Quilting with Rayon / Plus Quilt

Hi friends,

Today I am sharing a project using a material I never thought I would use in a quilt....RAYON!!!

I was pretty confident prior to receiving the materials from Art Gallery, thinking I would keep it simple and it shouldn't be that hard.

For my project I chose this beautiful black and white striped rayon fabric covered with a floral pattern called: Paparounes Spices by Katarina Roccella, paired with a Pure Elements solid in Caviarwhich has a silky feel as well.

Once the fabric arrived, holy moly....it was pretty silky and I felt a little less confident. Have no fear my friends - once I got started, it was FAR easier than I imagined, and the end result is a dreamy soft quilt that is perfectly lightweight and cozy.

I have three tips for those of you who are wanting to dive into using this substrate in your quilt projects.

1. Keep it simple: I chose to stick with basic shapes (squares and rectangles) for my project. The fabric moves around very easily when you are cutting so going with a triangle or a curve might distort too much. I also made larger cuts, which may or may not have made it easier. Lay your fabric on your cutting mat and gently position before cutting and you should have no issues.

2. Pins pins pins: you will want to make sure to have lots of straight pins, I usually just sew my fabric squares together without pinning, but you will want to make sure to keep your rayon situated when sewing pieces together since it is very thin and a bit shifty.

3. Basting Spray: I am a pin baster, but it is necessary t0 at least spray baste the area where your rayon fabric is. This ensures that it stays in place when quilting and doesn't drag at all distorting your shape.

I can promise if you take your time, it's really not as scary as you might think, I cut out and pieced this entire 60" x 60" quilt top while watching The Truman show movie - so just around 1 hour and 42 minutes. So even with being super careful with the rayon fabric it still made for a fun and fast project.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy sewing friends, 

Nicole