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applique

I apologize if this has been asked and answered but I'm new to the group and still pretty new at quilting. I'm making a t-shirt quilt with my son's athletic team t-shirts and I saved all the sleeve logos and player numbers to use as appliques on the back. My hand sewing skills are decent and I plan to hand sew using needle turn. Originally I was going to applique them to the back before I quilted but then I realized I'd have quilting (planning to quilt by machine) stitches through the appliques (which are glossy numbers). So my choices are either to line things up and estimate where the quilt stitches will go first and then applique and try to avoid when quilting. Or I thought about quilting first and then appliqueing onto the back. So is it feasible and realistic to hand turn appliques onto the back fabric of the quilt after it's already been quilted? Or is it too difficult to just sew onto that layer?

Thanks

Reply to
Sue
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Definitely appliqué after you quilt. Much easier all the way around, especially since you're going to hand appliqué.

And welcome to the group!

Reply to
Kathy Applebaum

I have appliquéd to an already quilted piece. It is actually easier, as you have little raised pieces that you can slip your needle into. And the look of the uninterrupted quilting behind the appliqué is lovely. I didn't find it difficult at all to restrict myself to just the one layer of fabric to pick up with the needle - and, if you do go a bit deeper, by accident, it will only be the batting. It would take some effort to get all the way to the front! . In message , Sue writes

Reply to
Patti

Realizing that there are no quilt police, I tend to break a lot of "rules". That being said, this is what I would think about doing -- lay out your fabric, and arrange the various pieces you want to applique. Keep moving them around in various designs until you're pleased. When it's "just right", get out a marking pen with disappearing ink and run it around the edges of all of the pieces to be appliqued. Now, take the pieces off the fabric and put them aside somewhere safe where they won't wander away. Before the disappearing ink actually disappears, take an ordinary pencil and draw the shapes about a 1/4" inside the disappearing ink shapes. The pencil marks will stay put, and will be hidden by the applique. Now you can go ahead and do the quilting. After the quilting is finished, get out all the little pieces you tucked away and applique them to the quilt.

Reply to
Mary

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