Winter Wonderland progress report

I recently got it in my head that I really wanted to learn to do shadow trapunto.  There is a book I want to buy from a blogger I read, but Leah Day also offers a pattern for a "reverse" shadow trapunto technique.  Since I am pretty much a disciple of Leah Day's, I purchased her pattern.  Her blog has been so amazing in teaching me to quilt (and really, more teaching me to be fearless about quilting) that I feel like I should try to buy her things when I can, because she is a professional quilter, and she has to make a living somehow!  I really appreciate all that she offers for free.

This snowflake features pebbling.  This is the only one I did where the center and the outer parts have the same filler, but I really liked how the circles filled the space.  Maybe I should have done spirals on the outside, just to follow the trend of two fillers, but I really love how this one looks.

The shadow trapunto technique is actually REALLY simple.  Honestly- you pretty much just applique the shapes down, except you don't cut them out first, so it is like applique in the hoop, without the hoop.  I'm still not sure why it is necessary to use water soluble thread, as a matching thread would be hidden under the organza.

This snowflake has pebbling in the center, and loopy line in the rest of the spaces.

Anyhow- last week I got the snowflakes (except the center one, and the two I ran out of felt for) all sewn down and cut out  (I started with the paper traced method outlined before, but gave up - because I not only had to go over a different design to perforate each one, it just took forever.  Since these squares were thin, and not yet a quilt sandwich, I ended up tracing the designs with chalk on the square.  I should have done that the first time).  I also got the sandwiches layered, and began outlining the snowflakes- this was the tricky part.  I needed to be close enough to the felt to trap it, but far enough away not to sew over it, exactly by the edge.  I had varying degrees of success. 

Once that was done, I started the fillers.  I quilted a few minutes almost everyday this week (literally a few minutes- I am so tired after work...) and then I had a half day Friday and got them all done. The insides of all the snowflakes are finished.  Then, today, I started the hard part: quilting the gigantic space on the outsides.  I'll post that picture tomorrow, because I actually got one square done. 

This is the loopy line filler.

This post also goes along with the "loopy line" technique that is the current quilt-a-long topic on Leah's blog.  I have used loopy line before (on my math quilt), so I thought this would be a great time to challenge myself to use it on a micro-scale.  It went okay.  It is hard to keep the stitches consistent, but also small enough that the tops of the loops aren't too jagged.  I did like that the line part of the filler allowed me to back out of tight spots easily.  I will likely use this filler to do the outside of another snowflake, although maybe at a slightly looser scale.  It is the tightest of the inner fillers I did.

This is pebbling.

The other one I was especially proud of and had Kevin take pictures of was my pebbling.  I put this on my colorful quilt, and didn't really enjoy doing it.  I think using the Isacord (rather than the connecting threads cotton, which is thicker) made it more enjoyable.  It didn't take as long as I remembered (still time consuming) and I think my circles are more even.   Of course, in macro, they don't look too even at all

I can't wait to make more progress on this quilt!  I have to start school again next week, so that is a pretty huge bummer to my quilting time.  Just two classes left though, and I am a free woman!