting (about a 12 oz or 16 oz). Use water soluable thread in your top thread and trace, with a basting length stitch, the areas that you want to puff up. Trim away any areas of batting that you do not want puffy along the stitching edge, being careful not to snip your fabric. Now make your quilt sandwich with a backing, cotton batting, and trapuntoed top piece. Quilt in the recessed areas as you see fit.

Nelly suggests to use water soluable thread that is removed with cold or cool water. If you use the warm water removeable, you run the risk of your fabrics bleeding. Also, keep the thread stored in a ziplock bag to keep it away from humidity so it won't become sticky.