There are two main parts to quilting: piecing and quilting. So far I’ve just been piecing my “quilts” (which are really just quilt tops – see my earlier post, “A Quilt by any other Name” ) and not actually doing any quilting on them. For this quilt I’m attempting the trapunto technique, which is kind of like quilting on steroids, where you overstuff some sections of the quilting to ‘pump up’ the 3-D factor. This technique can be combined with piecing but is often done on plain white cloth with a pattern that is stamped onto it. I’ve thought through how to do this with paper, done a number of experiments, and finally decided to do a series of nine prints that I’ll quilt individually then sew together.

After last weeks printing experiments I adjusted things a bit and tried some more printmaking this week. I realized that I needed to make my stencil smaller than the one I was working with last week. I ended up with prints that were about 10” x 10” with the stencil I started out with last week. The other quilts I’ve made have all had squares that were about 8” x 8” so I did a little math and downsized my circular stencil a bit and started printing.

I had been eyeballing things last week but I knew I needed to be more precise with the final prints so I started out with 8” x 8” paper with the center marked. I then numbered the back of each piece of paper and printed a single R&F Iridescent Silver circle in the center of each. I then printed R&F Iridescent Pewter half circles (half on the Rives BFK paper and half on newsprint) on the outer edges of square 1 and printed overlapping circles on squares 1 and 2 and then 1 and 4.

Encaustic monotype, 8″ x 8″

And here is how squares one through four look in process:

Encaustic monotypes, 16″ x 16″

This printing process took a while to come up with and was driven by frustration with not getting the circles/squares to line up right. In other words lots of trial and error (and slight pounding of head against wall).  It’s a bit exacting, but it works.  Another one of those situations where I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out how to do this – but I usually manage to get there eventually…