Ricky begins the show by teaching a technique for creating interest and a bit of shimmer to a leaf design on a small quilt. He also shows a tip for creating a nice sharp point with yarn when machine couching.
Then Alex and Ricky greet Heidi Proffetty. Heidi originally began as a traditional quilter but gradually moved to art quilting. Having outgrown her basement, they added a full fledged studio space to her house where she now works on her mosaic quilts and photography. Early on she worked with a variety of hand cut shapes to create a design, but has since honed that method to now using a digital cutter to cut equal size squares at the touch of a button. This new method allows her to blend her own photographic images into an art quilt piece. Heidi also discusses the SAQA Mentorship program.
Then on to Digital Cutting 101. Heidi walks us through the ins and outs of the digital cutter and how it differs from the traditional die cutter system. From there, she shares her technique for using a photograph that then becomes a mosaic design.
In the After Set, Heidi talks about beekeeping and how the family has taken on the hobby as a group activity.
Ricky shares a technique for creating interest and adding a bit of shimmer to a leaf design on a small quilt. He discusses types of sheer sizes, color, and the effect, such as shimmer and glitter, it has on the design. Using an inexpensive yarn, he then outlines the leaf edge with a couching, or zigzag, stitch to hold it in place.
Heidi Proffetty has always been fascinated with mosaics and also loves photography. Early on she worked with a variety of hand cut shapes to create a design, but has since honed that method to now using a digital cutter to cut equal size squares at the touch of a button. This new method allows her to blend her own photographic images into an art quilt piece.
Heidi walks us through the ins and outs of the digital cutter and how it differs from the traditional die cutter system. She also covers how to prep the fabric and tips for how to place the fabric.
Heidi shares her technique for using a photograph that then becomes a mosaic design. Steps covered include posterizing the design, building the drawing, adding fabric selections, selecting and organizing your fabrics in an inventory system, and then assembling the jigsaw puzzle created from cutting your fabrics.
Heidi chats about her new 14’ x 24’ studio that is a dedicated work space and her family's new hobby of beekeeping as a group activity.
With so much information about the ins and outs of a digital cutter, we were only able to scratch the surface of the machine's ability. Heidi has a very nice article (on her blog) about digital cutters that you might want to check out. And yes, you can cut out fusible backed fabric using the cutter! Yay! No more hours of hand cutting a custom design.
Lilo
AMiller, I believe the fabric must already have the fusible adhered to it before it gets cut.
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