August Meeting - All Things Trapunto

Sue Gilgen's Aspen Red

In this month's meeting we discussed the use and various methods of trapunto.

What is trapunto and why employ this technique in our art quilts?  Trapunto is essentially the clever use of batting either on top or below the top layer of your fiber art project to create dimension and/or design to your piece. Sue, Nickie and Carroll Lee were our presenters of this technique and they brought in their own work as examples.  Above is one of Sue's using regular trapunto (where you stitch extra batting behind the quilt top to enhance items on the front of the piece.  Here she did the trees and cut away all the batting not behind the trees.  Makes it really pop off her piece.  Here is another example of that method:

Geta Grama

Nickie brought in several pieces showing shadow trapunto.  None of us took a picture.  That is how it goes sometimes.  So I snagged some of the net.   This is where you sandwich batting between organza, sew, cut away the batting leaving the organza top, add background and quilt (shadow trapunto).  I think Nickie may have done it slightly differently.  If she did, she can add a comment and I will correct it.  Nickie also dyed the batting in some pieces and used it to great effect in reverse applique.

Geta Grama - click to go to her site

 You can also do trapunto with raw edge applique.  Here is an example.

Getasquiltingstudio.com

There are tutorials for all three methods at the bottom of the post. 


More examples from our artists plus a bit of show and tell:

Sue

close up

Nickie - Trapunto plus dying

Nickie - resident rogue rust artist

Nickie experiments in rust.

Side note: if you see fabric on a manhole cover around town you know who has been there.  Drive around it.😄

Our ladies also made creative use of their dyed fabrics.  Here is a fine example by Melanie Wilson:

Darling blouse from dyed fabric class

 Hope Jan brings her quilt top in after she has quilted it.  Gorgeous.

Jan Kalian

Next month Rosemary is going to be discussing thread tension.  Looking forward to seeing you there.  Bring what you have been working on.  Meanwhile, happy creating!

Trapunto tutorials:
Applique and Trapunto - Geta Grama
Trapunto and Shadow Trapunto - Geta Grama