Art Quilts: Parisian Nine-Patch Miniature

5. Trace the building onto broadcloth, fuse on the roof, fuse or hand appliqué the building to the sky (figure E), using design drawn on heat-sensitive paper stabilizer to place pieces on the sky.

6. Hand appliqué (or soft edge appliqué with invisible thread and sewing machine) distant trees to the sky (figure F).

7. Cut up tracing paper on the poster board, piece by piece. Cut wall, grass, edges of fountain, etc., out of cardboard with tracing paper. Lay the cardboard piece face down on the wrong side of the fabric and cut out with a 1/4-inch seam allowance all around it. Lay the piece on an ironing board and squirt with spray starch. Pull fabric over the edge of the cardboard with a stiletto or other long pointy object, and cook in place with iron (figure G). Pull cardboard out and pin (with glass head pins) the fabric to the heat-sensitive paper stabilizer, in the place indicated by your drawing on the stabilizer. Reassemble the cardboard pieces to re-create the original.

9. Thread machine with very fine invisible thread (.004 diameter). Stitch with the tiniest possible zigzag stitch through all layers (figure I).

10. Trace sailboats, water and fountain onto the tracing paper part of two-sided fusible webbing. Reverse tracing, then fuse to the wrong side of chosen fabrics. Cut out, remove backing paper and fuse in place. Paint the reflections of the boats and fountain on water with fabric paint (figure J).

11. Place the background in an embroidery hoop. Thread the sewing machine with opalescent flat tinsel thread, then with white rayon thread, and free-motion stitch over the water in the fountain to create falling water.

12. Put a double layer of water-soluble stabilizer in a small embroidery hoop. Trace the trees with a marker (figure K). Put heavy thread in the bobbin and sew with a darning foot and free-motion quilt to make the tree and add leaves, either thread leaves (sew with metallic and rayon thread or sew over a heap of thread) or fabric leaves (chop up on rotary cutting board, dribble on, and sew through). Make sure to form a network of all the stitches so they won't fall apart when you wash the stabilizer out.

13. Dissolve the tree in warm/hot water (figure L). Let dry. After you have quilted the quilt, sew trees on top with invisible thread or thread the same color as the tree (figure M).

14. Person - Trace figure onto muslin from original drawing. Shade the skin with pastel chalks and a paintbrush (figure N). Paint hair with fabric paints, appliqué fabric hair or make thread hair. Paint or appliqué clothes (figure O). Hand appliqué the figure to the background. Tip: The easiest people to trace are people that you don't know with their backs to you.

15. Trace and then fuse organdie shadow on.

16. Add borders, quilt and bind.