Gold Fever

This was the piece that started it all off. I wanted to see if I could make some of my designs circular. And I wanted to try something out on metallic fabric. I was thrilled with the results. It looks like beaten gold, and reminds me of Viking treasures. I knew that I wanted to do a second Fracture piece with this. Trials and design done, I  entered this piece for the Festival of Quilts confident that 3 months was ample time to make the quilt.

Then came the awful discovery that I could not get any more of this cotton backed metallic foil fabric. The shop I had bought it from had run out - were not going to get any more - couldn't remember the rep who had sold it to them. I started ringing around all the big stores in the UK and trawling the Internet but with no success.

My second try was with a gold lame fabric. It looks good, but it doesn't have that appearance of a metal sheet because it is a woven fabric. It also frays like mad and would be hopeless for fine piecing. It quilts OK in that it takes the stitching with no problem, but the non stitched areas bag and the piece looses all definition - I'm not sure how clear that is in the photo. It was also a very pale gold, almost a white gold which wasn't really the look I was after. I have a large piece of this quilted - about 36" square. It is no good for the FOQ piece, but look out for it somewhere else. Not sure what to do with it, but I don't want to waste all that work! Another, more personal problem that I had with it was its very high reflectivity. Like many migraine sufferers I find that bright lights can trigger a migraine and after about the 3rd one whilst working on this piece, I realised it was the fabric!! I tried quilting with sun glasses on, which certainly helped with the reflection, but alas I could not see where I was going. Slight problem!

The next piece was a metallic foil backed with an open net. It doesn't fray, but it is very flimsy and would be difficult to piece with cotton. One of the things I have discovered with this post is how difficult it is to accurately photo gold. Here, the colour looks fine - as it did on the net when i bought it. In reality it is very brassy. It looks bad imitation gold - cheap and tacky. I am not sure if you can see it here, but also the texture of the backing net shows through.

Version 4 was a fold faux leather. It cuts well and stitches well - no problem at all but you do need a leather needle. It is a very thick fabric. I'm not sure it would piece well with cotton and it certainly wouldn't do my favourite sliver piecing. Although it quilts well it doesn't look a bit like metal and colour wise it looks more like champagne than gold. So,on to version 5.

This is a supposedly gold spandex. It does look gold in the photo - which is why I bought it, but again colour on the net is deceptive. This is quite a dark metallic brown and looks quite dark and dull combined with black. It is also very stretchy so a bit tricky to quilt.

What the next fabric arrived through the post I though I had struck gold! the colour was perfect. It is also on a net backing, but not quite so loose weave as the first one. The problems began when I tried to quilt in the circle guide lines.

One problem with metallics is that none of the usual markers work. You have to mark and quilt from the back. As the only thing I mark is the circles, I had then preceded to the right side to quilt all the pattern in the previous versions. However, this gold fabric just stuck to the machine table - even with a Teflon slider. I tried lifting it and feeding it through. Not a technique that works folks, don't try it. Next I pin pricked the outlines. This was better, but very difficult to follow accurately. And with metallics, all pin pricks show - so no taking out. Whatever you do is what you live with.

And the next problem was even more serious.

The stitching has a tendency to split the fabric and the batting peeks through.

Well, I suppose you could say going for gold isn't easy!! Never have I had to do so many version of a quilt!

thanks for dropping by...

Hilary Florence

Please find below a list of linky parties. I may not link with all of the every week, but with some of them most weeks. Please go and have a look at some of the other wonderful quilts and quilters there.

Anything goes Mondays @ http://marelize-ries.blogspot.co.uk/

Linky Tuesday at Free motion by  the river­­­­ @ http://www.conniekresin.com/

Fabric Tuesday @http://quiltstory.blogspot.co.uk/    

Sew cute Tuesday @ http://www.blossomheartquilts.com/ 

Let’s Bee Social @ http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.co.uk

WIP Wednesday at freshly pieced   @   http://www.freshlypieced.com/

WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays  @ http://www.estheraliu.blogspot.co.uk/  

WIP Wednesday at TN + TN  @ http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca

I Quilt Thursdays @ http://prettybobbins.com/

Really Random Thursdays @ http://www.liveacolorfullife.net/

Needle and Thread Thursday @ http://myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.co.uk/

Off the wall Fridays @ http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.co.uk/

Fabric Frenzy Friday @ http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.co.uk

Friday linky party @ http://www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.co.uk/

Lizzie Lenard @ http://lizzielenard-vintagesewing.blogspot.co.uk/