first crazy quilt

oh *good* it's not just me :-)

this year has been the year of trying out appliqué by hand & by machine I think I have tried most kinds by now LOL

This is the method I use; it works well for me. Sometimes, the freezer paper loosens up. If it's just a bit, I hold everything down with a few little pins. You can also use your iron to re-seal it down.

Julia in MN

It sure helped my machine applique. All you need to do is lay the freezer paper shiney side up, place you pre-cut background piece face up over the paper, then press with a low temp iron. The paper will stick to the fabric. Now just pin or glue stick your applique pieces in place and machine sew them. Lastly, peel the paper from the back of the finished block. Don't worry about it if some paper stays stuck in the stitches, just get the majority of the paper off. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Plus there is simply using the freezer paper as a stabilizer for the background fabric.

Debra in VA See my quilts at

It works like a charm for a stabilizer. I also use a glue stick for applique piece placement. Fast, simple, and no pins to get in the way. Debra in VA See my quilts at

thanks! I'll try that next time I need to do appliqué :-)

I saw in another message from you that you use it for machine applique. I *had* intended to hand stitch this tiny piece, but I might reconsider! It doesn't matter which I use really. So, I'll see how it goes. I have to re-make it anyway - grrr - I enlarged my drawing to what I thought would be a good size and it is really too big. So, I'll have to start again. . In message , Debra writes

It might work for hand applique too, but I haven't used it that way. Debra in VA See my quilts at

How about 'back basting" ? It is the only way I can do what ends up looking like needle turn. Before I discovered it, I did the old fashioned, draw and hand baste the seam allowance under before sewing the piece to the background. Now I love to do back basting for applique by hand.

appleblossomquilts.com has a great tutorial on backbasting.

Pati, > oh *good* it's not just me :-)

I've pretty much decided to give it to my cat! :-)

That's good advice. Another advantage for thinking this will be for the cat is that it will be small!

It's neat that you could be thrilled even though things don't turn out like they were in one's mind! Hmmm. I wonder if someone around here would be equally impressed? I guess there's one way to find out.

Oh! I saw the neatest cat cloth today. Maybe batik. I wonder if I can figure out some other materials to go with it? I need to start looking at the books I got out from the library and come up with a plan.

Cat is ok I suppose since who would I be to say no to a QI???? :). My first patchwork quilt is not displayed prominently but it does have a place in my bedroom on a mounted quilt rack. No matter how tacky it looks in places it reminds me of where I started and where I am going. And as far as the going the sky is the limit! julia