Early this week I finished the little art quilt I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and working on sporadically for the last few months.  This was taken from a photo I took of traps (lobster?  crab?)  on P.E.I.  when we visited a few years ago.

I used a photo-transfer process from an article by Liz Kettle in Quilting Arts, Issue 48.  It involved making an ink jet print on water-soluble stabilizer (Paper Solvy by Sulky) and transfering it to the fabric (Kona Snow) using matte gel medium.

The process was messy and didn’t go flawlessly, as you can see in this picture.  It is forgiving, though, and I was able to straighten out and adhere most of the image, and to wash off the remaining paper.  Next time, I would apply medium to the fabric only, not the print.  For the bits that were missing, I worked back into it with fabric markers.  I have a print-making background, and was excited about the transfer process. I did find myself wondering what was the advantage of this method over simply printing on ink jet fabric.  Do you have any thoughts on this?

I used a number of variegated and solid threads to add dimension and definition, especially to the traps, which had gotten a little muddy.  I liked the random effect of the variegated So Fine from Superior.  I did not like that when I shaded in the side of a white float, it became flat from the close stitching.  I have a lot to learn about working with thread.

I’m very happy with the fabrics I found to use for the borders and the way I quilted them.  You can see it better from the back.

I think this was pretty successful.  It has some personal meaning to me, so I may keep it and make another version to sell.  We’ll see.

I’m linking up to WIPs Be Gone at A Quilting Reader’s Garden.