Trapunto is the amazing process of adding extra physical texture and visual relief to a fabric surface by either stuffing or pre-quilting selected areas of a quilt top in order to gain this lift. There are multiple ways to do it and even a couple of ways to fake it!
It calls to you to touch it!
I have personally been over the moon for Trapunto since being introduced to the work of Karen McTavish who can rightly claim the title of the queen of trapunto through her work and her book on the subject The Secrets of Elemental Quilting
For this reason many associate trapunto with traditional quilts and sort of turn their noses up at it when it come to the thought of trapunto and the modern quilt but the fact is that this technique can bring an added dimension and interest to even the most modern quilt.
I am using trapunto to emphasize the hexie flowers in my new quilt Flower Bombed and thought I would take you along for the ride.
Elemental trapunto for the modern quilt is actually a bit easier and usually way faster than it’s traditional cousin since the items you are adding dimension to tend to be of a simpler nature which makes the sewing and the trimming go faster.
In the case of Flower Bombed I even did the trapunto work on my domestic machine as opposed to loading it on my longarm proving that this is a technique that anyone can do. Opposed to traditional trapunto I have used a much lower loft batting for a different look. Many times you would want to use a wool or high-loft poly.
Trapunto Supplies
- A quilt top that you want to enhance
- Batting cut into squares a bit bigger than the areas you want to work in.
- Water soluble thread such as YLI Corporation Wash-A-Way Thread
or Perish from Fil-Tec
- Duck billed applique scissors for trimming away the excess batting.
The Process
With the quilt top and a piece of batting layered under you will be stitching around the outside of the motif using Wash away/ water soluble thread in the top thread and something “blendy” for the bobbin thread. Don’s worry about the color, remember it will wash away! When you are done it will look like this. (Note- I used dark thread here so you could see.. you would use something to match your batting.) Many machine need to have the top thread tension lessened to run water soluble thread. Make some test samples to get the results you need for your project.
This does not have to be the neatest sewing your have every done ( see example-eek!) and you can either sew in a conventional manner with your feed dogs or use free motion.. I used free motion since it is faster for me.
Time to Trim the Trapunto
The trimming stage makes the heart of more than one quilter race since with just a small slip you have cut the front of your quilt and that be sad! Trimming does take a steady hand and it is made so much easier with the use of Duckbill 6-Inch Scissor
Make sure to trim nice and close for the best finish effect in the next stage of the process.
When all the elements are trimmed you will have a something that looks like this……
And a floor that looks like this – hey, just keeping it real!
Next time in part 2- What do I do now?
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