Fabric Appliqué – Part 2

Hi! I’m glad you are back for part 2 of this hand appliqué tutorial. If you missed the first part of this tutorial, you can find it here: Part 1. In last week’s post you will find my supply and preparation tips along with tips on using templates and preparing the appliqués. This week we will cover preparing the background for your project, motif layout and the appliqué stitch. Let’s get started!

Preparing the Background

Step 1: Whether your background is just a block or a quilt top, I recommend applying Fray Check to the edges of the fabric as shown:

Since the background is handled a lot while the motif is stitched down, adding Fray Check to the edges keeps the fabric in the seam allowance from fraying away by the time the project is finished. This is an optional step, so you can choose to do it or not.

Step 2: When laying out an appliqué motif, you can create a guide to help get the design in the right place on the background fabric. To do this either fold the piece of fabric to make a grid or use your chalk pencil to draw light lines. The photo below shows the fold lines from that technique:

Of course, the folding technique will not work with a full quilt top, but you can use the chalk pencil lines in that case. My finger (in above photo) is pointing to the center where the fold lines cross. Knowing where the center is comes in handy if the appliqué motif needs to be centered.

On projects where the appliqué is near an edge, like along the borders of a quilt or edges of blocks that will have to be pieced together, draw a line 1/2″ in from the edge (see below). This allows for the 1/4″ seam allowance needed in piecing the quilt and adds in an extra 1/4″ to keep your appliqué design away from any future seams.

Before I came up with this step, I would finish stitching my appliqué and then realize I was too close to the edge of the fabric and into the seam allowance. This made it necessary to remove those appliqué pieces and re-stitch the whole area, which is something I like to avoid that as much as possible.

• Helpful tip for a plain block: Appliqué stitching can shrink down your block as you stitch the design. If your block is supposed to be 12 1/2″ when you are done stitching, consider cutting it larger. For example, for a 12 1/2″ block, I will cut a plain background fabric piece 13 1/2″ so there’s an extra 1/2″ on all four sides. I will then draw the lines I talked about above 1″ in on all four sides to keep the appliqué in the defined space. Then the block is trimmed down to 12 1/2″ when the stitching is done.
  
  
• Of course, this is not possible when you are stitching an appliqué motif to an already pieced block or quilt top. My advice when working on these types of projects is to be careful to not pull your thread too tight while stitching. It’s the over-tightness of the stitches that can “shrink” a pieced block or pieced area of a quilt top.

Step 3: Below are photos of a design layout using a few of the tips I talked about above. I’m using creases in the background and my ruler to lay out my design. When positioning stems, I use other appliqué pieces as a guide to make sure the stems are placed correctly on the background. We will cover making bias stems in next week’s post for those of you who do not know how.

As you can see from the above photos, I have placed the center motif pieces for the block I’m working on at the center to help me line up the four stems evenly. Once the stems are placed where I want, I secure them with small dots of glue and stitch them down. I generally stitch stems down first before positioning and stitching any other part of the design.

Once I’m done stitching the stems, I use small dots of glue to position the other motif pieces prior to stitching.

Make sure not to use too much of this glue. A little goes a long way and the bond becomes secure after about 30 seconds of pressure. Too much glue may bleed through the appliqué piece and show on the top. Roxanne’s glue is water soluble so if you accidentally get some on the top of the appliqué or background, dip a Q-tip swab in water and rub it gently over the area to remove it. Be sure only to use water soluble glue to affix appliqués.

Stitching Time!

Begin stitching on a side of the appliqué piece that is the straightest. However, if you are stitching a circle, obviously there is no straight side! The goal when you are stitching is to hide the stitches on the top of the project as much as possible. That’s where thread color, good lighting and even a magnifier comes in handy (the lighting and magnifier was discussed last week). You can either use a thread that matches the color of your appliqué or use neutral threads of various shades that blend in well with any color.

So on to the stitching steps!

Step 1: Use the tip of your needle to sweep the clipped seam allowance, in the direction you will be stitching, under the appliqué up to the drawn line. Hold this in place with the thumb of your other hand as you move to the next step.

Step 2: Start your stitch from underneath your project pushing the needle up and catching the edge of the fold on the appliqué created by sweeping the seam allowance under (photo below).

Step 3: Pull the needle and thread through and then go back down with the needle into the background fabric only, right next to where your needle came up in the edge of the appliqué initially (last photo below). Once the needle is pulled back through from underneath, you can see how the stitch is just a little “dot” visible on top.

That’s what you want the stitches to look like… barely noticeable. As you get more familiar with the stitch, you will be able to combine these steps into a fluid motion, going down in the background and instantly coming up to catch the appliqué’s edge for the next stitch.

It’s not too easy to see the one stitch from photos above, so that’s why I have a stitching video at the end of this blog post to see it done in motion. In the meantime, here’s some close-up photos from an earlier project of mine that shows the finished stitch a bit better (bottom right):

Here’s the layout and stitching videos. They are parts 3 and 4 of my tutorial series. Next week’s post on creating stems will have part 2 of the tutorial at the end.

 

That’s it for this week. The stitching demonstration should give you something to practice. Consider grabbing a scrap piece of background fabric and tracing out a shape to appliqué onto it for practice. 

Leave a comment or ask a question in the comment section below and be entered into a drawing for my pattern, High Prairie Blooms.

The drawing will be on Monday, August 4th so you have this week’s and next week’s posts to enter.***We have a winner! Congrats, Lynn Telke!***

Happy Quilting & Stitching!
Deanne