As promised, today I’m learning a method of hand appliqué preparation that’s new to me. Holly Mabutas of Eat Cake Graphics gave me her pattern insert with instructions for what she calls “glue stick turned edge appliqué” and I’m trying it out! What intrigues me about this method is that the margin of the fabric is glued back on itself. I’ve tried the other kind of glue-stick appliqué, where the margin is turned and glued over freezer paper, then after stitching you soak the block, slit the back, and get the freezer paper out. That method never ‘stuck’ with me, no pun intended. Now I’m going to try it this way, where the freezer paper is on the front of the fabric.

The first thing I did was to go out and get a brand-new glue stick. I happened to know that the ones I had were a mite dried out — moral of the story, don’t buy them too far in advance, or try keeping them in the fridge as a friend of mine told me.

As it happens, we’re having a heat wave in Santa Cruz. There are just a few days a year when we roast… yesterday it was 102º and I was sweating just sitting upstairs in my studio. So today I gathered up everything that I needed and put up my handy-dandy little table from Costco downstairs in the living room to work in cooler conditions.

bunny1.jpgFreezer-paper templates traced and cut out.

I used the bunny block from my Spin in the Garden pattern.

I had to run upstairs to iron the templates onto the right sides of the fabrics. I used a piece of cardboard underneath, which helps create a better bond.

The next step is to trim the motifs, leaving a scant ¼” turn-under margin. Here are the pieces, trimmed and clipped. There’s a dashed line on areas that are going to be overlapped by another piece.

bunny3.jpg

bunny4.jpgGluing the margin back onto itself on the wrong side. Holly says to use an awl… I didn’t have one so I used a stylus with a tiny, sharp tip. The moist sponge is for cleaning off the glue stick when it gets thready. I’m working on top of an plastic sheet protector.

bunny5.jpgHere are all the pieces glued and with templates removed.

I wasn’t a whiz at the previously unused fine motor skills required to turn the margin with the implement, but I’m thinking I can smooth things out as I stitch. And, as Holly says, “Don’t be too hard on yourself if things aren’t perfect the first time or even the second. With a little patience and practice you’ll do just fine. :)”

bunny6.jpgAgain using the sheet protector, I’m positioning the pieces to join them together into units. No background fabric involved at this point! Holly advises using little dots of Roxanne’s basting glue for this step. I didn’t have any so I hauled out some really ancient stuff called Border Patrol. Turns out this was a misstep on my part, and I’ll tell you why later. Anyway, I used it on the edges of the tail and ears that were going under the body piece, and glued the bunny together.

bunny7.jpgHere’s a whole bunny, separate unto itself, edges turned and ready to hop onto different background fabrics until it finds its favorite one.

bunny8.jpgHere I’ve positioned all of the elements on the background fabric and have used the liquid glue to secure them in place. Still hoping I can work out those pokies.

bunny9.jpgAll stitched… and it worked! I was able to manipulate out the little bumps. For the more serious ones, I dipped a cotton swab in water and soaked the edge of the motif. The glue released immediately and I was then able to smooth out the curve with my needle.

bunny10.jpgOkay so here’s why the liquid basting glue I used was not a good choice. Turns out, unlike Roxanne’s, it’s a permanent glue, and I used it in some injudicious places. See the little spot on the bunny’s paw? It’s confusing, but when you look at glue labels, you want it to say “water soluble” or “washes out.” “Washable” means it doesn’t wash out!

Anyway, aside from that little “learning experience,” I’d say this is the best method of turned-edge glue stick appliqué I’ve tried. For one thing, you don’t need a reversed pattern… what you see is what you get. Plus, you don’t have any freezer paper to remove once you’ve finished stitching. Holly appliqués these by hand, and so did I. If the templates were on the inside you’d have a crinkly, crunchy time of it, but here, where they’re gone already, it was a pleasant stitching experience. And a big thundercloud came along and cooled things down considerably.

Thanks a million, Holly, for sharing your preferred method with me, and allowing me to show it other appliqué fans. If you like an edge that’s already turned before you start stitching, this might become your favorite too! Get one of Holly’s adorable patterns and try it out for yourself.

See A Spin in the Garden over at Quilt Puppy.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Spotlight on Holly Mabutas

Filed Under Designers, Glue stick, Hand appliqué, Patterns, Prepared edge, Spotlights | Comments Off on Spotlight on Holly Mabutas

I met Holly Mabutas a year and a half ago at a quilt show in Hollister, California. When I saw Holly’s Eat Cake Graphics booth, I was instantly captivated by her darling appliqué style.

eat-cake-booth-1.jpg
eat-cake-booth-2.jpg
eat-cake-booth-3.jpg

We became friends right away. I’ve been bugging her to give me an interview because I’m fascinated with her story of rubber stamps and appliqué designs. Here’s Holly and Puppy Tucker, the star of her blog, Sprinkles of Thought.

holly-and-tucker-shot.jpgKay: Holly, how did you get your start in cartooning?

Holly: You know, I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t doodle. I do remember seeing my mom do a little sketch of our dog when I was young. I was fascinated watching the pencil lines come to life and wanted to be able to do the same.

I started out by trying to duplicate the drawings in my coloring books. With a lot of practice I got better, started drawing my own ideas and from there I guess started developing my own style. I don’t really have a formal art background – I took a few art courses in junior college – I’ve just always loved to draw. And I guess when you do something you love and practice over the course of a lifetime you’re bound to get better at it. :)

Kay: Where do you think the inspiration comes from for your adorable style?

Holly: I’ve always loved the cute and whimsical world of art. I was a HUGE fan of the comic strips Calvin & Hobbes and Bloom County. I also love children’s book illustrators – and have quite a few books (is that bad to admit for someone over 40 whose children all have fur and tails). I also think that I’m drawn to whimsical stuff because with everything going on in the world I want to focus on something happy, so that’s what I draw.

Kay: Tell me how you started up your rubber-stamp company.

Holly: I actually worked in a rubber stamp store in Los Gatos, California, for quite a few years. I was in there all the time and they asked if I’d like a part time job – I jumped at the chance, of course I never really did see a paycheck. Then I was approached by an acquaintance of my mom’s. She wanted to know if I might like to go into business, again I did a happy dance and said yes.

Eat Cake Graphics came about when my business partner and I decided to go our separate ways. I actually “opened” (although there were no balloons or fireworks) in January 2000.

So here I am, eight years later with over 600 images and still trying to figure out the ins and outs of online shopping carts – good grief does it ever get easier!

Kay: Tell me a little bit about how you segued into quilt patterns.

Holly: I never really thought I’d be designing quilt patterns! I walked into a quilt shop in the mid/late 90’s and saw a quilt on the wall using a technique called appliqué. I thought it looked fun so I signed up for a class. It was fun but it wasn’t until I stumbled upon another appliqué technique, using a gluestick, that I really became hooked (probably more like obsessed). In one of the ongoing monthly classes I was asked if I could come up with some simple blocks to go along with a project we were stitching. I said sure.

I think it was then the light bulb went off and I thought, hey, I really like seeing what my little sketches could become in fabric. I took some of my stamp images and on my computer played around with the layout, took the printout to a local copy shop, enlarged it, came home and started playing with fabric. It actually worked and when I showed it to people they asked about a pattern…and well, here I am.

Kay: Thank you, Holly, for giving us the back story. Here are some of my favorite of Holly’s patterns.

windy-wintry-day.jpg
Windy Wintery Day

dont-drink-and-fly.jpgDon’t Drink and Fly

home-in-the-middle.jpgHome in the Middle

Holly gave me her pattern insert with instructions for her turned-edge gluestick appliqué method, and in my next post I’m going to give it a whirl. I’m always interested in learning new ways to appliqué! This one combines glue-stick prepared-edge with hand stitching. Stay tuned!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Great article on Baltimore Album history

Filed Under Articles, Baltimore Album, Designers, Hand appliqué, History, Needleturn | Comments Off on Great article on Baltimore Album history

The International Quilt Association puts out a quarterly journal for its members. In the latest issue there’s a fabulous article by Rhianna White called Quilting 101: Baltimore Album Quilts.

It’s a great lesson in the origin and history of the popular appliqué art form, and if you’re interested in the history of appliqué you’ll love this article. Renowned experts Elly Sienkiewicz and Mimi Dietrich contribute to the information.

Very generously, the IQA puts this journal up on its website in pdf form for all to download and enjoy. Go to quilts.org, click to enter, then look in the left sidebar for “IQA Journal.”

Until next time,
Kay

Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

APQ site is good resource

Filed Under Hand appliqué, Machine appliqué, Photo tutorials, Prepared edge, Raw edge | Comments Off on APQ site is good resource

Not that long ago, American Patchwork & Quilting magazine launched a companion website called AllPeopleQuilt … APQ, get it? I was intrigued by a mention in the latest print magazine about quilting classes on-line, so I surfed on over to check it out.

Two appliqué classes head up their list of offerings. Linda Hohag is demonstrating a starch technique, and Pat Sloan is showing how to she does fusible appliqué. It looks like these are on-demand videos.

On the site, there’s also an area called “Try Techniques.” Click on the Appliqué section for gobs of free tips and tricks for a variety of methods.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Kay has graciously invited me to be a guest on her blog, but before I begin, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Mary Warner-Stone, appliqué designer, lecturer, and teacher.

Mary Warner-Stone
Here I am, appliqué in full swing, in front of my Fire Flower pattern.

I’ve been sewing since I was a kid. I discovered while trying to sew for 4-H and junior-high home-ec classes that sewing clothes just didn’t appeal to me. It was about that time I discovered the cathedral window quilt block in a women’s magazine. I fell in love with selecting fabrics from my mother’s stash, folding, ironing, hand stitching the seams. The entire process of making this fascinating block excited me. Rather clever to show the raggedy faces in the windows for a 12 year old kid wasn’t it?
cathederal-window.jpg

I didn’t realize at the time that my passion for quilting was just beginning. I experimented with different quilt patterns and sewing on the machine, but always fell back into the rewards that hand sewing gave me. While in my early thirties, I took a class from a master appliqué artist, and I knew then that hand appliqué was the style of quilting I wanted to pursue.

I’ve since published six appliqué patterns, available on my website. I’ve been teaching both machine and hand appliqué, and just this year I’ve been invited to lecture at guilds.

Much as I like hand sewing, I have to admit I am not a notions junkie. I grew up with parents who were handy, creative, and frugal. If we could make it, or make it work, then there was no need to buy new. But I also understand the value of good tools, and I would like to share with you my finds and opinions about what works best for me. I’ll start with the use of a lap board for hand appliqué.

Good Tools for a Good Job

My dad taught me that working with the right tools will make any job easier. I’ve learned that also applies to hand appliqué. With the right tools, good tools, working on your project will be easier, quicker, and you’ll have fewer frustrations.

One of those tools I use every time I sit down to appliqué is the June Tailor Quilter’s Cut ‘n Press II board. It serves multiple uses for me, and is well worth the money.

When I start the set up of an appliqué block, I use the cutting side of the board to trace designs onto the freezer paper. The cutting side is also rough enough to act as a sandpaper board while tracing the designs to the fabric without the fabric slip-sliding around.

When I start to sew, I flip the board over to the padded side to lay my block on while I’m stitching. I prefer a board that is 12” by 18”. This is large enough for my blocks to lie flat without too much over-hang, but isn’t so big that the board teeters and falls off my lap while sewing. It’s important that you control both the block and the appliqué you’re sewing to the block. If your work flops around while you’re sewing it will have the tendency to warp, and the appliqué may pucker. Never a good thing! Laying the block on the June Tailor Quilter’s Cut ‘n Press while sewing will help eliminate this problem.

I also enjoy how it makes my sewing time more comfortable. My elbows and forearms rest on the cushioned board. No more scrunched arms close to my chest and tired hands from supporting the block during long stretches of sewing. I sit either cross-legged or with my feet resting on a footstool so that my knees are elevated closer to my chest.

close-up-w-board.jpg

The press side also works as a pincushion. When I first started doing appliqué, I had very young children, an infant and toddler to be exact. I allowed myself one straw needle and six sequin pins, which were stuck in the edge of the board when not in use in the block. If one of those pins were missing I was down on the floor searching so that one of my kids would not find it first. Now that my children are older – and not likely to swallow a pin – I still find it convenient to have my pins and needles handy at the edge of the board.

The June Tailor Quilter’s Cut ‘n Press is one of the handiest, most practical tools that I have in my sewing room, and I’m sure that you will find that it makes your hand appliqué sewing time more enjoyable.

May you find joy in all you do.
Mary Warner-Stone
www.marywarner-stone.com

Thank you Mary for an excellent article! I agree completely with the use of a lap board, down to the exact kind! I only have the smaller one, though, and I’m so glad you showed yours because mine is so old and well loved that it’s too disgusting to be seen in public.

Two notes I’d like to add… one, if you’re creaky in the knees like me and can’t sit cross-legged like Mary, use a footstool to bring your lap up closer to your eyes.

And, a word about the pincushion aspect… don’t flip your board over while it has needles in it… ask my kneecap how it knows :).

More from Mary in the future.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

To clip or not to clip, that is today’s question.

Quilting professionals have differing opinions on how to handle clipping. Here’s my personal best advice on the subject.

clip-notch.gifNOTCHES
V’s, valleys, inside points, crannies… they go by a lot of names. Whatever you call ’em, some teachers advocate clipping all the way to the bottom. I clip almost to the bottom. The way I stitch notches, by taking a slightly bigger bite with the needle, then snugging the stitch down, it works out better to have a couple threads to grab.

clip-no-clip.gifCURVES
Inside curves: Again the divide… to the line, or almost to the line. I’m a fan of a series of shallow clips on inside curves. If you’re using a small 3/16″ turn-under margin, you shouldn’t have to clip deeply to get the fabric to turn under nicely.

Outside curves: No, I say, no clip! Again, the scant margin allows the fabric to go under without wrinkling up on itself, causing “the pokies.” If you clip this outer curve, the fabric has a tendency to go loosey-goosey.

In either case, notches or curves, a full 1/4″ turn-under margin may cause you to have to clip where you don’t really need to. Go for the scanter margin. This small margin makes some quilter nervous, but fine work is achieved through this closer trim.

This information applies to hand appliqué. The machine appliqué method that uses freezer paper and glue is not among my skill set, so I’m not sure about best clipping protocols there. And of course, for raw-edge machine appliqué, there’s no clipping ever!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Raggedy appliqué

Filed Under Blanket stitch, Designers, Hand appliqué, Patterns, Raw edge | Comments Off on Raggedy appliqué

Designer Darcy Ashton has devised a darling way to use raw-edge hand appliqué to make raggedy bunnies. I would never have thought of it!

Here’s a picture of one of Darcy’s bunnies, after appliquéing and before quilting and fluffifying.

bunny-by-darcy-ashton.jpgPhoto courtesy of Darcy Ashton.

Now go to Darcy’s blog to see the finished quilt with the bunnies fluffed up. Adorable!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

It’s finally here, March 1st… the official publication date of my new book, Teapots 2 to Appliqué!

Teapots 2 to Appliqué

It’s an exciting time. After months and months of work designing the motifs, stitching them up, handing out the patterns to willing appliqué friends, waiting to see what they come up with, writing the text, creating the illustrations, laying out the pages, shepherding the projects through photography, and at last taking the finished file to the printers, then comes the nail-biting period waiting for “the call” that the books are finished and ready to be picked up. Once I finally have a book in my hands and it’s just what I wanted, that’s the happy dance time, as in now. Yay!

Teapots 2 has 16 new teapot designs for you to appliqué using your own favorite method. Since my last book came out, I learned the back-basting, aka no-template preparation method for hand appliqué and have become a big fan. This new book has step-by-step instructions for back-basting prep in case you’re a hand appliquér as well and would like to learn what that’s all about.

My first teapot book, Teapots to Appliqué, is now out of print. That’s a bittersweet thought. I sent off the very last copies the same week I got the new one. Couldn’t have timed it better if I’d planned it that way!

Teapots 2 is available on my website, Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs.

Until next time (happy dance, happy dance),
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Flowers received

Filed Under Freezer paper on top, Hand appliqué, Holiday, Needleturn | Comments Off on Flowers received

… just barely. The DH had a hectic day and got to the flower shop 20 minutes after its official closing time. But there was still a trail of men going out the door with bouquets, so though they were sweeping the floors, Dana was able to pick up the beautiful flower arrangement he had ordered. His record stands.

flowers.jpg

seedlings.jpg

“Seedlings” — for next year!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

It’s a happy day for hearts

Filed Under Books, Embellishment, Freezer paper on top, Hand appliqué, Holiday, Needleturn | Comments Off on It’s a happy day for hearts

Happy Valentine’s Day! The chocolate has been bestowed, and now I’m anticipating the bouquet. This has been a tradition throughout our 18 years of marriage, chocolate for him, flowers for her, and he hasn’t missed one yet. So although there aren’t any flowers yet, the day is young :).

Here’s another of my favorite blocks from Growing Heart to Appliqué.
I call it “Fly Away.”

fly-away.jpg

Freezer paper on top, hand appliquéd, hand-embroidered stems.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Here’s another block from Growing Hearts to Appliqué. A fun one, yes?

seed-packet.jpgWhen brainstorming on a theme,”growing hearts” or whatever, it’s so wonderful to let your imagination roam free and think up all sorts of notions about how to portray your ideas.

For this crazy design, I used freezer-paper templates on top, and I hand-embroidered the letters. The little black heart seeds are inked on with a permanent fabric marker.

And don’t faint, but maybe you can see that this quilt is hand-quilted. It still happens now and again.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Valentine’s Day is coming up. I’ve already got the heart-shaped box of chocolates for the DH stashed away. Like many quilters, hearts are a favorite motif of mine. I love them so much that I published a whole collection of heart designs, Growing Hearts to Appliqué. Here’s one of my favorite blocks, which I call “Cutwork.”

cutwork.gifTo make this, I used freezer-paper templates on top. In this method, you trace the shapes onto the paper side of the freezer paper, cut them out on the drawn line, then iron the templates to the right side of the fabrics. Cut out the shapes, adding a 3/16″margin all the way around. Then you can baste them in place using a tracing-paper overlay as a placement guide, either leaving the templates on as stitching guides or taking them off for good old-fashioned needleturn. There’s been a lot of appliqué under the bridge since I made this, but I think I probably left the templates on for the straighter parts and removed them to work on the intricate parts.

I’ll put up some more of my growing hearts blocks as the month goes along.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Perfect circles

Filed Under Circles, Designers, Hand appliqué, Photo tutorials, Prepared edge, Product demo | Comments Off on Perfect circles

Designer Susan Brubaker Knapp has posted a wonderful photo tutorial on her blog about how to use Karen Kay Buckley’s Perfect Circles™ templates to make prepared-edge circles for hand appliqué.

I have a set of KKB’s templates tucked away in my appliqué bag of tricks. The circle templates come in a whole lot of different sizes and they come with a ring so you can keep them all corraled.

Be sure to visit Susan’s website also, Blue Moon River. Susan has some beautiful patterns there, including stunning block-of-the-month appliqué patterns.

Thanks Susan!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Mighty Bright to the rescue

Filed Under Hand appliqué, Lighting | Comments Off on Mighty Bright to the rescue

This part of California has been stormy for days. The power at our house has been blipping out so many times that I gave up resetting the clocks! Last night, I was just trimming an appliqué shape when whoops! there it went again. I waited in the dark, and when it didn’t come back on right away, I knew it would be out for awhile.

I groped my way to the flashlight and puttered around the house, doing a few things that didn’t require power, but my appliqué was weighing on my mind. All of a sudden I got an idea. I searched the bedside table for a little battery-powered reading light that I’d had for years but had hardly used. Making my way back to the sofa, I stationed my Cut ‘n Press on my lap, set the light on it, turned it on, angled it just right, and there was this bright little pool of light illuminating my work.

Now mind you, I had both my contacts in and some reading glasses on, but with this light I was able to go ahead and finish the appliqué block.

light.gif

This one’s called Mighty Bright, and I’ve heard of one called the Itty Bitty Book Light or something like that. Whatever kind you can find, they’re at bookshops, and I found this one quite handy last night.

By the way, sending props to those of you who have gone through power outages that lasted days. I salute you!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

When it comes to stems or vines, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. (Just an expression, I’ve had three cats for seventeen years and haven’t skinned any of them yet :) .)

Here’s a photo tutorial on stems and skinny stems, two ways each. That’s four stems! In all cases this is hand appliqué, however, they can be adapted to be sewn on the machine.

Here’s how I was first taught to do stems.

Cut a bias strip 1″ wide or wider and press it in half, wrong sides together, lengthwise. Mark the stem or vine on the front of the background fabric.

Sorry if you can’t see the pencil mark too well… there’s a big storm in California today and there’s no good natural light.

Place the folded bias strip over the marked line, kind of averaging its position. Fold over the raw edges to where they fall short of the other side and crease to give yourself an idea of the stitching line.

Stitch the vine to the background fabric using a small running stitch (left side of picture). Then roll the folded edge over the stitching, covering the raw edges of the other side. Appliqué the fold down (right side of picture). Disregard the position of the needle in this picture; I laid it down in haste.

To make a skinny stem the same way, just stitch much closer to the fold.

Trim away the excess, very close to the stitches. Roll and sew the same as before.

A pretty good skinny stem.

Now, on to the method I use most of the time now, with my trusty green gadget, the Clover® ¼” bias tape maker. Cut a bias strip that is 5/8″ wide. Yes, just 5/8″! Cut the top so that it angles upwards to the left — it seems to feed through better this way.

Poke the strip right-side-up into the wider end of the gadget until you can see the fabric in the slot at the top. Use the tip of a pin to pull the strip through the slot until it sticks out the narrow end. Pin the strip to the ironing board. Use a glass-head pin, so you don’t have to worry about melting a plastic pin.


Using a hot iron and plenty of steam, pull the gadget along the strip in one smooth, fairly rapid motion, following it closely with the iron. Don’t stop part-way through, or try to back up. Smoothness is key.

Important: Hold your iron so that the steam vents are not directed at your fingers.


You can make bias strips fusible by applying thin strips of paper-backed fusible web. I do this as a second step. I actually cut the strip of fusible in half lengthwise to make a very thin strip, which I find is enough. The product comes on a roll and is found alongside the bias tape makers.

Using a dry iron, press the fusible strip to the back of the bias strip. Remove the paper backing and steam-press the stem over the marked line. Then it’ll be ready to stitch.

To make a skinny stem this way, make another bias strip with the gadget, and press one side out flat again. Trim along the crease.

Get out your glue stick and run it along the wrong side of the strip. Pick up the strip and pinch the raw edge back over to the center. It should stick with cheerful obedience. It if doesn’t, use a little more glue or make sure the glue stick is fresh.

If you prefer to skip the gluing, you can use a hybrid method! Appliqué the folded edge first, then tuck under the raw edge on the other side as you stitch.

All four, placed improvisationally on the background and, for some strange reason, from bottom to top!

I hope this has helped you if you were looking for information on how to make stems or skinny stems. There are other methods too… remember those cats I mentioned?

Over at the Quilter’s Newsletter website, I did a quick search and came up with several tutorials on how to make skinny stems. Check them out as well!

Until next time,
Kay

Plum pudding

Filed Under Hand appliqué, Holiday | Comments Off on Plum pudding

When my husband, Dana, was a kid, his mother fixed plum pudding every year at holiday time, steaming it endlessly in a pan on the stove and topping it with gobs of homemade hard sauce. Young Dana did not care for that hard sauce at all, so just mention “plum pudding” to him and see the trials of childhood in his eyes.

Later in life, when Dana found out that “hard sauce” was “frosting,” plum pudding became much more tolerable. One year I wanted to make soft hanging ornaments for my friends, so I asked him to draw me some holiday-like shapes. Guess what issued from his pencil… a fat plum pudding, replete with dripping hard sauce!


When I pulled together my book of holiday designs, I made sure to include that plum pudding! Here’s my version, hand appliquéd on a patched background.

Until next time,
Kay

Positioning

Filed Under Hand appliqué, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué | Comments Off on Positioning

What are some ways of positioning appliqué motifs on the background fabric?

• Freestyle

This is where you don’t worry about matching the pattern too exactly, and just place your pieces where you like. Maybe you’re not even using a pattern, just creating a design as you go!

• Eyeballing

Referring to the pattern, place your motifs on the background so that they look enough like the original for government work. Again, this is an admirable, freeing mentailty, and probably gives the blocks that attractive vintage look.

• Creasing the background

If an appliqué design is set on the diagonal, you can fold and crease the background to provide reference lines for positioning the motifs.

• Tracing paper overlay

Now we’re getting to my territory (I have the curse of the precise. It’s not that much fun.) You can trace the pattern onto tracing paper to create a placement guide. Use vertical and horizontal centering lines to line up the guide with the background square.

• Vinyl overlay

The Piece O’ Cake gals advocate using upholstery vinyl to make a placement guide. They’ve even started offering their own Quilter’s Vinyl by the yard, and there are instructions on how to use it, on their website.

• Light box

This is good for tracing the placement guides, of course, but is also an direct and ingenious way of placing motifs for machine appliqué. Once you’ve gotten all of your pieces fused and cut out, put your pattern on the light box, put the background fabric over it (lined up with centering marks) and place all of the pieces for the block at once. Carefully transfer to the ironing board for fusing.

For dark backgrounds, you’ll need to use one of the overlay methods.

Okay quilters, what other ways are there to position your appliqué? There’s something about a lightweight interfacing overlay… help me out. I’ve heard of it but don’t know too much about it.

Until next time,
Kay

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Well, that’s what they taught us in 10th grade, but they were talking in terms of abstract geometry. In nature, we don’t see too many straight lines. They’re more of a man-made construct, like boxes, fences, and the sides of buildings.

Hand appliqué is not a fan of straight lines either. Gentle curves are the ticket, and nothing too perfect, like in nature. It’s when we appliqué houses, or baskets, or stems that are perfectly straight because we’ve simplified them or are interpreting them in a primitive or folk-art way, that we run into the straight line.

Straight lines are not so much an issue in machine appliqué (though you still have to mark them and cut them straight.) But in hand work, I actually find a straight line harder to get nice than a curve. Here are some strategies for dealing with stretches of the straightaway.

• The bias tape maker

Except, don’t use bias!

Cut straight strips instead of bias strips.
They wiggle less.

Below is an example from Baskets to Appliqué, where I used the tape maker and straight-cut strips with just a thin strip of fusible on the back. It looks intricate, but it was pretty easy-peasy to weave the strips, fuse them in place, then hand-stitch them down.


• Freezer paper on the back


The pot here, in this design from Growing Heart to Appliqué, is a good candidate.

Basting the margin over the template helps assure a crisp, identifiable sewing line and keeps things on the straight and narrow. For more information, see my previous photo tutorial about freezer paper on the back. Even if you’re using freezer paper on top or another method, you can mix a little of this in to deal with those pesky straight edges.

• Back-Basting

In the back-basting, aka no-template method, the pattern is drawn directly on the back of the background fabric. This means you have the sewing line marked and ever-present as a reference for your stitching. You can flip your work over to make sure you’re passing the sobriety test.

How’m I doing?

Pretty good so far.

I’ll write more about back-basting in the future.

How do you like to handle straight lines?

Until next time,
Kay

I sew mitered borders from the top, where I can see what I’m doing. For me it’s more of an intuitive approach, but maybe that’s just because I’m an appliqué girl!

This illustration shows an inner border and an outer border, sewn together and applied to the quilt top at the same time and mitered at a 45º angle at the corners. The border strip sets need to start out longer than the sides of the quilt.

Sew the borders to each side, leaving ¼” free at each end of the seams. Secure the starting and stopping points with backstitching.

Place the quilt on the ironing board. Fold one border under at a 45º angle so that it lines up exactly with its neighbor underneath. Use your ruler to check the angle of the miter and its 45º relationship to the square corner of the quilt top. When all is satisfactory, press and then carefully baste in place without shifting the fabric.

Hand appliqué the miter, using threads to match the fabrics. Remove the basting stitches.

Complete all four corners in this manner. After a final check that all four corners are square and correct, trim off the excess border ends, leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Press seams open.

And that’s how I do that!

Until next time,
Kay

Purple saves the day

Filed Under Embellishment, Hand appliqué, Hawaiian | Comments Off on Purple saves the day

I spent the weekend at one of my favorite places in the whole wide world… Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California.

Asilomar is right by the ocean and we always see deer, who are very used to the comings and goings of the visitors. Asilomar is often associated with the Empty Spools seminars, but lots of other quilting events happen there too. My friend Janet Locey organizes quilting retreats a couple times a year there (as well as at other locations). Her Quilters Getaways are the most fun thing ever. We bring our own projects and sew, sew sew, talk, talk, talk, and eat, eat, eat.

At one point during the weekend, I looked up and happened to see a fellow retreatant holding up a lovely Hawaiian appliqué quilt with what looked like some sort of skein of cording hanging off of it.

Intrigued, I made my way to that side of the room to investigate.

I made the acquaintance of Metha Schuler of Petaluma, California, who has been an avid Hawaiian appliquér for 12 years, ever since she became acquainted with the craft on a Maui vacation. I asked Metha what was up with the purple cording.

Metha related that when she was mostly finished with this quilt, she actually hated it. It was just “blah,” she said. It lacked contrast between the background and appliqué fabrics. Instead of pitching it (gasp), she decided to try to rescue it by putting something around the appliqué motifs to better define the edges.

She tried everything she could find at the craft store, and finally found something she thought would work… purple elastic bracelet cord. Metha is now in the process of couching the cord around all of the edges of the motifs, and when she gets done, she allows as how she thinks she will now like her quilt!

Here’s a closeup showing one of the interior areas that hasn’t been edged yet. You can see how much better the contrast show up with the purple cording.

Here’s Metha with her nearly rescued quilt, Seaweed.

Here’s another quilt, Raintree, that Metha held up during Show & Tell.

For more information on Janet’s Quilters Getaways, please visit her website at Hen Scratch Quilting.

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