Diamond Girl post 3 of--4

Notes in process of burning away the organza

The quilting blends into the background providing
texture

After I had trimmed the organza away from the notes, there was still a bit of the fabric around the edge. My friend suggested that I use a wood burning tool and burn the fabric away. Unfortunately, a wood burning tool was not among my quilting tools so I used a Joann fabrics coupon and purchased one! I did a test on the fabric before I did the embroidery to see how it burned. For the test, I lit a match and burned an edge of the fabric. It burned fine.

To protect from burning my fingers, I used tweezers to hold each note. Slowly and carefully, I touched the tool to the organza. It was a process; but, I'm happy with the results. I found that wiping the hot tool against a dry towel helped remove some of the "goo" from the melting/burning process. I also found that rubbing the hot tool on a piece of sandpaper helped too. The reason for removing the goo was that I didn't want black goo on my silver notes. I appreciated that my friend shared her tips and encouragement with this process.

I layered and pin basted the top to that pieced back. I used a piece of wool batting. I used wool batting because I wanted as much loft as I could get for the figure. I also thought that the wool batting would be lighter and it might give my quilting on that denim more definition that if I had used a different batting.

Circle and texture of the top of project

To begin quilting, I stitched in the ditch. Because the seams of the pieced part of the background were pressed open, I chose to stitch next to the white top stitched line that came with the jeans! I wanted the quilting to add texture; but, not compete with the figure. To see the quilting, one will need to get up close and personal with the wall hanging!

Top trimmed and ready fro the facing

I quilted a circle in the center of each of the pieced blocks and followed up with straight lines. Straight lines were my original intention; but, after I stitched one, I thought differently. I tried stitching rays off the circles and radiating lines; but, ripped those out and went back to my original plan. In the end, I was happy with the with the straight lines lines because the lines complimented the weave of pieced section of the jeans.

At the top and bottom, I free motioned quilted gentle curved lines. I liked the texture the quilting provided and I liked how the quilting brought the figure more into the foreground. For the letters, I quilted straight lines which helped accentuate the embroidery. I used the same cotton blue/gray thread for quilting the entire top and the same cotton olive green thread for the back.

In my stash, I located a six inch piece of turquoise fabric that coordinated with the back fabrics. It was just enough to become the facing! I cut three 2 inch strips. To cover the bottom edge, because I wanted the raw edge of the denim to be exposed, I blind stitched the facing to the edge.

Facing ready for hand stitching; auditioning
the label

Check back on Wednesday for the finish post!