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Wool Appliqué Made Easy! – Part 2

Welcome back to week 2 of my wool appliqué series! If you missed the first installment, here is a link: Wool Appliqué Made Easy! – Part 1. This week, I will cover tips on creating your wool pieces using the fusible shapes you drew and cut out last week and laying out the motif on your background. I will share other related tips also. There will be another mini video tutorial at the end. So let’s get started!

Creating Your Wool Shapes

In this step, we use those fusible web template shapes we created in part 1 to make your appliqués from the wool.

Place the fusible shapes in a corner on the piece of wool you have chosen so there is as little waste of wool as possible when they are cut out. After you have the shapes in place, follow the manufacturer’s directions for the fusible web and use your iron to fuse it to the wool. 

Tip! Wool can be used on either side, however one side of your piece of wool may be prettier than the other, especially if you have a piece of hand dyed wool. Choose the side you like and iron the fusible shape to the other side.

Once I am sure the fusible is fused completely to the wool, I cut away the rest of the wool and put it back in my stash. I like to use the scissors below. The have a sharp serrated edge and cut the wool cleanly.

Now it’s time to use the drawn lines to cut out the shapes. Remember that we cut out the fusible shapes outside the lines last week. Following the drawn line now insures our final wool appliqués pieces above look like an actual flower. It’s easier to cut along lines now than trying to follow the outside of the fusible web edge.

Once the shape is completely cut out, you can peel off and discard the fusible paper. Notice how the back of the shape is now shiny (photo below). That was transferred from the fusible web when it was ironed earlier and it’s the side that will be placed face down on the background later.

Design Layout

Now that you have all the appliqué shapes cut out from the wool, it’s time to layout the design. We will now use those lines you drew or folded into your background last week. 

Stems: If your appliqué motif has stems, those are usually laid out first and glued in place. Stems for these projects are commonly as thin as 1/4″ so I do not use templates and fusible web to create those. I simply cut strips for the stems from a piece of wool and lay them out using a small amount of Roxanne’s glue to secure.

Tip! Use the other appliqué motif pieces as a guide for getting your stems in the correct position before gluing.

As you can see from the above photos, I am using the folds in the background, the flower pot and one of the flowers as guides to laying out my stems. Once I have them in the right place, I glue the stems so they do not move as I lay out and fuse the rest of the design in place.

Lay out & Fuse Design in Place

Now it’s time to layout the rest of the design and fuse it in place. Here’s the design all laid out:

Now that I have the design completely laid out and the stems glued where I want, it’s time to fuse the entire motif. I use a steam method to do this. I do not put water in my iron, instead I use a spray bottle of water. I lay a towel over the design, careful not to move any of the pieces. Be sure to use a white towel so there is no chance of a dye transfer to your project.

Once the project is covered with the towel, I spray it with enough water to wet it. Then I carefully press the project through the towel. Be sure not to move the iron back and forth during this step. Lift the iron up to move to the next section.

To check if the fusing process is complete, carefully lift the towel starting at the top. Test pieces to see if they are fused securely by gently touching them to see if they move or if any appliqué edges lift up. Repeat the spray and press step as long as it takes to fuse everything down.

Here’s my mini video tutorial that covers these steps to give you a better understanding, especially of the fusing process.

So that’s all for week 2! See you next week for the last installment in this series. Leave a comment or ask a question below and you will be entered into the drawing for the Pumpkin Patch wool kit that includes the pattern and wool.

The drawing will be on Monday, October 10th.***We have a winner! Congrats, Carol!***

Happy Quilting & Stitching!
Deanne

Wool Appliqué Made Easy! – Part 1

Hi! Over the next 3 weeks I will be sharing my wool appliqué series. I will be traveling for a few weeks, so I thought this would be a good time to do a review of this fun technique. You can bet I will have several wool appliqué projects with me to keep me stitching!

This week, we cover the basics from preparing templates and the background fabric to actually using the templates. I will also share some of my favorite tools and tips along with my mini video tutorials to demonstrate some of the things I talk about. Please still comment and ask questions. I will be checking in on my blog daily and answering questions. Let’s get started!

The First Steps

When you open up a wool appliqué pattern, there will be a template page or pages of templates that will be used to create the appliqué motif. If you plan to use the pattern multiple times, it’s best not to cut the templates out. To create reusable templates, I like to make a copy of the template page onto cardstock and then cut them out using a scissors (designated for paper only of course!).

If you do not have a printer that also copies or do not have access to a copier, trace the templates onto plain paper and glue that paper to a piece of card stock. I like reinforcing the templates like this so I can use them multiple times without them losing their shape. You can also use other kinds of materials to reinforce your templates.

Here are card stock templates that are ready to use:

Cut the templates from the card stock using the paper scissors. My templates are marked with how many of each the shapes are needed and from what color wool. If  your pattern does not have them pre-marked like mine, it’s a good idea to write this information on your reinforced templates. Easy storage for your templates after use is in a bag attached to the pattern or, if they are small enough, slipped into the bag with the pattern. 

What do you do once you have the templates prepared? Time to use them to trace your appliqué  shapes onto fusible web. My favorite brand is Heat n’ Bond Feather Lite.

It’s the right weight and I have not noticed it adding any stiffness to the wool or any difficulty stitching through it. Feel free to experiment with the assortment of fusibles on the market to see which one you like best.

Trace the templates onto the fusible using your regular or mechanical pencil. Make sure to trace onto the paper side of the fusible web. If you have any templates that are not symmetrical, you need to reverse that template before tracing since the fusible will be fused onto the back side of the wool. For this example, I want the handle of the flower pot below to face to the left on the project so, the template is flipped for tracing.

Many patterns today will print the templates in the pattern at 100% and all ready reversed for your use. Just make sure to read the pattern and look at the photo of the quilt sample to make sure you are tracing your templates correctly.

When tracing the shapes, make sure to leave enough space to cut them out outside the drawn lines by a bit. I don’t like to cut the fusible shapes out right on the line because I use the line later when cutting the wool pieces out. 

The photo on the left shows how close you can trace templates. If you have templates, like the leaves on the right, that are all from the same color wool, you can cut them out of the fusible as a group and fuse them that way. Then follow the lines to cut out the individual leaves. It’s a good idea to do this because wool is expensive and you don’t want to waste it!

Here are photos of all my templates traced onto the fusible, cut out outside the lines and ready to use:

Preparing the Background

Now that you have all the templates traced and cut from the fusible, it’s time to get your background fabric prepared. Here are the steps:

Step 1:  I like to reinforce the edges of the block with Fray Check. This is an optional step that you can skip if you like. I do it to prevent the edges of the background from fraying into the seam allowance from all the handling while stitching.

Step 2: Next, define your stitching space. I like to measure in 1/2″ from all sides and draw a line. The space inside those lines is where the design will be laid out and stitched.

By defining the space ahead of time, you won’t accidently stitch some of your design into the seam allowance where it will be cut off when you sew the blocks together. I do 1/2″ on all sides so it keeps the design 1/4″ away from the seam allowance.

Step 3: Finally, I like to draw lines or make fold lines in the background to act as a guide for laying out my appliqué motif.

If you don’t want to fold and do creases, use a ruler and a fabric marking pencil and lightly draw those quadrant lines. I also placed a “dot” in the center of the block as a point of reference.

Here’s part 1 of my mini video series on wool appliqué that covers some of the things I talked about in this post. 

That’s it for part 1. Come back next Monday, September 26th for part 2! Leave comments or ask questions below and you will be entered into a drawing for my Pumpkin Patch Wool kit. This kit includes the pattern and the wool, you supply your favorite fabric.

The drawing will be on Monday, October 10th.***We have a winner! Congrats, Carol!***

Happy Quilting & Stitching!
Deanne