I'm borrowing Pat's Focus on Design idea for a series of applique oriented discussions. I don't know how many I might come up with but here is the first one.
Ugly fabrics are often perfect for applique. The very reason they won't look good in a pieced block, as sashing strips, or as border fabric makes them good for applique uses.
Muddy brown colored fabrics can be used as walkways, tree branches, fall leaves, acorns, animal bodies, freshly plowed fields, buildings, furniture, and insects. Ugly blue prints can be lakes, creeks, stormy skies. Ugly greens can be fields, tree covered mountains, frog ponds, leaves and stems, lizards, frogs, turtles, and bugs.
Prints that are too big for other quilting uses can be used for applique too. That print of large pumpkins can be cut to make pumpkins for applique onto a fall or Halloween wall hanging or calendar quilt block. Oversized flowers can be used the same way.
But every now and then there is a print that just stumps you. I've inherited just such an ugly print, and ugly as it is I couldn't bring myself to toss it out. I think I know how to use it now. It's from the 1970s; medium blue background with large ugly green, red, and gold flowers with navy colored stems. There are also large squares with a navy hexagonal pattern inside them. I think this fabric was supposed to look somewhat Asian, but it falls short by a long shot. I've found the flowers don't lend themselves to applique use at all. I was thinking that I could use some of the hexagonal patterned parts for a block that features a honey bee. Oddly enough when I cut off a small part of the honeycomb the thought of shoe treads and the tops of flip flops came to my mind. So now this fabric that has stumped me for years has presented me with more than one possible use.
Has anyone else had a fabric stump you, only to realize part of it is perfect for a particular applique? Debra in VA See my quilts at