What's in a Quilt - The Green Man - Part 9: Trapunto

There are a few blocks on the Green Man quilt that have added stuffing, today let's look at Trapunto, an Italian way to add extra texture.

Basically, you need the top fabric, a sheet of batting (high or low loft), small balls of extra batting, and a sheet of thin backing fabric, e.g. gauze:

Sandwich the quilt in the usual way.

Quilt along the desired quilting line -  I made a leaf.

Now, out come the scissors! Cut a slit in the backing fabric, and with the help of a pair of tweezers and a cocktail stick stuff the leaf with extra batting.

When you are satisfied with the height of the stuffing, stitch the slit together. Pure surgery!

You can see how puffy the leaf has become.

Finally, it is time for the real backing fabric. Baste it to the quilt sandwich and start quilting the non-stuffed areas.

Here I have done echo quilting, but crosshatch or any other type is ok of course. The more you quilt, the higher the stuffed areas rise up. 

The leaves of the Green Man are densely packed with batting and there is dense quilting around him, as you can see.

I have also added a bit of interesting information for you:

Shannon Brinkley talks about the background of Trapunto quilting. Have a look at the beautiful Tristan and Isolde quilt. Shannon also shows examples of Trapunto made by machine. 

The second piece of information is this YouTube video where the quilter is simply poking a hole in the back and pushing in the batting, no need for suture!: