Jul
12
Take a class with Cheryl
Filed Under Classes, Fusible web, Quilt shops, Quilt shows | Comments Off on Take a class with Cheryl
Cheryl Almgren Taylor, whom we’ve met before on the blog as the author of Deck the Halls and Inspirational Appliqué, dropped me a note to let me know that there’s still room in her classes at the upcoming International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, July 27-19, 2012.
Cheryl’s teaching three classes:
• “It Takes a Village,” where students learn how to construct a variety of houses and buildings for different projects using a basic template and fusible-web techniques.
• “Wrapped Up in Ribbons,” where you’ll create a Happy Birthday table runner using easy piecing and basic fusible-web applique. It’s quick and easy and great for beginners.
• A pictorial applique class using a fusible-web technique Cheryl calls ‘jigsaw applique.’ The class is called “Inspirational Applique: Psalm 100:3” and students will make a small pastoral wall hanging with sheep. The project appears in her Inpirational Applique book.
There’s currently room in all three but hurry because registration can fill up fast! You can find out more information about Festival and register for classes at the Quilts.com website.
(I’ll be at Long Beach too! My cozy little booth will be in the first row, next to the exhibits, on the right-hand side. Hope to see you there!)
And, how about a cruise this fall? Cheryl will be teaching on a quilting, appliqué, and thread-painting cruise along with Nancy Prince and Chris Eichner from October 4-12, 2012. The Royal Caribbean ship leaves out of Baltimore and cruises up the Atlantic coastline, stopping at Portland and Bar Harbor, and on to St. John’s and Halifax, Nova Scotia. There will be three classes available, plus a bus trip to Keepsake Quilting and all the other sights of a fall foliage cruise. Full information on the cruise is available at SeaCruises.com.
I’m off to Newark, California, tomorrow to set up for the Piecemaker’s Guild show this weekend.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Nov
1
Inspirational Appliqué
Filed Under Books, Machine appliqué, Prizes, Raw edge | 46 Comments
I want to thank Kay for inviting me to her blog today. I had the opportunity to be a guest on her blog once before and enjoyed the experience very much.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Cheryl Almgren Taylor, a quilter and designer who specializes in fusible-web appliqué. In certain quilting circles, making this admission is like admitting you feed your kids hot dogs and goldfish crackers for dinner every night! However, I find this method to be very user-friendly and it enables me to create fabulous, intricate shapes with ease. It also incorporates thread as a design element which gives me the opportunity to add more color and texture.
I have a brand-new book just released by Martingale & Company / That Patchwork Place: Inspirational Applique: Reflections of Faith, Hope, & Love.
The book is a collection of scripture-inspired quilts, wallhangings, and small projects. I am a pastor’s wife and as a person of faith, I enjoyed being able to create tangible objects that express my beliefs through my quilting. That is one of my favorite things about quilting—our ability as quilters to convey our thoughts and beliefs through the medium of fabric and thread and color.
As I worked on the book, I felt a connection to the quilters of past generations who also used their quilting skills to express their beliefs and dreams. If you study the Baltimore Albums of the 19th century, most of those beautiful creations give us glimpses into the lives of their makers. Even the plainer, patchwork quilts from the past sometimes include tantalizing personal insights left by the quilter. And one of the common practices in historic quilts was to include a deliberate mistake to express their religious faith, the belief that nothing is perfect except God. I’ve never had to create a deliberate mistake in a quilt—I’m quite proficient at providing numerous mistakes without any extra effort, but I enjoy this tradition and the significance it held for the quilters who did this.
I am happy, though, that I have access to the wonderful world of quilting that we live in now, with rotary cutters and electric irons and fabulous computerized sewing machines. I own several sewing machines and like a man and his car, I am bonded with my machines.
As I mentioned before, my favorite technique is fusible-web appliqué. I always recommend using a lightweight fusible web and the “doughnut” method of construction, which has you cut out the center portion of the web from large pieces before fusing it to the back of your motif fabric. This makes the quilt soft and pliable rather than stiff, which is a common complaint about quilts made with fusible web. However, when using a lightweight fusible web, you must sew a finishing stitch around each unfinished edge in the appliqué design. I prefer a very small blanket stitch, but it is possible to use a satin stitch or zigzag—it just gives a slightly different look to the finished piece.
In creating the quilts for the book, I discovered a new technique that I think a lot of people would enjoy knowing about. One of the designs in the book, “Daily Bread,” features a neg done in gold and blue tones.
A neg is a bundle of wheat that is set out in wintertime in Scandinavian countries for the animals. Because the design featured a number of strands of wheat bundled together, there are a large number of overlapping wheat kernels to be appliquéd. All of them needed to be finished with a blanket stitch. If you are a fusible appliquér, you know that sometimes as you sew around overlapping pieces, you do not end up in the right spot for the next shape. Then you have to stop, trim your threads, move the fabric, and start over again. By accident, I discovered a traveling technique that makes it easy to move from piece to piece.
I discovered that after finishing the blanket stitch on a piece, I could change the machine setting from the blanket stitch to a straight stitch and travel to the next piece along the edge of the pattern pieces. (The pieces do have to be overlapping.) This can be done before or after using the blanket stitch on the design. If I traveled before finishing the edge, the blanket stitch laid over the top of the straight stitching and couldn’t be seen. If the blanket stitch was already sewn along the edge, the straight stitch went on top of the edge stitch and still couldn’t be seen. Of course, you must be using the same color of thread on the next piece, but for my overlapping wheat kernels, it was an outstanding technique.
I used traditional bias strips for the border vine in “Birds of the Air.”
But, in two other projects I used another trick — cutting fusible web-backed fabric pieces rather than creating bias strips for vines. For the tablecloth “I Am the Vine,” I traced the vine shapes onto fusible backing, fused the vines to the background, and finished the edges with a blanket stitch. It looks great and was much easier than fussing with bias strips.
I hope these tips will help you in your quilting journey and, for those of you who have never tried fusing, I hope you will become inspired to try this wonderful and easy technique!
Happy quilting!~Cheryl
Kay here — Thanks a million Cheryl for those two fabulous appliqué tips! The traveling straight stitch to another shape is something I been playing with myself. Thank you for legitimizing it!
Courtesy of the publisher, we have a copy of Inspirational Appliqué to give away to a reader. If you’d like to enter the drawing for the book, leave a comment by 7:00 p.m. California time on Sunday, November 5. U.S. and Canada addresses only, and remember to resist the temptation to hit “reply” to your email subscription. Instead, click over to the blog itself.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Jun
18
Spotlight on Cheryl Almgren Taylor
Filed Under Blanket stitch, Fusible web, Machine appliqué, Patterns, Spotlights, Threads | 13 Comments
I’m delighted today to turn the blog over to appliqué author, designer, and teacher Cheryl Almgren Taylor.
Cheryl Almgren Taylor
Cheryl: I am excited to be a guest on Kay’s site today and want to thank her for the invitation to be a part of her blog.
I have loved quilts since I was a small child but never ventured into quilting until 2000. I had been sewing since I was 13 so I had some basic skills down. But I discovered, like many of us, that quilting is a whole new world.
I got into designing because of my grandson Michael and my love of storybooks. I spent 14 years teaching in the elementary grades and loved “read aloud” time with the kids. Several years ago I wanted to make Michael a quilt that would go with his favorite story Going On a Bear Hunt, and this led to the creation of a whole series of quilts that coordinate with childrens’ books. I was surprised and delighted when Martingale & Company (That Patchwork Place) chose to publish my designs in a pattern series entitled Storybook Snugglers.
There were six patterns in this original pattern series from 2007, with two quilt designs in each pattern–one easier version and one more detailed. There are still some patterns available from Martingale.
Monkey Business by Cheryl Almgren Taylor
Last summer my first book Deck the Halls was published featuring a collection of Christmas quilts.
Editor’s note: If you haven’t seen it, check out the post from last November, when Deck the Halls was our featured appliqué book.
Cheryl: Although I love pieced quilts, I am especially drawn to appliqué. Applique enables us to make shapes that are just not possible with piecing, and you don’t have to worry about your quarter inch or matching points! I especially love using batiks and fussy cutting shapes so that the design has shading provided by the fabric. I also like to use a variety of fabrics in the same tonal range when repeating a shape, rather than making everything match. I think it gives more interest to the design. When I’m designing I am almost always telling a story (at least in my head) and my favorite technique is fusible-web appliqué finished with machine blanket stitching.
Wrapped Up in Love from Deck the Halls
For those of you who have never ventured into the world of fusing, here is some advice I think you might find helpful.
First off, purchasing fusible web can be overwhelming if you don’t know what you are looking for. There is everything out there in fusible land, from fusible interfacing to fusible batting. If you have never ventured into this department before, you can become overwhelmed and confused. And depending upon where you are shopping, the store clerk may not know a piece of fusible web from a French fry. The item you want to purchase is paper-backed fusible web. Brands that may be familiar are Heat ‘n Bond, Wonder Under, and Steam a Seam (as well as many others) and I highly recommend a lightweight product.
When using fusible, remember that if your design is asymmetrical you must trace the pattern in reverse on the paper backing of the fusible product. Also remember to trace each piece separately. If you have a large pattern piece, cutting the center portion out of the fusible will create less stiffness in the finished design. My books and patterns all have a section that gives detailed information on this process.
Another important thing you should know about lightweight fusible web is, that it’s a temporary bond. It must be stitched down around the edges or it will eventually float away. This is not true for all fusible webs—only the lightweight type. However, using a heavier fusible makes a stiffer quilt and I don’t recommend using them.
And now we get to the fun part of fusing—finishing the edges! There is such a choice of fabulous threads out there in different weights, colors, and fibers. It’s awesome! So the first thing you have to decide is what element you want the threads to play in the finished product. Do you want them to recede into the background or pop out as a design element? Do you want them to add some pizzazz or blend in? This is an important design element in your quilt and you will be happier with the finished quilt if you decide how this element should look just the same as you select your color choices.
I have developed some personal choices that work for me, but please bear in mind that I don’t work for these companies, receive compensation from them, or guarantee their products. I’m just sharing my personal experiences with you. My “go-to” thread for finishing appliqué edges is Mettler 50 wt. Silk Finish cotton thread in a matching or coordinating color. The thread is thick enough to make it viewable, but it doesn’t distract from the design. If you want your thread to recede a little more, consider using a 60 wt. Mettler or a 50 wt. Aurifil, again in a matching color. Using YLI silk threads in a 50 wt. can give a beautiful, subtle sheen to edges but since the thread is a finer consistency, you may want to be selective in its usage. If you want your thread to pop out and become a design feature, try a slightly darker hue or be bold with a darker thread choice. Using a thicker 40 wt. thread will also make the stitching a dominant part of the design and some people even use a 25 wt. thread, which will be very thick. It will give you a primitive, country feel. Finally, when you want a little glitz, consider a Sulky rayon/polyester or metallic thread. These threads can bring glamour and pizzazz to your work.
I hope this advice is helpful and has inspired you to launch into a new appliqué project. I can only say that if you’ve been afraid to try fusible web before, give it a try. It’s a very user-friendly technique.
Happy quilting!
Cheryl
Kay: Thank you Cheryl! It was a treat learning more about you, and your appliqué wisdom is much appreciated. We’re “like this” in so many ways. Can’t wait to see what you do next!
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Oct
11
Deck the Halls
Filed Under Books, Designers, Prizes | 23 Comments
Thanks to Martingale & Company / That Patchwork Place I have another fantastic book to tell you about.
Deck the Halls: Quilts to Celebrate Christmas
Most of the patterns include appliqué, because as Cheryl put it, “I love the shapes and the graceful curves you can create, as well as the flexibility the technique provides.” Of course you can use your favorite form of appliqué, but Cheryl gives you full illustrated instructions for the fusible-web machine method, and has even reversed the patterns for you. That’s a real convenience.
This one makes me hungry.
The book includes a whole section of basic information about fabrics, threads, sewing machines, needles, tools, etc. That’s before you even get to the Quiltmaking Basics: rotary cutting, fusible web appliqué, pre-assembly, bias vines, and even paper piecing.
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
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