Here is trick to make your hand sewing much easier. Using a stiletto or pair of tweezers, grab the paper and give a slight tug to release the glue. You just need a small hole large enough to pull the freezer paper through.
Be very careful to stay far from the sew edges. CAREFULLY with a pair of applique scissors that are sharp right to the point, cut a small slit in the background directly underneath your applique piece. Once the pieces are stitched in place, turn over the piece and locate the individual pieces with freezer paper still attached inside. Once you make it all the way around your piece it should look like the photos below. Clip only once for an inside point, make a few clips for a curve. The example shown in the photos has all convex sides, but if your piece has a tighter concave curve or an inside point, you will need to clip into the seam allowance almost all the way to the freezer paper to have it conform to the shape easily. The seam allowance should lightly adhere to the slick side of the freezer paper which is now facing up.įollow around the edge of your template turning the edge with the stiletto and gently ironing with the mini iron to hold in place. Using a mini iron and a stiletto that will not melt, gently iron the seam allowance over the template, with the crease right on the edge of the freezer paper. If there are any sharp points on your applique shapes, begin by folding over the point first. Now we will start turning the raw edges of the fabric. Once you have your templates glued down, using your fabric shears, cut the fabric pieces out leaving a scant 1/4" seam allowance (about 3/16" is about right) on all sides. Now, using a water soluble glue stick, apply a little glue on the center of the paper (non slick) side of each template and glue them down to the wrong side of your fabric. This keeps my fabric shears sharper longer. I like to use a separate pair of scissors to cut paper from the good ones I use to cut fabric with. In this case I have flower petals in either medium or light blue, and leaves that will all be cut out of a single green fabric. Label them if there is any confusion about where they go in the block design.Ĭut out the templates right on the line, and separate them into piles based on the fabric that will be used for each applique piece. Make sure you trace an outline for each piece you will be appliqueing, as the freezer paper templates can not be reused. Window to help you see the pattern clearly. If you need it, use a light box or a well lit
Start by tracing your pattern pieces onto the paper (non slick) side of a I have seen this demonstrated, and it seemed like a pretty easy method and one that could be used for either hand or machine. This eliminates the need to pre-turn the edges of your pieces. Preparing your applique pieces Normally when I do applique, I like to do simple needle-turn. The main thing is that you are enjoying the technique and it is achieving the results you like.
HOW TO DO APPLIQUE IN ELECTRIC QUILT 8 FREE
If you have another method you would like to use on this quilt, please feel free to do that. The applique in the Twilight Gardens quilt can be done by hand or machine, and this method of prepping your applique pieces can be used for either method. I tend to be a hand applique person, and many of you are not, and prefer to do everything by machine. It seems there are dozens of ways to applique one fabric to another, and ultimately, you need to try a few methods and find the one you like the best and gives you the best results. We are not quite there yet, but I thought I would give you a little primer on one way to do applique. Those of you who are following along with the construction of Twilight Gardens may have been wondering about the applique coming up in block 5.