Lutradur Techniques for Quilt Frames

Each of us has different reasons why we stay with quilting. And my reason is because there are so many new and unusual and different things that we can do and still be quilting and still be stitching. And I'm always looking for those things. It keeps my interest. Lutradur's just one of my passions.

There's so many things that you can do with it. And this piece has made using Lutradur. In fact, it hasn't got any fabric on it, except on the back. What you're seeing here that is gray with the silver in it is dye-painted batting. So it's batting that was painted.

And then this is Lutradur. Lutradur starts white. And it was painted also. It was machine stitched to the surface of the batting and then portions of it were cut away using a heat tool. A soldering tool, in fact.

And then I added some embellishments. One of the things that I really like about this piece is juxtaposition. I just think that's such a. It's a sexy and provocative thing that we use in art. Here we've got the same batting but it's got a stipple stitched in it with a black thread.

And here there's no stipple with the black thread. And they look so different from each other. They have a different texture. Here we can really see the silver and here it's kind of lost because of the stitching. And then we have this kind of slick, weird texture of the Lutradur against this weird texture of the painted batting.

And they're just playing off of each other so well. The addition of the gold vintage flowers, as well as beads that are shiny put in as centers just makes the whole little piece really fun and interesting. Lutradur comes white and to paint it, you need to use an acrylic paint. The acrylic paint that I use the most is Dye-Na-Flow. It's a paint that acts like a dye.

It's by Jacquard. And it's very easy to use. You simply paint it on there and let it dry. It kind of soaks through and it doesn't take a lot of paint. You can add some metallic touches using Jacquard's Lumiere paint too and add some more interest.

But it's just really simple to make and you can make it in a bevy of colors. The reason we like it is because it responds to heat. And anything that responds to heat adds this wonderful interest to things because we get to melt and then we get to manipulate a product. This is basically what this looked like before I cut it away. Only on this piece, I added a layer of fabric underneath the Lutradur.

So instead of being batting, then Lutradur, it's batting, then fabric, then Lutradur. I draw the design on and I almost never draw the design on. But the reason I draw it on is so that I can get a feel for the space that it's occupying and how I'm going to frame and what I'm gonna put in the center. I've done it just freeform without drawing and the results aren't ever really good. The important thing is that we stitch in a particular place in reference to the drawn line.

If we're gonna draw, we want to stitch on the inside of that line. And then we're gonna use the drawn line to cut. Here we're on the inside of the line, and we'll use that drawn line to cut. So as I cut away this, it's gonna reveal the pink fabric underneath. And what's gonna be left behind is this frame.

And these motifs here. Now, silk is not highly combustible. So it shouldn't burn with the soldering tool, but it might. And if it does, great. It's gonna add another texture.

When it burns, it turns a really beautiful brown color. So what I'm going to be using is a soldering tool and a soldering tool gets very, very hot, about 790 degrees. So you want to make sure that you keep your hands far away from it. The reason I use this rather than scissors is that A, I've got lots of tight, little curves, but B, it kind of seals the end in really well and it's easier than scissors. So we're gonna use it to basically cut away our Lutradur.

And I'm gonna follow my drawn line. And you can see here that it just cuts right through. If I hold my tool down too long, I'm gonna burn right through that silk I think. So I'm gonna try to keep it moving pretty quickly. I can then lift this up and it reveals my silk below.

Now, make sure that you keep your hand away from the tip of your soldering tool. Don't burn yourself. It'll be really, really painful if you do. So I'm just cutting out along that drawn line, which is also my stitch line. And we're getting to see all of our wonderful pink.

I can come in here and clean it up if I don't like the way I cut something. You wanna use cotton thread when you do this, not polyester. Because if you accidentally hit the thread line with cotton, it's not going to burn through. Whereas with the polyester, it would burn right straight through. You could use rayon if you want to.

It won't burn either. I mean, it would eventually, but not quickly. Not while you're doing this technique. So look how fabulous that frame is starting to look. Now, as I come down here, what I'm going to be leaving is this diamond shape and the circles here and this little question mark sort of thing here.

So I'm gonna pull down here and cut away at the edge. What I'm really digging is this kind of brown, burning thing that it's doing along the edge of the silk. I think it's gonna add another element of interest. So look how cool those circles look there. It's kind of like machine applique without appliqueing.

Wonderful. So I'm basically just revealing this wonderful design behind. Such a fun and easy way to add a border to your quilt. In fact, you could have a pieced quilt that you didn't think it was all that interesting. And before you quilted it, lay a whole piece of dye-painted Lutradur on top and just put a frame of the Lutradur around it to frame off that quilt.

Add some visual interest. You could add some appliques to the center of it too, as you go. Just another way to really add some new funkiness, modern technique to your artwork. You should give it a try. I think you'll like it.

It's pretty cool.