Ah Ha moment

I have been working on a prairie piece. It is three large panels that are about 26” x 32” each. I have made smaller versions of this quilt and wanted to change the quilting designs I used on them. On these larger pieces I wanted a more controlled look to the quilted grass.

Small quilt “Blowing in the Wind” 12” x 8”

While I was working on outline quilting all of the grass pieces in the first panel of the three pieces, I had an ah ha moment. I decided to create”templates” of grass fabric that I could quilt around but would be removed when I was done quilting. I knew I didn’t want to use just a drawn line and I knew I didn’t want to use paper as the paper won’t curve the way I wanted it to. It dawned on me I could just spray a piece of fabric with the product 505 spray adhesive and then cut out my 1/2” strip of “grass” template on the bias and position it on my quilt top where I wanted it, then outline quilt around it. Once I quilted around it I removed the bias cut strip and repositioned it somewhere else on the quilt top. It worked like a charm. I can reuse the pieces over and over again because the spray sticks repeatedly to different areas. It doesn’t leave a residue behind and it is easy to use.

This is the first panel quilted.

I’m now working on the second panel, the pins are only there to keep the fabric from shifting.

I think you can use this idea even with a larger template design. I’m going to try it out and let you know.

I dye alittle every day.

This is what I do every morning before I start my dye. I dye between 9-30 yards of fabric, for my workshops and patterns and sales.

This is how it looks each morning as I work.

That is rainbow gradation on the racks.