Lost in Thought - part two

Lost in Thought

Last week I shared part one of my design process in creating this abstracted male figure quilt.  This week I'm picking up with the construction process.

I began my hand stitching by attaching the background fabric pieces to the batting.  The first ones I stitched were the pieces that would be underneath the sheer figure.  He was painted onto a piece of China silk, and the rest of the background pieces are the heavier habotai and dupioni silk.  I used a simple running stitch in a floss color closely matched to the fabric so that it wouldn't show through the figure.

Pieces of background fabric that were not going to be hidden by the figure were stitched down using blanket stitch.

I pinned the figure down on top of the background and stitched him into place, along with the piece of background fabric that overlapped him.

Again I used blanket stitch to attach a backing piece of fabric to the top and batting, trimming all the edges even.

I chose four spots scattered throughout the quilt to add stabilizing buttons.  These are buttons sewn to the back and up through all the layers in order to keep the quilt from sagging or shifting over the years.  I try to pick spots to place them where the stitching will not show too much on the front, and always match the color of thread to the front, not the back.

Lost in Thought, 2011, Cyndi Lavin

Copyright 2012 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

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