#44 Stained Glass Iris

#44: Stained Glass Iris
Finished: 11/4/12
Techniques: Stained Glass Effect, Satin Stitch, Machine Stitches, Appliqué, Bias Binding, Oval, Batiks
Size: 12" x 15"

A Stained Glass effect mini-quilt has been on my list of projects for a while now, so it was time to give it a try. Many years ago, I took a class and learned how to create stained glass designs. It was fun, but I don't think my sense of color or design was as developed as it is today. But I have seen quilts done in a stained glass style and thought they looked pretty good.

Batiks, hand-dyed, and mottled fabrics work very well, as they emulate the subtle differences and imperfections in stained glass. Originally, I was going to use bias binding tape to simulate the lead lines holding the pieces of "glass" together. I was going to make the bias tape myself, but found it too difficult to get the narrow size I needed for the mini-quilt. So I figured a good satin stitch would work just as well.

I created the design for this iris, chose the fabrics, starched them heavily, let them dry and ironed them flat. When they're starched like that, cutting with a rotary cutter is pretty easy. I could cut the pieces from my design without regard to seam allowances, since this was basically an appliqué process. I laid them onto the sky blue fabric and used a glue stick to keep them in place.

Before actually starting the satin stitching, I used my failed narrow bias binding to lay out where I wanted the lead lines. Thinking back to the stained glass class, I knew what curves and intersections would work with glass, so I tried several permutations until I found one that was pleasing to the eye (although I think I could have done better with a few more tries). I then marked the lines with a marker that disappears when ironed, and working with batting and a heavy stabilizer, proceeded with the satin stitching.

Quilting was simple. I used a straight stitch for the sky and some machine stitches for the grassy areas. But since I had already done the satin stitching, I had to "jump" over places in the sky part of the quilt. I have to remember that stopping and starting quilting stitches in the middle of a quilt doesn't work very well, unless you leave long enough tails to tie them off in the back. I also thought about adding stitches to the iris itself, but then thought it would detract from the stained glass effect. In hindsight, I don't think I should have used the machine stitches in the grassy area either; some straight stitching probably would have sufficed. Oh well.

I had also intended on making this a rectangular piece, just as all my other mini-quilts have been. But something about the stained glass design just cried out for an oval shape. But how could I make a perfect oval? I knew that eye-balling it wasn't going to work. So I used the poster function of Microsoft Publisher and inserted an oval shape with specified dimensions, printed it off and cut out the inside of the oval. I was left with a template to frame the mini-quilt, upon which I traced the cutting line. Then I cut the black fabric on the bias to make the binding. It wrapped around the piece very nicely.

I do like the way this one turned out.