Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Bobbin Work: On the Loose-Dealing with Distortion
If you've been following this thread, we've covered almost all the information about doing bobbin work.
As you've seen, the possibilities are endless entertainment. Bobbin work is easy, fast and fun.
I hope you got out your machine, played around, looked through your thread box and started to explore this great new world.
But there is a dark side. Any time you've put that much thread through a fabric surface you can be looking at some serious distortion. It depends largely on how much you fill in. If you're just outlining things or stippling, it's probably not a problem. If, like myself, you got a bit crazed and did a four foot cricket, it's probably ruffling up like a child's party dress.
I don't believe in giving recipes for cakes that don't rise. I might forget to tell someone an important ingredient but I'd never deliberately leave it out. I hate games where you can't win, and I won't ever do it to a student, a friend, a stranger or stone cold adversary.
So here's the extra ingredient. If we're working on a dense piece of embroidery, we can always cure it by cutting.
Any larger image (over 3 square inches) I'll do on a separate sandwich of felt, fabric, and stabilizer and treat it like an appliqué. When I'm done, I cut right on the edge ( don't cut through the stitching) and zigzag free motion around the edges with black thread to make it all pop. We cut of the distortion and life is so much better. What problem?
You'll find the information for preparing your felt and fabric sandwich on a previous blog Fabulous Felt: Unthinking Interfacing.
Your sandwich, top to bottom is
Surface fabric
Steam-A-Seam 2
Polyester felt
Totally Stable
Steam iron it well so that your Steam-A-Seam 2 is melted, sticking things in place and won't gum your needle.
My hoop is Sharon Shamber's Halo Hoop.You'll find more information on it in a previous post Hoop-Dee Do.
Wrapping it up:
Really dense bobbin work may ruffle and distort your surface. Do it on a separate stabilizer sandwich and cut the appliqué out. Use the free motion zigzag stitch to apply it to your quilt.
Labels:
What problem?
|
9
comments
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Dragonfly
My Blog List
-
-
Getting Together12 years ago
-
Getting Together12 years ago
Facebook Badge
My Blog List
-
My N Wall3 days ago
-
FLOATING LOVE CAT1 week ago
-
-
Her Name is Navona8 months ago
-
-
2021 Calendar3 years ago
-
A Change is Coming….3 years ago
-
Finding My Joy thanks to Louise Fletcher.4 years ago
-
I've moved!5 years ago
-
-
This just came in6 years ago
-
Have you found our New Home Yet?6 years ago
-
-
Weekly Art Project7 years ago
-
The San Salvador Sails By ...7 years ago
-
-
Construction Zone 1019 years ago
-
What a summer....so far9 years ago
-
Revealing BSBP 8....9 years ago
-
So this is Week 7?10 years ago
-
The last cloth doll making cruise11 years ago
-
-
Fall journey11 years ago
-
I've Moved...My blog That Is!11 years ago
-
This Blog has Moved....11 years ago
-
QUILTVERSE HAS BEEN REVIEWED!11 years ago
-
-
-