Back to the Challenge

The bobbin stitching is finished and all the threads have been pulled to the back and tied so now I need to get rid of the excess stabilizer on the back.  Remember I chose to use a water soluble stabilizer but I didn’t want to remove it all behind the flowers, stems, leaves and basket handle where I did the bobbin stitching.  I want that little extra stabilizer left inside the quilt to help hold the stitching and to add a little more bulk to the back of the stitched areas.Tools I used for the job were a flat artists brush, a cup of water, seam ripper and tweezers.  I painted water around the outside of each flower, leaf, etc.  I pressed my finger down on the flower petal, etc. to keep it from from getting torn loose. I then used the tweezers and seam ripper to separate the background waste and remove it.  Sometimes I would scratch along the line with the point of the seam ripper to get in tight places.  You could use any pointy tool where I used the seam ripper to help define the outside of the shapes.   This technique worked like a charm!

 

Here is the back with all the excess stabilizer removed.  It really didn’t take all that long to remove then I let it dry so the remaining stabilizer would not crumble or get removed with handling.Next up is squaring up the panel and adding borders.  So far this has been a fun project to work on and will use these techniques again.

Until Later,
Lynn