Snuggles Quilts

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Applique Mini Video Tutorial – Part 1

I am beginning an applique video tutorial series. Here is part 1 where I talk about templates and using them to trace out applique pieces for your project.

In the comments, feel free to suggest things you would like me to cover related to fabric needle-turn applique and I will try to fit them into future applique videos.

Here’s the video:

Keep watch for Part 2 coming soon!

Applique Tips and New Pattern Feature!

Hi everyone!

It’s that time of the year where I have some new patterns that will be released at the end of the month when I attend Quilt Market in Houston. So, I thought I would share them with you along with the inspiration behind the quilt.

This week I am featuring my new lap quilt Stepping Stones. This is 70 x 70” lap quilt that has a scrappy pieced center and is framed by appliqué.

I wanted a block that would feature the color prints I chose but be easy to make. This simple square in a square design was the answer. Each block has 3 different color prints and a tan background. I alternate between blocks that have the tan print background as the corners and blocks that have the color prints as the corners. This creates the unique secondary design. Here are examples of the two blocks types:

Since this quilt also features an appliqué motif that frames the center, I wanted to review some appliqué tips.

First, for the stems I cut bias strips from a green print fabric. It’s easiest to cut the strips needed from fat quarters (or fat eighths if you don’t need a lot). To cut bias strips, lay the fabric on the cutting surface, lay the 45° line of your ruler on the fabric edge, and then start cutting strips. The photos below show these steps:

Once you have the strips cut, fold in the sides of the strip and press to make the stem. If you start with a 1” wide bias strip, after pressing, your stem will be 1/2” wide. Using a bias tool makes it easier to fold the strips into stems.

My second tip: start stitching your appliqué motif with the stems and then build the rest of the design from there. Use small dots of appliqué glue to shape and hold your stems in place for stitching. Here’s my favorite glue:

This is Roxanne’s Glue Baste-it. This is the best glue that I have used. It’s a small container, but you use so little of it at a time, that it lasts through several projects.

My final tip for this post: If you have an appliqué motif that is made up of several pieces layered on top of each other, stitch the smaller pieces to the larger pieces before stitching it all down to the quilt top. For example, here is the medallion corner stone:

The red penny circle was stitched to the gold circle. Then that unit was stitched to the blue medallion piece. After that was done, the excess fabric was trimmed out in the back before stitching the whole medallion to the quilt top.

I hope these tips were helpful and that you are excited to make this quilt! You will see announcements here and on my Facebook and Instagram pages when the pattern is available.

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

Applique Tips – How to make stems!

Have you ever admired a quilt with a beautiful appliqué motif and said: “I want to do this!”. Well, I hope you have. Needle-turn hand appliqué has been a passion of mine for almost as long as I have been quilting. Now, I know many of you do not like hand work and are afraid of the “A” word. But you don’t have to be! You can do your appliqué by machine. I just love the added something that appliqué gives to a quilt top, whether it is pieced or just a plain background.

I have done appliqué posts in the past talking about many of the different steps for doing hand appliqué but have never done a full post on making stems. So, here you have it …. a blog post on stems! If you are interested in appliqué instruction from start to finish, consider purchasing my video class Sew on the Go with Needle-turn Hand Appliqué. Once purchased it’s yours to keep forever!

Stems

I like to create my stems from bias cut strips since those are easier to manipulate into curves than straight cut strips. I usually use either a fat quarter or fat eighth depending on how many stems I need. Here is how to cut bias stems.

Press your fabric and lay it on the cutting table as shown:

Align the 45° line of your long (24″) ruler with the bottom of the fabric (the arrow in the photo is pointing to the 45° line):

Now, using the rotary cutter, make your first cut:

Then measure and cut out the amount of strips you need. If you need stems longer than the strips produced, you may have to stitch a few strips together before preparing them into stems.

Cut your strips 1/2″ wider than the width of your finished stem. For example, if you want 1/2″ stems you need to cut your bias strips 1″ wide.

Now it’s time to prepare the strips into stems. To do this, I use a bias tool.  They come in sizes from 1/4″ to 1″. The size of the tool in the finished size of the stem. So, for a 1/2″ stem, we will use a 1/2″ bias tool.

Feed the strip, right side of fabric down, into the larger end of the tool until it comes out the smaller end. When it comes out of the end, the sides of the strip will be folded over as shown. Use the iron press this fold all the way down the strip to make the stem.

When you are done making stems and are ready to put them onto your quilt background, you will affix the stems with the raw edges down. Here’s a project I have in progress to show you how I am shaping the stems:

Stems are usually stitched onto the project first because they are usually covered with flowers and leaves or other parts of the appliqué motif.

Here are a few of my favorite appliqué patterns:

So, that’s making stems! Not very hard to do and they add so much to an appliqué design.

Leave a comment below in this blog post on your favorite type of  appliqué project and win a free pattern for my newest design Summer Serendipity.

 

I will draw for the winner in 2 weeks! **Winner has been chosen** Congrats Sharon Aurora!**

Happy Quilting!
Deanne