Newest art quilt
 

Hey all,
Here's my newest art quilt... it was an experiment to see what would happen if I did some decorative stitching on Lutradur, then sandwiched and quilted it and then melted the Lutradur (lacing) using a heat gun. Thanks for looking.

Rob

very interesting effects
what is Lutradur and how do you use it?

What a cool effect, Rob! I've never heard of that product but it certainly gave a lot of texture and dimension to your piece.

how unique .....

very neat!!!

nicely done

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

Hey Lynnie,
Lutradur is a non-woven material, it comes in different weights ranging from very light (looks just like interfacing) to a heavy weight that is about the thickness of card stock. I used the heavy weight for this piece. I don't know what the material is that it is made of, it's man-made, possibly polyester-ish. For this piece I first used some of the decorative stitches on my regular sewing machine and stitched on the Lutradur (the piece I used was thick enough that I didn't even need to use a stabilizer), then using some 505 I collaged some fabric scraps to the back of it. The Lutradur is translucent, so the colors showed through even before I melted the Lutradur. After collaging the fabric scraps on it I sandwiched it using scrap cotton batting and a large piece of craft felt for the backing. Then I used some of those Westalee ruler templates and cotton thread to quilt the large motifs that look like flowers and spirograph drawings. Then I took it outside and used a heat gun to melt the Lutradur (this technique is often referred to as "lacing" because the Lutradur gets lacy looking holes wherever the heat is applied). In some spots I heated it for longer causing most of the Lutradur to melt away leaving only the cotton thread that I had stitched with. In other spots I used heat for a shorter amount of time so that some of the Lutradur is still visible along the edges of the cotton. The heating distorted the Lutradur and fabric some so I ended up cutting slits in it to help it lay flat. Then in order to hold it together in those areas with slits and more melting, I stitched a grid on it from the back (the heavy Lutradur gets stiff and was breaking thread when I tried to stitch from the front).

Rob

Was it difficult to work with?

No, it was quite easy to work with because I used the heavy weight, so it has enough body that I didn't even need to use a stabilizer on it when I was doing the decorative stitching. The only thing that was a little difficult is that the heavy weight Lutradur is stiffer than regular fabric, so it took a little more effort to do the FMQ since I couldn't squish it up in the harp of my machine (I used my PQ1500s for the FMQ and ruler work). If you are going to use the heavy weight Lutradur then you need to take its stiffness into account as that makes it a little more difficult to put larger pieces through a domestic machine.

Rob