foundation piecing and applique in one process

Thanks Leslie. I know you've been practicing your machine quilting lately. I highly recommend doing this so you can get the speed down before you have to think about design. It also helps with your "aim" for when you are using quilting templates marked on a top. So start looking for fabrics with shapes you can trace with the sewing machine. Plus...it's fun to play with crayons again!

Kathyl, a question- how do you go from one motif to the next? Do you quilt over to it- if so, do you plan the traveling to be the same on all the motifs? Or do you knot off between each one? TIA

Leslie & The Furbabies > Thanks Leslie. I know you've been practicing your machine quilting lately.

I only traveled between the motifs if they were touching. To start a new motif, I would pull my bobbin to the top (as usual) then take several small stitches but not in one place. When I came to the end, I would take several more teeny stitches, raise my presser foot, pull the piece about 8" away from that spot, hook the top thread with my finger and hold it there and then slide the quilt back to the hole where I ended and take one stitch and pull up the bobbin thread and cut a tail. This is a method to get a tail of bobbin thread and still have a length of bobbin on the back so it doesn't disappear when you start sewing again. I HATE that! I wonder if this is demonstrated online somewhere? I think I learned it from a Carol Fallert CD. Or maybe from Libby Lehman...or all of them...I don't know. Since this was really the back of my quilt (quilting from the back) I could then bury those threads (no knots) just under the fabric facing up. As I said previously, I used a thread lasso/snare. Take a larger sized sewing needle and some strong thread (quilting or buttonhole) and thread the needle with both ends of the thread so you have a loop. Insert the needle right where the quilting thread tails are and slide it under the top a short distance. Pull the quilt thread tails through the loop, then pull the needle through so the tails a popped under the quilt. Trim off the tails if they are long enough to come out again where the needle emerged. Clear as mud??? Maybe I'll have to do a tutorial on webshots. I'm sure this is all on the internet somewhere. And certainly better explained than I just did. If you were going to do this on a quilt that you quilted from the top, you would need to pull your threads to the back and then bury them. They might show through the quilt top if you buried them under there.

I just snuck in the house abandoning hubby in the front yard. We're planting three flats of Wave petunias- love those little guys!- so I don't have time to read this carefully. I have been taking my tiny stitches by backing up to where I want to start my quilting and making my first "regular size" stitch over top of the tiny stitches. Is this something people do or should I stop doing it for any reason???

Leslie & The Furbabies > I only traveled between the motifs if they were touching. To start a new

I don't know if I've seen it done that way, but I think it's a really good idea! Go for it!

What's a thread lasso? Debra in VA See my quilts at

You take a larger sized hand sewing needle and some strong thread. Like a buttonhole or topstitching thread. Put both ends of the thread through the eye and leave a loop. If you have thread tails you want to hide back in the quilt, put the needle into the top where the threads tails are, and slide the needle under the top to another spot about the needle's length away, leaving the loop near the thread tails. Pull the tails through the loop then pull them through to where the needle comes out by pulling on the needle "lasso". And trim off if they are long enough to stick out. It's a good way to hide the thick threads like "Razzle Dazzle" when doing bobbin work.

ah ha, i had to read thru that more than once slowly til it sunk in, lol. great idea, thanks for that. jeanne

Well I'm flattered you stuck with it to understand. I doubt I described it very well. Somewhere I've saved a message from Robbi Eklow where she describes doing this....probably much, much better. Ricky Tims also uses this method to pop his heavy bobbin thread into the quilt when he's using those fancy sparkly threads. Between the two of them....I finally figured it out.

I've done that for years on lots of different needlework projects and never thought it might have a name. Debra in VA See my quilts at

There's nothing new under the sun. Sometimes we just need to shed a little light on things and they seem new.