Monday, January 21, 2008

Foundation for Taking It Further

Foundation-pieced base for Take It Further Challenge quilt block

This is the latest step in my Take It Further Challenge window quilt block on Emma Bell Miles. I tea-dyed small pieces of hand-dyed cottons I had on hand, but mostly I used my rayon and polyester dress-making scraps, sewing them to a 13-inch square muslin foundation.

I'd planned to include the ink jet transfer images, at this step, but I couldn't work out a pleasing layout, so I pieced the scrap foundation, and sewed the images on in a third layer of fabric. The ink jet images, printed on a thin, white cotton, are rather translucent, and I've found this translucence gives interesting effects in window quilts.

On my first project, I used squares cut from a printed cotton tablecloth as foundation pieces, and backed the quilt with plain white flannel. On sunny days, the rayon scraps look like translucent gauze, and the table cloth's printed flowers are what you see. At night, with the light hitting the quilt from the inside, the tablecloth patterns are invisible, and you see the rayon scraps' patterns. I'm hoping I'll have a similar double-vision phenomenon with this technique.

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