Something New, Wish Me Luck!

As you may have read in my newsletter, I'm attempting to make a quilted stained glass window. I was able to get a pattern from a book called Tiffany Windows, Stained Glass Pattern Book by Connie Eaton. I bought it on Amazon Kindle.Dover Publications, 1957. After I chose the design I want to make, I resized it on the Rapid Resizer app and printed it out on my printer. It turned out to be three printer sheets wide and nearly four high.

The original TIffany window is 'Magnolias and Irises'.

I used the large printout to make pattern pieces of the hills, trees, and magnolias.

There are a lot of magnolias! So I numbered the shapes on the pattern and on the tracing.

After deliberating a LOT (like I usually do) to choose fabrics, I ironed Misty Fuse to the back of the fabrics. I began with a large fabric piece for the sky. Then I used the pattern pieces to cut fabrics to size and began pinning them on the sky background. Even at this point I was changing my mind about the fabrics I chose. I do that a lot!!

I want the fabrics to have a glowing effect like a colored stained glass window does. To get a glowing effect I need to have bright colors among dull ones.

I chose lower large fabric as a reflection of the sky, knowing that the very dark bottom areas will be covered by soil and plants. The dark area could provide depth behind those elements.

In the meantime, I created some sheets of fused silk thinking that the shine of the silk would work for shiny glass. And then I used the patterns to add leading lines around the clumps of flowers. The leading lines is a technique I learned from a class with Sue Bleiweiss.

Unfortunately, after making about two dozen blossoms with leading lines, I found out that the fusible didn't stick well to the fused silk. I thought of using it anyway and sewing the black edges in place but the black fabric moved too much.

That's as far as I've gotten, but stay tuned for the next post where I plan to have lots of new progress to show you.

If you want to know about silk fusion, check out Treenway Silks . They also have how-to videos on YouTube. It's fun to make silk 'paper'.