Sunday, April 15, 2012

April 2012 Don Linn's stencil technique


This is my third attempt using a tulle stencil to transfer a design onto the quilt sandwich.  My first and second quilted designs are posted on my blog.  Instead of an embroidery hoop I made a permanent frame using stationary card board.  I copied Diane at Pine Point Designs who used a card board from a cereal box.
 I printed the butterfly from a colouring webpage, then modified the printed copy slightly to have more continuous lines.
Traced the butterfly onto the tulle using a black permanent sharpie marker.
Ironed the tulle on low heat to set the permanent marker.
Traced the butterfly onto the quilt sandwich using a Sewline cermanic green pencil.
The design transfers easily through the tulle.  I used my Bernina 930 Record sewing machine.
The first picture below is the backside.
This is the front side, the butterfly with the turquoise blue middle on a flower was my second attempt using Don Linn's tulle stencil technique.
I'm not a big fan of marking the quilt top. After a far amount of erasing this is my butterfly, I can still see bits of green pencil in the orange thread.  Getting the marks off the quilt is messy.
 Backside.
 Front side.
This is the tulle stencil.  As you can see, visibility is excellent.  I don't enjoy the chore of removing the markings afterwards.  My preferred method of fmq is to practice the design a gazzillion times on paper then sew it free hand on my fabric.

When I need a precise design,  I'll sew a traced the design onto parchment paper with no thread in the needle.  Then I pin the parchment paper to the quilt and follow the needle punched lines to stitch out the design.  This works quite well, except again I find removing the little bits of parchment paper caught in the stitches a pain you know where.  Perhaps a chalk pumice would work better to mark the quilt top, only I think the chalk would come off too easily. How do you mark your quilt designs?  Is there an easier way to get the marks off?

Happy stitching all!

10 comments:

Raewyn said...

Very interesting post Tammy. I think I would like to explore more too with trying different ways of marking a design. Practising agazillion times is probably a good way to go, but sometimes impatience slips in!! Are you into remove by washing means?

Tammy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tammy said...

Hi Raewyn,
Yes, I am into washing them out. I used a Dritz purple fade away pen on the first two which didn't fade away fast enough for my liking. I applied water and a wet washcloth, then I had to toss them in the dryer. The quilts came out of the dryer wrinkled and had to be ironed. Grrr.. removing the markings feels way to much like work to me.

SewCalGal said...

Way cool. And what beautiful results from the stencil you created too.

On the marker topic - while a pain, I do like to be sure it is washed out. I've seen too many quilts ruined, as a result of the chemical used to mark staying in the fabric, even though the color was gone.

SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Sue Daurio said...

I agree with the marking, but when you have to mark, this seems like a great way to try. I hope my results will be as good as yours!

Danih03 said...

I like chalk, but I haven't tried it on a big quilt. I fear that with all the shifting of a big quilt, a lot of the marks would come off before i got to them.

NotTheNorm said...

I love your butterfly, it looks great! I used "chalk" pumice on a t-shirt quilt that I did just before Don Lin's tutorial came out in the FMQ Challenge in April. It worked well for small motifs, but brushed off very easily. My "chalk" was actually baby powder, so real chalk may stay on better.

When I got to the border, I wanted to mark the whole thing so I ended up using the chalk pumice and then tracing over that with one of those white sewing pencils.

You can see pictures on my blog, here: http://normalaccordingtome.blogspot.com/2012/03/t-shirt-quilt-adventure.html

Laurie said...

Here's another suggestion. Ricky Tim's uses a single sided washable stabilizer. He then either draws or photocopies the design he wants onto the stabilizer. Iron it onto the quilt top, quilt on the lines, and tear off the excess. Any little bits left in the stitching will wash away.

Tammy said...

That's a great idea Laurie. I will have to try it. Thanks tons!!

balfourray said...

Such a nice idea to this projects.It look really fabulous with extra ordinary creations.Permanents drawing creations are really extra ordinary art.

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