Try It Out Thursday : That Piece of Lutradur...

...really did change my perception of that quilt.  If you've been following the saga, you will know that so far, I've taken a piece of lutradur which I'd printed on using acrylic paints, and added it to an existing quilt.  After stitching it onto the quilt, I coloured it, and then... dear reader... I burned it.  But to my surprise, I didn't do anything like the amount of burning I had intended.  The original thought was to get rid of almost all of the lutradur, leaving only the paint marks and the quilt below.  In fact, I liked what was happening on the surface so much, that I kept a significant part of the lutradur.  Only problem was, that the bottom half of the quilt looked stronger than the top.  So, dear reader, I bit the bullet and... cut it up.  I ended up with this:

Much smaller...and the focus is now on the focal point, where it should be, and not wandering down the quilt wondering why those quilted lines are there...  I did have a small problem, though.  Where the paper stuck to the lutradur/paint, was one or two little white splodges.  So...I picked off what I could, and then coloured the remainder with some acquarel watercolour crayons. 

This final shot shows you the melted lutradur.  It's interesting to see the contrast between the stitched cloth (cotton, stitched with heavy thread in the bobbin) and the melted lutradur; some of the stitch is hidden underneath the lutradur, other parts are exposed, making interesting shapes. 

When I teach a workshop, I always ask the same question at the end of it; what have you learned?  I wonder what you have learned by following this exercise?  Please, if you would, share the first answer that comes into your head in the comments below.  Often, by sharing learning with other people, we recognise things about the whole experience, that we don't get by keeping our thoughts to ourselves.

I do hope you found this exercise interesting. I'm quite pleased with the new, smaller piece, though I do feel there is possibly still more to be done with it.  I'll live with it a while, and see.  What do you think?  Is there something you think should be added?  I can't promise to follow your suggestions, but I will think about them, and tell you what I think in return....  I'd really like this to be an interactive community; it's difficult to talk into a vacuum.  If you don't tell me what you want, then you might not get it...and that would be a shame.

Wondering Wednesday... Whatever Happened...

to Monday's post, I hear you ask.  Well, it's here.  Apparently, my knack for scheduling (or lack of it) means that it shows up in February... in other words, before I started the blog.  Huh? 

I'd like to thank the seven people who have given me feedback on the blog.  I hope many more of you will follow suit.  I genuinely want this blog to be helpful... if you don't tell me how I'm doing, I can't improve.  You can always email me with questions for Wondering Wednesday here.  Similarly, if you have images you would like to see featured on Photo Friday, send them to that address.  You don't have to be a well known quilter, or a teacher, or a writer to do this... just let us see the stuff you've made with these amazing fabrics. 

This is beginning to sound like a begging letter.... and for that, I'm sorry.  But it's hard to give the customers what they need, if they won't talk to you... so how about it?