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The Joy of Applique – Part 2

Welcome back to my fabric appliqué series. If you missed last week’s introductory post, find that here. Last week, I covered the supplies I use and recommend for appliqué and how to prepare and use appliqué templates. 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 motif gets close to 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. You can add an extra 1/8″ to that measurement if it makes you more comfortable.

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. Look at the  photo on the bottom right. If you look really close you will see a tiny red dot which is the stitch (just above my thumbnail on the edge.

Here are two videos covering layout and stitching, which are actually parts 3 and 4. Part 2 will come next week and will cover making stems for floral appliqué designs.

So that’s all for this week. If you have a appliqué pattern you have been meaning to begin, today may be the time to pull it out and follow some of my tips to get started. Why not?

Leave a comment below or ask a questions and be entered into a drawing for my new pattern, Starfire, along with a pack of needles and Roxanne’s glue. 

The drawing will be on Monday, March 30th so you still have time to enter! ***We have a winner! Congrats, Donna Logan!***

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

The Joy of Appliqué

Hi Everyone! I am going to be traveling for the next few weeks for business and a little pleasure thrown in. I think it’s a good time to review my favorite tips and techniques for fabric hand appliqué. I know a lot of people are hesitant to try it because they think it’s too hard. But, if you start with a simple design with large pieces, it’s easy to pick up the skill. This will be a 3 part series.

Let’s get started with some of the basics.

What is Appliqué?

It’s from the French word appliquér meaning “to apply” or “to put on”. That’s what you are doing. You are applying a fabric motif to your quilt. Appliqué has been found on quilted items dating to the 9th century. But we’re going to talk about appliqué that is a bit more current.

Appliqué in the early17th to 19th centuries in American progressed from broderie perse style quilts, which are a medallion style quilt, to Baltimore Album style block quilts, with a different appliqué design in each block.

Appliqué in My Quilts

Sometimes I use appliqué as a unique way to dress up a quilt that I think needs just a little more and sometimes the appliqué is the “star” of the quilt. Here are two examples:

For Fan Dance on the left, I thought the quilt top needed a bit more, so I added the appliqué flowers in the borders to fill up the plain borders. For High Prairie Blooms on the right, the appliqué was planned as an integral part of the quilt design. Appliqué blocks were designed as an alternating block with the pieced churn dash star blocks.

Supplies You Will Needs

Now it’s time to get to the supplies you need for getting started on an appliqué project. Let’s start with my favorite supplies. Other hand-appliqué instructors may have different supply preferences. Feel free to try out all of the recommendations to see what works best for you.

Needles: These are an essential tool for hand appliqué. Finding the right needle for you is important. These are my favorite brand, John James Gold ‘n Glide:

These needles come in various lengths. The higher the number, the shorter the needle. I like size 9 because I feel it’s the right length for me. Test different size needles to see which length fits you best.  I’ve also found that this brand of needle glides easier through all types of fabric, including batiks. This is something you need to consider. If you have trouble getting your needle to go through the edge of your appliqué it could be because you are not using the right needle, that will make appliqué process more frustrating.

Also, change your needle often if you appliqué a lot. Needles will bend out of shape and also become dull with usage. A good rule of thumb is to use a new needle every time you start a new project. Another piece of advice is change your needle for every 10 hours of use, which could happen if you are working on a large project.

Threads: This is actually where a lot of designers have different advice. My favorite thread to use is a 100% silk-finished cotton thread. Here’s some of the threads I use:

I recommend matching your thread color as closely as possible to the color of the appliqué piece to help hide stitches. These threads, Mettler 50wt 100% silk-finished cotton, come in a large variety of colors and is my favorite brand.

Some stitchers like to use an array of neutral threads (right) from dark to light to stitch. They use darker neutrals on darker fabrics and lighter neutrals on lighter fabrics. Try it both ways to see what result you like best.

There are also appliquérs that recommend 100% silk thread because it is finer and the stitches are easier to hide. I have found it to be too thin for my liking, but give it a try and see if you like it.

Other Tools: Here are two other items I can’t live without. Roxanne’s Glue Baste-it and Sewline brand marking pencils.

This glue replaces the pins I used in the past to secure my appliqué pieces. I’ve been doing hand appliqué for over 30 years and have had many finger sticks from appliqué pins over those years.

As for the Sewline marking pencil, this is a mechanical type pencil with chalk lead. The lead comes in a variety of colors (white, pink, green, and yellow) so you can see the markings on all colors of fabric. It’s erasable and completely disappears with a bit of water on a Q-tip. The glue is also water soluble so the Q-tip trick will work to get rid of any glue residue that ends up on your background fabric.

Good Lighting: Finally, good lighting is essential when you are doing hand appliqué. If you want to keep your stitches as small as possible so they are almost invisible, you need to have good light to see and, in some cases, a magnifier on that light. Here’s my desk top light:

I also have a floor lamp by my TV chair if I decide to stitch while watching TV. That one also has a magnifier.

Other items like scissors (both for fabric and paper), for working with templates and appliqué pieces, and rulers, for positioning the pieces of your appliqué motif, come in handy.

Preparation

Now we move on to the preparation where I will talk about the templates for the design, using the templates and preparing the fabric appliqués for stitching. 

Templates: The first thing to learn about when beginning to appliqué is the templates: what they are and how to work with them. Templates are what you use to create the individual pieces of an appliqué motif.

I recommend copying the pages onto card stock and cutting out the templates to make them sturdier. That’s what I did with the templates on the right, below. If you don’t have a way to copy them directly to card stock, you can glue the paper page to a piece of card stock and then cut out the shapes.

This makes the templates more sturdy so when you are tracing the shapes onto the fabric, the templates don’t lose their shape from repeated use. You can also store the reusable templates in the pattern bag with the pattern for when you want to make the project again.

Tracing onto Fabric: The next step is to trace your shapes onto the fabric designated for the appliqué piece, using the templates. For fabric appliqué, the templates are traced on the right side of the fabric. Most templates in patterns are ready to use at 100%, as they are in all my patterns, but be sure to check the templates if you are using another designer’s appliqué pattern to see if there is anything you need to do before using their templates.

Some patterns will tell you to also trace a template “reversed” which just means to flip it over and trace some that way. This usually happens with non-symmetrical shapes or shapes that are used both ways.

My example below shows the method I use. Trace around the template and leave at least 1/2″ between tracings if you are tracing several of the same shape on the same piece of fabric. For needle-turn appliqué, you need this space to cut out the shapes with enough fabric to turn under while stitching, as opposed to machine appliqué techniques that require no seam allowance for turn-under.

Preparing the Appliqué for Stitching: Next step after tracing is to cut out the shapes and prepare them for stitching to the quilt block or top.

Cut the shapes out a scant 1/4″ outside the drawn line. This creates the seam allowance that is turned under when stitching. Then, use your scissors to make clips into the seam allowance up to, but not over, the drawn line (last photo). 

The clips in the seam allowance make it easier to turn under the seam in sections to help keep the original shape of the appliqué piece. The curvier an area of the appliqué piece, the closer together your clips should be and there should be more clips than you would have on a straight side.

That’s all for the supplies and prep work to start a fabric appliqué project. Next week I will cover motif layout. Here’s a mini video tutorial that covers some of the things I talked about here.

Leave a comment below with your tips or some questions. I will collect these over the next 3 weeks and enter you into a drawing for my newest pattern (it’s not out yet!) Starfire:

There will also be a pack of needles and a mini Roxanne’s glue along with the pattern. The drawing will be on Monday, March 30th after the appliqué series is done, so you  have 3 weeks to enter. ***We have a winner! Congrats, Donna Logan!***

Happy Quilting!
Deanne

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

Fabric Appliqué – It’s Easier Than You Think!

It’s true! Needle-turn hand appliqué is easier than you think. It’s time for my annual tutorial on appliqué. I’ll start with a little history of appliqué and then move onto my first lesson, which covers supplies and preparation. Then there will be two more lessons in the next two weeks. I hope to de-mystify hand appliqué and create more appliqué converts! 

What is Appliqué?

It’s from the French word appliquér meaning “to apply” or “to put on”. That’s what you are doing. You are applying a fabric motif to your quilt. Appliqué has been found on quilted items dating to the 9th century! But we’re going to talk about appliqué that is a bit more current.

Appliqué in the early17th to 19th centuries in American progressed from broderie perse style quilts, which are a medallion style quilt, to Baltimore Album style block quilts, with a different appliqué design in each block.

How I Use Appliqué 

My favorite use of appliqué is to add accents to a quilt by either appliquéing on or around the blocks or framing the design. Many times when I get done piecing a quilt top, I think it looks sort of bare without appliqué. Here’s a few of my quilts where I did this:

Then there are the quilts there I have appliqué in the blocks themselves. High Prairie Blooms (left) has alternating fully appliquéd blocks. Wildflower Lane has appliqué added to pieced blocks.

Supplies 

Now it’s time to get to the supplies you need for getting started on an appliqué project. Let’s start with my favorite supplies. Other hand-appliqué instructors may have different supply preferences. Feel free to try out all of the recommendations to see what works best for you.

Needles: These are an essential tool for hand appliqué. Finding the right needle for you is important. These are my favorite brand, John James Gold ‘n Glide:

These needles come in various lengths. The higher the number, the shorter the needle. I like size 9 because I feel it’s the right length for me. Test different size needles to see which length fits you best.  I’ve also found that this brand of needle glides easier through all types of fabric, including batiks. This is something you need to consider. If you have trouble getting your needle to go through the edge of your appliqué it could be because you are not using the right needle, that will make appliqué process more frustrating.

Also, change your needle often if you appliqué a lot. Needles will bend out of shape and also become dull with usage. A good rule of thumb is to use a new needle every time you start a new project. Another piece of advice is change your needle for every 10 hours of use, which could happen if you are working on a large project.

Threads: This is actually where a lot of designers have different advice. My favorite thread to use is a 100% silk-finished cotton thread. Here’s some of the threads I use:

I recommend matching your thread color as closely as possible to the color of the appliqué piece to help hide stitches. These threads, Mettler 50wt 100% silk-finished cotton, come in a large variety of colors and is my favorite brand. Some appliquérs like to use an array of neutral threads (right) from dark to light to stitch. They use darker neutrals on darker fabrics and lighter neutrals on lighter fabrics. Try it both ways to see what result you like best.

There are also appliquérs that recommend 100% silk thread because it is finer and the stitches are easier to hide. I have found it to be too thin for my liking, but give it a try and see if you like it.

Other Tools: Here are two other items I can’t live without. Roxanne’s Glue Baste-it and Sewline brand marking pencils.

I love this glue because it replaced the pins I needed to secure my appliqué pieces. I’ve been doing hand appliqué for almost 30 years and have had many finger sticks from appliqué pins over those years.

As for the Sewline marking pencil, this is a mechanical type pencil with chalk lead. The lead comes in a variety of colors (white, pink, green, and yellow) so you can see the markings on all colors of fabric. It’s erasable and completely disappears with a bit of water on a Q-tip. The glue is also water soluble so the Q-tip trick will work to get rid of any glue residue that ends up on your background fabric.

Good Lighting: Finally, good lighting is essential when you are doing hand appliqué. If you want to keep your stitches as small as possible so they are almost invisible, you need to have good light to see and, in some cases, a magnifier on that light. Here’s my desk top light:

I also have a floor lamp by my TV chair if I decide to stitch while watching TV. That one also has a magnifier.

Other items like scissors (both for fabric and paper), for working with templates and appliqué pieces, and rulers, for positioning the pieces of your appliqué motif, come in handy.

Preparation

Now it’s time for the preparation which refers to the templates, using the templates and preparing the fabric appliqués for stitching. 

Templates: The first thing to learn about when beginning to appliqué is the templates: what they are and how to work with them. Templates are what you use to create the individual pieces of an appliqué motif.

I recommend copying the pages onto card stock and cutting out the templates to make them sturdier. That’s what I did with the templates on the right, below. I you don’t have a way to copy them directly to card stock, you can glue the paper page to a piece of card stock and then cut out the shapes.

This makes the templates more sturdy so when you are tracing the shapes onto the fabric, the templates don’t lose their shape from repeated use. You can also store the reusable templates in the pattern bag with the pattern for when you want to make the project again.

Tracing onto Fabric: The next step is to trace your shapes onto the fabric designated for the appliqué piece, using the templates. For needle-turn appliqué, the templates are traced on the right side of the fabric. Most templates in patterns are ready to use at 100%, as they are in all my patterns, but be sure to check the templates if you are using another designer’s appliqué pattern to see if there is anything you need to do before using their templates.

Some patterns will tell you to also trace a template “reversed” which just means to flip it over and trace some that way. This usually happens with non-symmetrical shapes or shapes that are used both ways.

My example below shows the method I use. Trace around the template and leave at least 1/2″ between tracings if you are tracing several of the same shape on the same piece of fabric. For needle-turn appliqué, you need this space to cut out the shapes with enough fabric to turn under while stitching, as opposed to machine appliqué techniques that require no seam allowance for turn-under.

Preparing the Appliqué for Stitching: Next step after tracing is to cut out the shapes and prepare them for stitching to the quilt block or top.

Cut the shapes out a scant 1/4″ outside the drawn line. This creates the seam allowance that is turned under when stitching. Then, use your scissors to make clips into the seam allowance up to, but not over, the drawn line (last photo). 

The clips in the seam allowance make it easier to turn under the seam in sections to help keep the original shape of the appliqué piece. The curvier an area of the appliqué piece, the closer together your clips should be and there should be more clips than you would have on a straight side.

Now you are ready to pull out that appliqué pattern that’s in your stash and get started. Next week we will cover motif layout among other things.

Meanwhile, here’s a mini video tutorial covering the topics in this week’s post.

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 the Monday after the appliqué series ends, August 4th, so you have 3 weeks to enter. ***We have a winner! Congrats, Lynn Telke!***

Happy Quilting!
Deanne