I thought that this morning I would share with everyone on how I put my blocks together. Due to the fact that I have MS, (not complaining, just explaining) I can no longer do much hand appliqué so I am using some different techniques in order to appliqué. I thought I would share with those of you that want to see what I'm doing.
The first step is to take my freezer paper and iron it onto my fabric. I then cut out my fabric a quarter inch around my entire piece to be appliquéd. I have these absolute wonderful electric scissors, for those of you that have never used electric scissors and that have maybe arthritis or trouble with your hands, you need to try a pair. They make life a lot easier.
I then take my iron and iron all the edges under. If I have a piece of applique that has a lot of different edges, sometimes I might need to use an acid-free glue stick to help me to get my edges stay under.
I then use an acid-free starch and paint around the edges of my applique. As I put on the starch, I iron the starch to hold the piece in place.
I then remove all freezer paper and as you can see all my edges are
neatly turned under and my pieces are ready to appliqué. It does take some time but I think the process is worth the time for me.
The lollipop quilt has a lot of circles in it, the perfect Circle templates by Karen K. Buckley will be used for this process.
Now I am ready to machine appliqué my pieces to my fabric.
Normally I would use the buttonhole stitch to do my applique, for some reason this time I chose a very small zigzag applique stitch, 1.0 in length and 1.5 in width. I think that the zigzag appliqué stitch will be a lot easier to use because there are so many circular shapes, trying to get a buttonhole stitch to go around a circle would not be a very easy task.Looking forward to working on my lollipops with such beautiful and happy fabric as I sing the song. Thank you all so much for sharing your blocks, your knowledge and information. You are all such an inspiration, it is wonderful how we all can do things in different ways with different fabrics to create such beauty.
Happy Stitching to All,
Rosemary
The Lollipop Girl
Rosemary what a wonderful tutorial. I just may have to try your leaf technique, thanks!
ReplyDeleteLove that you walked us through your process. Being a relative applique newbie, I would love it if others would also share their techniques in detail like that. Thanks Rosemary!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, your work is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteJust perfect! Sandy
ReplyDeleteI love the greens. Thanks for the tutorial. Your machine applique is nicer than my hand work. I'm so impressed!
ReplyDeleteLovely machine applique--I agree with Leland above--looks fantastic! And thanks for sharing your techniques!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant, Rosemary! Your applique is beautiful. Thank you SEW much for sharing your techniques and story with us. You are an inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe how perfect your stitching is!
ReplyDeleteGreat tutorial Rosemary, it's always helpful to see all the different options for applique. Your machine work is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect machine stitching Rosemary! I can only dream being able to do applique by machine.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tutorial, very clear instructions. What kind of thread do you use for machine applique? Is it a transparent one and do you use the same in the bobbins as well? If you use a transparent thread and I guess this would be one of those filament types I've seen, do you then have to change the machine settings for tension?
Sorry to be asking a lot of thread questions, but I've bought myself a new Bernina and I'm doing a bit of trying out - I will get to a class one of these days though.
Keep up the good work and don't forget to post your block photos! Cheers, Kim McL
Thanks for sharing your technique. The applique is beautiful! The tips of your leaves are so perfect. I'll have to watch you make a leaf sometime to see how you turn the edges under to get such a nice point.
ReplyDeleteRosemary, if you are still reading comments... How do you place your applique pieces after the freezer paper preparation? Do you baste them in place, do you use a vinyl sheet with the pattern marked or do you use some other technique? Thanks...
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