applique progress

Ann,

Being I know nothing about applique it sure looks nice and neat to me. I think it is great work. Jacqueline from Kentucky to reply: quilter at mountain-breeze dot com

Very nice! You have way more patience than me. I have never had the tenacity to do buttonhole applique lol.

Cheryl, it's not by hand........I don't have THAT much patience LOL..........my machine has the buttonhole stitch........lucky me!!

Thanks Jacqueline. I"ve been trying to take extra care in sewing/steering my machine.

Like I said - I do not have THAT much patience.

I find hand applique much easier than machine applique, and I could never get the buttonhole stitch to stay on the fabric edge - it always wanted to wander off and go see what the rest of the block was doing lol

Yours looks very neat and precise - well done!

Ann, this is so sweet and you are doing a lovely job with it. What pattern are you using? I love your bunnies. I don't know who's going to get that quilt, but they're way, way lucky.

Sunny

Ann wrote:

Ann, here's a quick and neat way to tie-off without looking messy. If you try this, practice on a scrap. See if you can set the needle position over just one notch and the stitch length down to teeny short stitches for your Straight Stitch. (Whether you set it to the left of center or the right depends on which way your applique stitch is swinging.) If your SM will remember to do very short stitches and the needle position off center when you come back from the applique stitch, this is a time saver. If it's going to forget the strange setting, this will not help you at all. Would just be too much bother. That's how I begin and finish doing the machine applique stitching. I flip the sewing machine to take maybe 3 nearly invisible straight stitches (barely off the edge of the appliqued bunny) and then set it to do the applique stitch. If the moon is right and your horoscope sign is not on the cusp, this will let you very neatly get the 'tie-off' step done very quickly. I love the look of doubled black thread applique stitching on 30's fabric, but to be that bold, I had to perfect starting and stopping invisibly. So glad to see you enjoying the bunny book. Isn't that one just a treasure? Polly

Sunny, the pattern is Grandma's Bunnies by Darcy Ashton. 30 bunny patterns and lots of veggies to applique. I"m thinking it might go to DH nephew's new baby. We are having DH family Christmas middle of November and if I get it done by then I'll give it to them as a baby gift. Will see as I have lots going on between now and then. Every weekend something planned and it's the weekend's that I do most of my sewing.

I think I get what you are saying Polly. Doing it this way do you clip top and bottom threads close to the stitiching or pull the top to the back and clip or tie?

I have 9 blocks so far and only 1 left to do the applique so I'll give this a try on the last block. Probably do more blocks though, time permitting.

It doesn't matter much, Ann, what the bottom threads look like since only the batting will ever see them when you get your sandwich together. Just clip the bottom threads close enough so that they can't wander over and start an argument. Clipping the top threads is quite another matter. I have some tiny, fine-tipped curved Gingher scissors for that. There are some duck-billed scissors here that were made for close clipping and also some sort of bent-angled ones that are for using with a hoop on the SM. I like the tiny ones much better - but that's just a personal choice. As to 'pulling through', Yes, indeed, I pull through when I'm machine quilting. I pull the bottom thread up to the top, thread both into a hand needle and bury them under the top. How I do hate to see messy starts and stops on the back of a quilt. And another 'yes'. 3 x 4 bunny blocks will make a better size - plus it's just so hard to quit making bunnies. Or at least that's what I hear. Polly

Very cute! :)

Ann, we had a real "pro" in my guild in CA. She has since gone to the heavenly quilt frame, but her style left an everlasting impression. She loved the machine blanket and also satin stitch applique methods. She used to take a little scrap of the steam-a-seam prepared fabric and use it to iron down/trap the starting and ending threads. The back of her work (before sandwiching) had all these little tell-tale starts & stops over the patches (not in the background areas). She said in all of her experiences, it gave her the most secure & time saving trap for those threads. Looks great!!!

Can I join you on that bench? I HAVE to appliqué by machine and have discovered I am AVOIDING IT! I got too spoilt when doing it by hand. Just can't get the ole brain to ACCEPT that it CAN and WILL have to be done by machine from now on. Maybe we should have Ann give us lessons? What about it Ann.... would you be willin?

Butterfly

If I recollect proper.didn't our Suzie form under the South-end pier do an entire quilt of the bunnies a while back? Maybe I got her mixed up with someone else...anything's possible today

Butterfly (overcast where did those clouds come from_ clouding the brain they is)

Thanks for the vote of confident Butterfly but....ummmmmmm........I"m a beginner at applique. There are more accomplished appliquers here that I shall ever be.

Speaking of AVOIDing though.........I don't do hand sewing :)

Oh that's a neat trick. One to remember. Leaving long thread tails and you would only need a couple of patches.

But actually I don't mind pulling to the back and tying off. I save that to do while I watch a bit of tv.

I had to do some by machine a little while ago, Butterfly, and I found that sticking small pieces of fusible web on the back held it in place so well that I could fiddle with the machining without worrying about its moving. I had already turned under the edges and tacked them. So all was much easier than I had thought it would be. I prefer hand applique if I have the time to indulge myself! . In message , Butterflywings writes

You remember correctly, it was Suzie. I hope Suzie doesn't mind but here is her page, (it's in her siggy line anyway )

Thanks, I moved that post to my quilting tips file :) I'll get it out again AFTER we move..see.. I am avoiding it at all cost right now . Just don't need to add any more stress

Butterfly