Shadow Trapunto

In my travels along the internet, I found a lady in Romania, Geta Grama, who makes quilts using a shadow trapunto method. She makes some truly amazing quilts and I had not heard of this method of trapunto before. So of course I just had to try it. I purchased  and downloaded her e-book  The book contains instructions (that even I can understand), lots of pictures and 6 printable patterns.

I started the project over the weekend. The first step, after you have printed a pattern, is to make a pattern sandwich consisting of 3 layers: batting, organza and the pattern. Then you sew along the pattern through all 3 layers. When completed you tear off the paper pattern. Careful not to rip the organza-it was actually tougher than I thought.

Pattern sewn onto the batting
pattern is partially torn away from the organza

The next step is the one that takes the most time. You cut the batting away in the background and other places you don’t want batting. Not only is this time consuming, but you must be careful not to cut through the organza. Oops! got a few little nicks here and there.

Today I put it on my longarm.  This ends up actually being 4 layers: backing, batting, top, and organza with pattern. I picked a piece of my snow dyed fabric in burgundy red for the top.  It was difficult to see the pattern at first, until my husband reminded me that my machine has a black light. That sure did make a difference to see where I was going. I quilted a few feathers, then went way out of the lines. Stopped & ripped out what I had just sewn. I quilted a few more feathers..oops out of the lines again. Rip again. I quilted a few more feathers, ohhh almost out of the lines! When I remembered something Peggy from my quilter’s guild told me. She said she likes a quilt to look like a human quilted it. We all make mistakes here and there. Usually we are the only ones that really notice the mistakes. So thank you Peggy, I decided to be a human, take my death grip off the handles and enjoy myself!!!! Hopefully I will finish this tomorrow.

Trying to sew the organza--very shiny
using the black light
feather pattern is sewn