"I Do" Shoe - Making the Block

One pair of shoes had to be displayed in the box. Isn't there always a customer who helps herself and doesn't put them back? Also, I felt this large quilt (70"x70") required a visually disruptive element.
This pair of shoes began as a single shoe just like all the others. It was cut apart to look like a pair snuggled in tissue (actually china silk). The shoe fabric is an old machine-made lace dresser scarf ... making perfect footwear for a bride.
Each block began with the same background and "shelf" fabrics. They and the shoebox were placed in the same positions within each block. I used glue stick as well as temporary spray adhesive to keep them in place. Roving was thinly spead on the shelf to ceate a darker forground.In the finished quilt each shoe is showcased in its own lighted display cube. Oil stick pastels were used to give the initial effect of colored light on the background fabric. The shoe and "tissue" were adhered in place with temporary spray adhesive. A piece of tulle colored the same as the "light" for the cube was adhered with the temporary spray adhesive over the whole block. The shoe and box top are trapunto. A thin batting was placed under that area on the wrong side of the block. I then machine quilted around and within the shoe as well as the lines of the box top. The excess batting outside of the shoe and top of the box was trimmed away.
A heavier cotton batting and backing were layered with the trupunto quilted top. The background, foreground, box and outline of the shoe and lable were free-motion machine quilted.
More pastels were blended and rubbed into the background through the tulle. After each application, the pastels get set with heat. There were many applications ... even after all the blocks were sewn together ... a lot of rubbing and ironing with the tiny triangle iron right on the design wall. The rubbing cloths end up with interesting marks and areas of color. Those will be heat set for future projects.
The block is trimmed to size. Soon I'll post about the construction of the whole quilt.

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