rryder

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