Cross cut circles

This first picture is the quilt top I plan to take with me the second week in November when I go to my work conference. It is about 28 by 32 inches at the moment.
There will be over 2000 people at the conference (It is on addictions. Click here to find out about it.) and I am stationed at the Information table. I will be greeting and helping people in between sessions for three and a half days. I find having a bit of hand stitching to work on during the down moments is a huge stress reliever. In my last post I was trying to decided between two fabrics for the border. I decided to use the fabric with a more modern twist. My daughter Ruth said either would work, but the one on the right with the flowers was traditional and the one on the left had more pizazz. So I decided to try something new! I bought lots of yellow silk ribbon and threads to embellish the green cross lines with yellow dots.



I wanted to try the paper lamination technique from this book by Claire Benn, Leslie Morgan and Jane Dunnewold called "Paper and Metal Lamination". Claire and Leslie demonstrated it at the class I took in October at the Crow Barn. The link will take you to Jane's website, click on "Store" and you can purchase the book from her.



I made a stencil template out of freezer paper that I ironed onto the polyester. The paper underneath the polyester is photographs I had taken printed out on plain copy paper. Some pictures were from our honeymoon trip to Berlin in 2006 and some from the trip to Orlando described in an earlier post. I painted Gel Matte Medium in the stencil and am waiting for it to dry-probably overnight.




Tomorrow I can peal the freezer paper stencil off and with wash the paper backing off with water. It takes a lot of scrubbing to get the paper off. However, the color from the paper backing should stay where the matte medium was applied. I will cut these circles out and baste them onto the front of the quilt above. My plan is to stitch the circles on the original quilt closely and then where there is the polyester overlay on the circles to burn off the polyester between the stitched rows with this nifty tool.





This nifty tool will burn polyester without burning the fabric underneath.












Here is a sample I tried it on. The picture isn't very clear but you can get the idea. The fabric underneath will show through nicely. AND I'll get more texture on the front of the quilt.














I made a larger quilt similar to this several years ago, but without the polyester overlay. My brother Jeff and his wife Susan have the original quilt hanging in their home. You can check out my website here to see it. It is on the art quilt page.
I am trying to visually express how life or circumstance that are intersected by the cross become something new. There is mystery in the cutting and re-creation. How does it happen? Where is the cut going to be made? How will the transformed fit in with it's surroundings? Will it fit in?

I believe there is hope to be found in the change. I believe there is beauty in the transformation.
Next Sunday I hope to post the basted work that I will take with me to stitch while I am away. Stay tuned and you get to see the whole process from start to finish!