JENNR8R

I was thinking of doing trapunto on all of the houses and trees... maybe even some empty tree shapes outside of the "heart." The largest house is 5" x 7" and the largest tree top is 3.75" x 4.25." I don't recall seeing trapunto that large or that much on a quilt. Do you think it would look good or not?

dunster

That is a darling quilt, and I think trapunto would work fine on it.

Bree123

If you're planning to do it the old-fashioned way & stuff them individually, they'll just take longer to stuff. If you plan to do it the modern "faux-trapunto" way by adding an extra layer of batting and trimming away, my only concern is whether there is enough space around/between the trees for you to do your microfill stitching.

The second issue is that if you plan to wash it on a regular basis, the far apart quilting lines will put a lot of stress on the applique fabric; it may wear out faster or have the stitches anchoring it to the quilt snap from the stress on it whenever the quilt is pulled, sat on, laundered, etc. I would at least stitch around the door & window to provide enough support for the applique pieces.

Cheshirecatquilter

I think I'd worry about wads of batting shifting inside the shapes. If it was me, I'd fuse some batting cut in the shapes of the houses and trees to the back and then stitch in the ditch or outline quilt for the finished product, perhaps even stitching along the bottom of the roofs to set them apart as well.

JENNR8R

I was planning on the "faux-trapunto" method that you described.

There is no applique on this quilt. The trees and houses are all freezer-paper pieced. It's meant to be a wall hanging so I wouldn't wash it often. I was thinking of stitching around the doors, windows, and the roof line separating the house and roof. My concern is that it would be too much trapunto and wouldn't look good which would defeat the purpose of the trapunto... and it would be heavy... Maybe limit the trapunto to the trees?

Bree123

Ah-ha. Same issue -- different terms. Would put stress on the large pieces unless there is some quilting there to subdivide the 5x7" house. I've seen quilts with that amount of total trapunto (just with skinnier pieces). Even adding an full extra layer of wool or poly batting won't change the weight much. It's the amount of microfill stitching that typically impacts the weight the most.

Doing the trees would be cute. You could create channels on either side of the trees to do your microstippling & it would really bring out the heart shape.

ManiacQuilter2

Cute quilt. I would decorate each house with a different stitch like cross hatching and such.

thimblebug6000

I was thinking maybe just the one size of tree shape to make it effective, it might look over done with all the shapes trapuntoed ?

There are some interesting articles on this, too bad you couldn't make a few practice ones to see if they look as effective as some of these samples. https://dianeloomisquilts.wordpress.com/tutorial/

ragamuffin

I was taught trapunto another way. Using a layer of cheap flannel (holes to pull needle thru) or good cheesecloth, put this under say the large trees only. Sew around the tree. Buy the Hallmark yarn, the fuzzy stuff to tye gift packages with, and with a very large needle, about 5" long with a big eye, take the yarn strands apart, using only one strand.
Pull the yarn in from the back of the tree thru the flannel or cheesecloth, leaving little tails, cut off each time, and then when you get the tree full,, take the other end of the needle and stuff in your ends. Because the trees are alike, I would count how many strands you pulled thru so all of them will be stuffed alike. If you put the flannel backing on and sew around all the large trees before you start the stuffing, you can then sit down and draw the yarn thru, even watching TV
or talking on the phone. Hope this helps. I would quilt one by hand and stuff it so you can see if it meets what you are trying to accomplish. This way if you do not like it, you can take the hand stitches out easier. You could use white, offwhite, or even green. You can also use a hoop when you put the yarn thru.

DOTTYMO

Are you planning to do trapunto just behind the coloured house including or excluding the window and door. If you did the including the window and door you could do a line of stitching around them to help hold the trapunto in place.
TRees would be easy just one piece with stippling up close.