Quilty Pleasures Wednesday: Paradise Stitched-Sashiko and Applique Quilts

I received a new quilting book for Christmas and I already have a project from its pages in mind. Hand quilting large spaces should be left to the pros, in my mind, but I'm okay with small projects. Large hand quilting stitches are even better and the Japanese quilting form of sashiko gives me permission to make it big.

Do you like to try new stuff? Spicy grasshoppers have not crossed my palate yet, but it's always fun to try something new with sewing.

Paradise Stitched by Sylvia Pippen offers several wall hanging projects using applique to add blooms and birds to plain fabric. Quilting, embroidery and sashiko, a simple running stitch, complete the projects.

Advice about how to choose the appropriate fabric to get the shading and brights needed is clear enough that even I can understand it.

Here is something I think I could do and it would be a reminder of my California roots.

 

The detail below gives you an idea of the techniques involved. I will be a fused applique person for this project.

So I think this may be a project for 2013. What do you think?

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday: Las Cruces Applique Project and Raw Edge Applique Tutorial

It's been a while since we've had a Quilty Pleasures post, so it's good to be back! Here's a project we are working on at Thread Bear in Las Vegas, NM. It's a Block of the Month project, but Ann, Thread Bear's proprietor and sewist extraordinaire, hasn't chosen our fabrics and kitted them up, but instead has encouraged us to choose what we like, fabric-wise.

This makes for an exciting meeting, looking at the variety of fabrics the members of the group have chosen and gaining experience through others' experiments with our (for many of us) newly acquired applique skills. Some folks are doing hand stitched, needle turn applique while others are using various machine techniques. I'm a member of Team Machine for this one because I really want to finish this project in a timely manner.

The pattern we are using is Las Cruces, by J. Michelle Watts. It's definitely a Southwest style quilt, don't you think? You can find more of her patterns here.

Since Ann was allowing us to choose our own fabric, I decided to get all artsy, so the fabric for each cross (Las Cruces means The Crosses) will represent either a woman I have known and loved, or a group of women in general. It's kind of like Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, an art installation from the 1970's which is my inspiration for this project, but on a  simpler scale. Much simpler.

So I wanted to show my process for making one of the blocks, minus the borders, which I haven't done yet, probably because it won't be as interesting as the crosses themselves.

I'm fusing my fabric to a base square, then using a machine to applique around the edges. I decided not to turn the fabric under before appliqueeing  because it's going to be a wall hanging and not washed much.

Below is one of the cross patterns, which I will trace onto Steam a Seam 2, using an old lightbox Tom had for looking at his slides. You can also trace by using a window or laying the Steam a Seam or your fave fusible over the pattern and hoping the lines show through.

Here is the traced pattern on the Steam a Seam. Notice that I have traced on the smooth side of the paper that is rough on its back side. You can see the bumpy texture on the paper if you look closely. I bought a lot of this fusible because it's part of the game to make mistakes, trace on the wrong side, etc.

My thumb is on the rough, kind of sticky side of the paper

After tracing each of the design's components, it's time to iron the fusible to the wrong side of your fabric. You are fusing to the wrong side because essentially you are transferring the sticky stuff to your fabric, which you will later iron onto your base fabric. Notice I haven't trimmed exactly on the lines because it's easier to do that after fusing.

So the next photo shows me cutting on the lines. For this pattern, I used a little rotary cutter to cut the straight lines and scissors for anything else. I had to throw the first piece away because I was overzealous went a little crazy with the rotary cutter and cut into the fabric. Aargh! is something you will say a lot while fusing. Or much worse, in my case!

Once you have your pieces cut out, peel off the remaining paper, center them on the base square of fabric and iron them into place. Read your pattern instructions or the guidelines on your fusible material or paper for more detailed info.

 It's time to stitch your design piece to the base square of fabric. I decided to use raw edge applique, stitching around each piece using whatever you call this stitch: buttonhole, blanket stitch, whatever you call it. On my Bernina 440 it's stitch number 45.

Like everything, there's a learning curve involved. It's always a good idea to practice on a few test pieces before jumping right in. Some quilters like to use a fabric or paper stabilizer underneath. I am not using one because everything seems to be stitching smoothly...well, kind of. Below, note a couple missed stitches on the blue one. I'll go back and fix that later....or maybe not. I did the turquoise layer first, then the fuschia, with the gold on top. The thread is Ricky Tims artist thread by Superior and the fabrics are Laurel Burch basics.

And here is the block minus the border. This block is to honor the ladies in Taos who work in galleries, not for the money, but for their sheer love of art. I haven't given anything a final pressing, yet. That's for later.

Now don't look too closely or call The Quilt Police, those tut-tut-ers who want to ruin our fun because this is not exactly centered on the square. It's good enough, and that's what counts.

I hope this tutorial has helped you a bit. It was fun, and now, on to Taos for shopping and lunch!

Quilty Pleasures Wednesday: Pieced Applique

Let's face it: I am not an applique type of quiltmaker. I am easily distracted, not patient with close sewing work, the kind of person who has sewn her finger while using a sewing machine because I just glanced away, only a little bit, really. Exactitude is a trait that makes me want to be contrary and do something inexact just to annoy that perfect person.

So when our Friday quilt group decided to take an applique challenge, I admit I cringed a little. But I decided to get up with the Getalong Gang and do a small applique project. Just to get along.

Last year a dear friend gave me a book for my birthday called Penny Haren's Pieced Applique. It looked interesting and I filed it with my quilting books for a future project. This was the book our group would use as a reference. Yay!

Penny Hagen has words in her book like exactly, so the directions put me off a little.  Once I made a couple blocks, though, I was on my way.  I started with a basic block. This one was a group of four patches sewn together. The color looks off....The green is much greenier.

Then I made a simple template out of some printer paper. This one was a one-inch square. I glued the fabric to the templatse and placed them on the patchwork square.

Hey! That looks like a bow tie block!  I decided not to hand sew these appliques because, well, you know how I am. Instead, I used a very narrow zigzag stitch with monofilament on top and colored thread in the bobbin. You can hardly see the stitching.

The blocks are coming along swimmingly. I have a bunch more to make, since the little project has turned into something bigger, for a relative who likes purple and green.  This is my type of applique!