MQU: The Fourth Quilt Layer
Over the past six years, I have been fortunate to have been invited to submit a quilt and to have works accepted in the Dinner@8 Artists exhibits and in Living Colour Textiles. For those shows, work had to be a specific size. The problem is that when you quilt, especially when you quilt a LOT, as I do, the quilt shrinks. And you need to have a good composition and framing once it is done–not chopped off, not too much leftover because the piece shrank less or more than you expected.
It is hard to predict how MUCH it will shrink. So I decided I needed to tackle the problem and acquire some knowledge. It was a lot of work to test nearly a dozen stabilizers, so I was thrilled when I proposed an article on my explorations to Machine Quilting Unlimited and they agreed it would be a useful article.
This is the cover of the current issue with my article:
and a bit more:
The issue is still on stands, and is available for order on the MQU website here. The article also has a link to an on-line Web Extra with all the extensive details of the testing on various stabilizers, interfacings, and canvas/cotton duck which you can print out for your own reference.
Even happier, at the end of the article I mentioned that I would be trying cotton duck, dyed by me, as the backing instead of a fourth layer. That quilt is made and has been juried into this year’s Dinner@8 exhibit, Affinity. And in the January 2016 issue MQU will publish my article in their “Challenge Quilts” series about Descended From the Stars. WOOT!
August 19th, 2015 at 12:43 am
I wondered how this comparison of stabilizers had gone. Didn’t realize it was finished and published. More valuable reference material! What’s next in your sewing laboratory explorations?