A month or so ago, I posted about finishing up a Thread-painting that one of my friends had started…..
It was stabilized with a super-heavy backing which made the stitching easy to do.
Unfortunately, it meant that the piece could not be quilted so I ended up just turning it into a piece of wall art.
NOW I am planning to make a similar one for myself……
….but I can’t figure out what type of stabilizer to use.
I visited my local JoAnn’s and found tons of different types of interfacing!! Completely overwhelmed, I picked four types to bring home and try.
I planned my test pieces so that one section was sewn straight on the backing fabric and one section was on a piece of fabric that was fused down.
Here are my results……
The first was Pellon 931 which is called a” Fusible Midweight”.
Stitching on the fused fabrics worked okay, but there is definite puckering on the other side….
Next was Pellon 987 which is a “White Fusible Fleece”….
. I had great hopes for this version as it would give the piece a bit of texture. Alas, there was TOO much texture……
….but not TOO bad.
Next was Pellon 808…. “Craft-Fuse”…..
This one was the worst for distortion……
Finally, I tried Pellon 80 (Heavyweight Stabilizer). This one is different because you SEW it in rather than fuse it on…….
This provided the least amount of distortion…..
All of these stabilizers worked well on the areas where another fabric had been fused to the backing but this one was the only one that worked equally well with just one layer of fabric.
I think the fact that it isn’t physically attached (fused) gives it room to shift a bit.
The thing that I don’t like about this stabilizer is that it is thick and will definitely turn the piece into an art piece rather than a quilt.
So, that is where I stand right now and I could really use your help…..
What stabilizers do you use??
