Traditionally, trapunto was done after a quilt was finished. The back of the quilt was slashed in the areas that needed stuffing, extra stuffing was added and then the slashes were hand-stitched closed. This seemed destructive and tedious to me and I started thinking about an alternative. I invented my trapunto Rod, a tool which injects the extra stuffing in place between the layers during quilting. The rod is a clear plastic tube with a plunger. A bit of batting is loded in the end, the rod is slipped between the quilt top and batting and directed to the area to be stuffed and injected. Step-by-step illustrations follow.
Before you begin quilting on a project, identify all area that you want to enhance with trapunto. Areas to be stuffed can be devided into two categories--those like leaves, feathers, berries which will have batting added using the trapunto rod and narrow channels such as vines r stems which will be stuffed by cording.
Areas which are to be stuffed with the trapunto rod must be stuffed before you do any stippling. Areas to be corded are done last--after you have finished with the rod and sinished stippling--because it is difficult to quilt next to the cording edge.