New Quilt: "Map of Regional Attractions #3"

"Map of Regional Attractions #3"

Title: "Map of Regional Attractions #3"
Materials: cottons & synthetic fabrics, tulle, lace, inkjet printed cotton, oil paint stick, laminated imagery, perle cotton, Swarovski crystals, press-on sequins
Dimensions: 20.5" by 14.75"
Date: 2012

This quilt makes heavy use of oil paint sticks, which I have recently realized are an incredibly powerful tool for adding texture or imagery to a quilt. The shark was made using the paint stick "carbon paper" technique I demonstrated in this post, and other areas have antique gold pigment applied using the tip of my finger onto already quilted areas.  This produced a beautiful and dramatic effect that I will definitely have to explore further.

The shark was created by tracing a drawing on paper with paint stick pigment liberally applied to the back side.

The graph-y looking images were from a book titled "101 Ways to Use Your Sweep Generator," which was found at a Goodwill in Seattle a million years ago.  I had no idea at the time what a Sweep Generator was, and I have to admit, I still have no idea because instead of reading the book like a normal person, I immediately cut out all the fabulous illustrations and laminated them.  They've been slowly finding their way into projects ever since.

The little rectangle of Swarovski crystals were leftover from a Rockette costume.

This quilt was mostly completed while my new machine was out for repairs, and so I got to know the old Pfaff again.  That thing may be old, but it's still a rock star in my book!

The photograph printed onto cotton at the bottom of the quilt is of the frozen surface of the Harlem Meer in Central Park.  I used hand-quilting to accentuate the bubbles captured in the ice.

One question about this quilt that will just have to be answered by time is whether oil paint stick pigment will remain on fabric without being heat-set. This was the project for which I decided to try out Poly-Fil Hi-Loft batting, which it turns out gets all compressed and useless when you expose it to heat, so I just have to hope all the gold will stay on there.  Maybe I'll post a follow-up in ten years!

Product Review: A Big Thumbs-Down to Poly-Fil Hi-Loft Batting

I recently decided it might be fun to try free motion quilting in a way that would produce more dimension on the surface of my quilts, so I went out and bought a crib size piece of Poly-Fil Hi-Loft batting to experiment with.  My standard go-to batting is Warm & Natural 100% cotton, so I knew that the all-polyester, far fluffier batting would take some getting used to.

Poly-Fil Hi-Loft batting... Can I find a use for it?

As it turns out the fluffiness did not bother me at all, but there was a far greater concern that may prevent me from ever using this batting for serious projects.  Poly-Fil claims to be flame retardant, and this is in fact true - it just gets all smelly and melty instead of catching fire.  However, it turns out the batting is decidedly NOT heat-resistant.  The minute you touch it with a hot iron, it flattens right up and sticks to itself, completely and permanently ruining its loftiness!  For many quilters this would not be a problem, but for me it's disastrous!  I tend to add a lot of paints, fabric markers, iron-on transfers and fusible applique during or after my quilting process, and all of these things benefit from heat-setting.  If Poly-Fil is going to give up its fluffy ghost the moment it gets pressed (the batting flattens after less than ten seconds of ironing), then it is never going to be the batting for me.

Squashed, flattened bits.  So annoying!

I'm very glad I decided to only purchase the crib size batting - I'm sure that I can come up with some simple pieced projects to use the remaining batting for, but for any real art quilting I am going right back to my Warm & Natural!
If anyone has suggestions about which batting they prefer to use and which projects it excels at, please leave them in the comments - I would love to hear your ideas!