Day 10 0f Challenge 3

This blog has been silent for a few days as I have been sewing like mad.  I thought you might like to see a snippet of what I have done so far. 

While I do not have to keep a deep dark secret this time, I won't tell you everything I'm planning until the things work - or don't.  In this case, my plan worked (sort of), and I'm very pleased with my barn owl.



No, he isn't blind; that would be a dreadful thing to do to an owl!  After the quilting is done, he will have beads for his eyes.  His head also looks a little lop-sided, but that's because of the photo angle.  He is made from 17 pieces, 10 different fabrics, and the construction was an experiment since I'd never tried anything quite this small and complex before.  

I decided that I would have to use "Lite Steam-a-Seam", a two-sided sheet with adhesive on both sides, make him on muslin, and then mount him on my quilt background.  I was afraid to mount him directly on the background because I don't have enough of that material to re-make it if something went wrong, I wasn't sure what would happen to that background after multiple liftings and replacings of parts of the owl (all that stickiness might cause real problems), and finally, machine appliqueing all those little parts (think of the dark brown, open ring around the white face!) would be much easier before mounting it on the background. 

Everything worked except one thing.  One technique I am employing quite freely in this quilt is trapunto (a technique in which part of the design is padded and, therefore, raised giving a more dimensional effect) which I've always loved.  Years ago I was going to make myself a skirt with a deep trapunto border - "was" is the operative word - it never happened.  Anyway, I thought I would put my batting between the owl and the muslin because I know that quilting through sticky backings is death for the person doing the final quilting.  I reasoned that my applique stitches would act as quilting (my quilter could then ignore the owl), and the owl would be just as I wanted him.  That idea worked fine until I ironed the owl to the muslin.  BIG mistake;  polyester batting melts into a thin, solid pad!   Owl is only slightly raised, but there is no way I am going to try to pry the bits of owl off or start over at this point. 

Another lesson learned.

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