I read about Holograph Quilts by Wen Redmond at the Quilting Arts Magazine website while looking for interesting and easy workshop ideas for the Summer Session at the Gallery School of Pottstown, PA.
The photographed image of a railroad tie with pebbles embedded in a crack looks blurry but it’s because the effect is hard to capture in a photo. The trick is printing an image on paper backed organza (a light transparent fabric) and iron on transfer paper, which is then ironed onto heavy cut away stabilizer. The organza is layered over the ironed on image so it’s a double image. Seeing through the organza to the solid layer creates the effect of a holograph! Meaning, the illusion of depth is created. This is way cool!
The steps:
I gathered supplies here you see: the hand dyed batik fabric, the image as a whole and the cut up image. I printed the organza and transfer paper 24 hours earlier, which is recommended for the organza.
Here you see that I’ve sewn the organza image pieces to strips of fabric. Organza is not a fun fabric to work with. It wants to fray and distort. Be very gentle.
At this point I was thinking about some surface design because if I messed up, I still hadn’t attached my borders. I just got 4 new Shiva Sticks for my birthday (from me!) from Dharma Trading– I ordered the organza from them too. So, I’ve always wanted to get these oil sticks and they are a dream!!! So soft and vivid and very metallic. I just made little circles and blended them with a stiff brush and heat set with a press cloth and hot iron.
Now, I deviated from Wen’s instructions in the article. Instead I ironed the transfer onto one large sheet of heavy cut away stabilizer after marking the photo placement very carefully and ironed on the images. When I placed the organza images over the solid image….. MAGIC! Wow, it really works!
So after pinning in place all over, I started some free style quilting. Because I used a large piece of heavy stabilizer, I don’t need a hoop! Cool, huh?
Here, you see some quilting motifs going on. The circles are gold metallic thread. You can barely see the branches I stitched in brown. I’m thinking I might use the blender iridescent Shiva stick to highlight… ? Dunno. Ideas welcome!
I was thinking I might add some natural elements like some twigs and outside findings. The image is a very close up of a railroad tie with pebbles embedded in the crack.
Thanks for reading!
b.z.threads 