Dec
28
What I did over Christmas vacation
Filed Under Fusible web, Holiday, Machine appliqué, Photo tutorials
First of all, thank you so much to everyone who responded with warm enthusiasm for my foster kitten stories. There’s a followup… but I’ll save that for later.
Several of the projects that appear in my book A Merry Little Christmas to Appliqué are on loan to my pal Debby at the Quilter’s Faire in Palm Desert, California.
When a traveling quilt-show vendor specializing in Christmas expressed an interest in carrying the book, I thought I’d make another version of the project that’s the most popular one… Plum Pudding!
 The original. |
It was loads of fun rummaging for the fabrics, and also a little scary. It’s been awhile now since the book came out, but in the scrap bag I found a few leftover squares of the original fabrics used for the patched background! I also had enough of the red sashing and all three fabrics that were used for the puddings!
In my files, I even found the original pattern and tracing-paper overlay! Since the pattern is blown up 200%, this saved me a step. That’s why I keep stuff. You never know.
Once I’d pulled all the fabrics, I started thinking about the great expanse of white that makes up the ‘hard sauce’ part of the pattern. It would be covering a weensy bit of the brown, and also the patched background, and I didn’t want those to shadow through.
Usually, for machine appliqué I would use a double layer to create a light-over-dark motif by first fusing two layers of fabric together and then using that composed fabric to create the motif. This time, the area was so large, and I didn’t want the stiffness from the extra fusible. I thought I’d try something new.
I started out by making two motifs just the same, both with the inside of the fusible web cut out.
Back
Front
I removed the paper backing from both, placed one on top of the other on a nontick appliqué pressing sheet, and tacked them together with a hot iron.
If there are are inconsistencies in the two shapes, just use your scissors and trim them to match.
A little haircut needed here.
All trimmed and tidy.
Now the motif is double-layer and with no fusible web in the middle to make it stiff! Try it! It worked for me.
Stitched block.
Finished project: Plum Pudding 2
Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie
Comments
7 Responses to “What I did over Christmas vacation”
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I am sorry to hear about Willie, all those cute kitties had me so distracted, I didn’t even see that:(
Love your applique methods, I am just too lazy to be perfect, lol. I started back on my wool quilt tonight, too many distractions lately, so trying to get back into a routine.
Debbie
Excelente idéia!!!
Vou experimentar quando for nescessario!!!
Excelente 2012 para você e obrigado pelas suas aulas de apliqué!!!!
liége
Cool idea. Lovely project.
[…] using this great tip from applique expert Kay Mackenzie. In this tutorial, she’ll teach you how to handle white fabric so that darker fabrics don’t show through. Kay Mackenzie's Plum […]
I enjoyed reading your tip today. What a simple solution to keeping your white pieces clean and not too stiff.
[…] And here’s a photo tutorial of how I handled a large piece of white appliquéd over other fabrics, without shadow-through. The hard sauce on the Plum Pudding! […]
Thank you Kay! I love receiving your updates and helpful tips. Your encouragement is needed!!