My IQA Houston Auction Quilt - Part 1

I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to make a quilt for the International Quilt Association's Mini Quilt Auction in Houston again this year.  I decided I wanted to step outside the box and try something different.  I decided to use silk and leather together for my appliques.

I started with this orange silk that I bought last year in Houston and just love.  I realized after working with it that due to it's sheer nature I either had line all the pieces or have minimal overlap so shadowing didn't occur.  I opted for minimal overlap.  That's why the stems don't touch the leaves or the flowers.  The inner green silk is also very sheer.  The stems are dupioni silk which I didn't have this problem with as it's not as transparent.

I then decided to add some leather dots.  It was so nice to cut the dots out of leather and they held their shape really well.  I also added pink ovals at the top of the flowers so I didn't have to worry about shadowing there either.  I used my favorite fusible Steam-a-Seam 2 lite on the leather and it worked like a charm, HOWEVER, I did realize that you need to iron it from the back, not the front.  It takes a long time for the heat to make it through the leather on the front, but not the cotton on the back.

I tried to use Steam-a-Seam 2 lite on the silks as well, but it didn't want to stick.  The silks are saturated with Terial Magic to make them more like cardboard than silk.  It makes them much easier to work with.  I contacted the manufacturer to find out if you had to wash out Terial Magic or if you could leave it in permanently and they assured me that it could stay on the fabric as long as I would like.  With silk?  Forever works for me.

So how did I attach the silk pieces?  Elmer's School glue and a fine tip applicator for the bottle.  It sticks and then you iron it dry and it stays in place.

Then I had fun with my favorite double blanket stitch stitching around all the pieces including the leather dots with a leather needle.  It was so fun!

And here's the final block!  Come back next Wednesday to start talking quilting.

Less than a month until IQA Houston!  I can't wait!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy