Pretty In Pink Quilt Along Part 3

 

Today on the Pretty in Pink Quilt Along, we are going to talk about applique.  Many of you have asked about the method that I use – it’s called raw edge fusible machine applique, but feel free to substitute your own method.

 

For my method, the first thing you need to do is prepare your applique shapes.  The fusible product that I use for this process is called Heat’n’Bond Lite.   The key word here being Lite.  Do not get the ultra – you will have a really tough time getting your needle through it and it will make your applique feel stiff as cardboard.

 

I like Heat’n’Bond Lite for several reasons –

1.  It is lightweight

2.  It’s very user-friendly.  There are two sides to the product – a paper side and an obvious glue side.   Several products have multiple layers, making them confusing to work with.  Or you can’t tell what the glue side is until it is stuck to your iron.

3.  It is locally available

 

What I don’t like about it?

1.  You must follow the manufacturer’s instructions when ironing it to the fabric.  If the instructions say 2 seconds, it means 2 seconds.  If you over iron this product, the bonding agent in the glue no longer works.  That’s quite a bummer when you have dozens of applique shapes cut and prepared, but they won’t stick to your quilt.

2.  It is affected by age, heat and humidity, so don’t store it in your car and only buy the amount that you will use in a timely manner (not in 5 years).

 

There are many similar products on the market and I will be the first to admit that I don’t know that much about all of them.  Do you have a favorite fusible?  Please share in the comments, so we can all learn about them 🙂

 

Once you have selected your fusible product, trace the applique shapes onto the paper side and fuse them to the back side of the appropriate color fabrics – see the flower petals below.

 

To save time, I only trace half the number of shapes needed, then cut a blank piece the same size (see the top of the above photo).  Then, when I am cutting, I layer the two pieces together and cut.  Double the shapes, in half the time!

 

 

My favorite scissors for cutting out applique shapes is this scissors by Elan  (and sold by Moda/United Notions).  The short blade makes for easy maneuvering when cutting appliqué shapes or threads.

 

I also love it because it is so comfortable in my hands.  See why?  Have you ever seen a scissors with a bendable handle?  Love it!

 

 

My second favorite tool for cutting out applique shapes is a miniature rotary cutter.  It doesn’t work for every applique shape, but it works great for the leaves on our project.

 

It also works great if you want to trim the glue out of the center of your applique shape.  This helps reduce the stiffness that the fusible product adds.  My goal is to have my applique feel and look like it’s hand-done, and if you are layering multiple applique shapes, then trimming out the glue will help keep your quilt nice and soft.  Please note that the trimming must be done before you iron it to the back side of your fabric, as there is no way to get the glue out after it’s been fused to the fabric.  You only need to leave about 1/4″ of glue, as it just need to the hold that applique shape to the quilt until you get the stitching done.  For our project today, the applique is quite small and we aren’t doing any layering, so this step isn’t necessary.

 

Next, position the applique onto your pieced background (referring to the pattern cover for placement) and fuse in place.  This is also the time that I add my ric rac and pin in place.  That way I can make sure everything looks right.

 

Now we are ready to get our machines set up.

First, grab your open toe foot, if you have one.  This foot has no bridge, so you will easily be able to see where you are going, how your stitches are aligning, and it will make those inside and outside points easily visible.

 

Secondly, find the thread that you want to use for your applique.  I use a combination of two stitches and two different types of thread.   In the photo below, you see the two stitches – a small zig zag and a blanket stitch.

I use regular weight, matching color thread for the zig zag.  For the blanket, I use “Heavy” thread, made by Dual Duty.  (It used to be called topstitching thread.)

It comes in several colors, but if they don’t have the color that you want, you can always use two strands of regular weight thread and thread them both through the machine at the same time.  Like this:

 

You can also use a matching color thread as shown.  This is great if you are new to applique and don’t want every little wobble to show.

 

There are several reasons why I like this heavier thread:

1 – It comes in several different colors – though I usually use black or dark brown.  For today’s project I used navy.

2 – It’s heavier than regular thread so you applique looks like it’s been done by hand.

3 – The thickness of the thread makes it more forgiving.  I find that when I applique with a lighter weight thread I have to be so careful not to get little Vs in my stitching – as shown in the photo below.  The thicker thread just seems to fill them in.

 

You will also need the right needles to applique.  You will need a #9 or #10 to do the small zig zag.  This will help reduce the frayed edge that can sometimes happen when you machine applique around curved.

For the blanket stitch, you will need to use a larger needle to accommodate the heavier thread – a size #14 will do it.  Usually, if you have skipped stitches or thread not going through the fabric nicely, you need to try a larger needle.  You may also have crunchy happening down in the bobbin case as the threads gets caught up and a larger needle will help with that also.

Lastly , you will need to adjust your top tension.  On my machine, the tension dial is right in the front and I loosen the top tension slightly – just enough so that the top thread is pulled slightly to the back side of the block.  Just remember “Looser is a Lower number”, when it comes to tension.  BTW – I do not touch the bobbin thread.  There is no handy dial with numbers on the bobbine case, so unless you know how to adjust and fix it, I think it is best (and easiest) just to adjust the top tension.

 

That covers having your machine set up and your applique shapes prepared.  When I come back, we will talk about how to applique by machine – such as maneuvering the inside and outside points.  I will give you a few days to gather up the correct thread, needles, etc.

 

If you have any questions, just leave them in the comments and check back to see my answer.

Here are a few more shots of quilts that show a mix of the two stitches and thread color ideas.

Pretty In Pink Quilt Along Part 2

 

Today on the quilt along, we are going to talk about piecing.  (If you missed Part 1 on fabric selection, click here).  I am going to give hints that relate to this project, as well as piecing in general.  If aren’t sewing along with me, feel free to read along.

A few hints before you start sewing:

1.  Accuracy is very important for Mini quilts. 

Usually the smaller the pieces, the less fudge factor that you have, and the more important being accurate is.  Our project has small pieces, especially the sashing.  If you are accurate right from the beginning, it will make the assembly much easier.

 

2.  Use the same sewing machine throughout the entire project.

Have you ever noticed that not all 1/4″ feet are created equal?  I have two sewing machines – A Bernina 1230 and a Pfaff Grand Quilter.  Both have a 1/4″ foot, but the Bernina foot is an exact 1/4 and the Pfaff is a scant quarter.  Therefore, if I sewed half my blocks with one machine and the other half of the blocks with the other machine, the seam lines (especially the sashing) will not line up.

 

3.  Do a test swatch

Cut three strips at 1 1/2″ wide and sew together as shown below.  Press and then measure the middle strip.  If it measures exactly 1″, then you can move forward.  Please notice that I measure (or in my patterns, it’s called proofing), by laying the ruler on top of the block, rather than laying the block on my mat and using those lines.  By laying the ruler on top of the block it is much easier to see if the  seam lines are accurate.

 

4.  This particular project uses a Charm pack, so some of the edges have pinking.  If you lay two pieces next to each other that are pinked, it can be hard to tell exactly where to line up the edge of your quarter inch foot.  I like to pair a straight edge next to the pinked edge when sewing to avoid this problem.

 

Like this:  Notice the pinked edge is to the top side so I can see that the tip of the pinked edges is aligned with the straight edge of the white strip below.

 

5.  Pressing is also very important for accuracy.  Make sure that there isn’t extra fabric hiding in the fold next to your seam.

Like this (see photo below).  There is probably 3-4 threads hiding in there – per side of the seam allowance.  That could add up to 1/8″ on this seam alone, not to mention all the other seams in the quilt.  When I teach classes, this is the #2 issue that leads to inaccuracy (behind seam allowance).

 

5.  Learn to nest.  This is probably something that most of you know, but I find lots of people in classes who don’t know how to nest.   Though this is much easier to explain in person, I will give it a go.

Nesting means that you press the seams allowances that need to line up in opposite directions (see photo below).  This helps to reduce bulk and is also means that you shouldn’t have to sit and pin every intersection to get them to align perfectly. (My patterns all have little arrows showing you which way to press the seams so that they nest – so follow the arrows in Steps 1 and 2)

 

That doesn’t mean that you just sit down and sew and hope the seams line up because they are pressed properly.  I use my fingers as pins, instead of taking the time to actually pin.  This is hard to do with one hand sewing and the other hand holding the cell phone, but see how my finger is right on top of the seam allowance?  It is holding that seam in place until I sew over it.  I also use my other hand and place my pointer finger inbetween the layers, and put a slight bit of pressure on the bottom piece, helping to lock that seam together.  Once you do it a few times, you will be able to feel with your top finger that those seams are locked tight and just keep them locked together as the piece is sewn.

The sashing seams have two pieces to get lined up and they are very skinny so please don’t hate me 😉  If you can line up these skinny pieces, you have the technique down pat. With some practice your intersections will look pretty close to lined up.  (Then you just hope that any seam that is a few threads off will “quilt out”.)

 

6.  Sew a block or two and see if the size of your block matches the proof size listed in the pattern.   I always try to put proof sizes in my patterns so you know what size the blocks should be.   Then sit back and admire your work a bit!  Aren’t those fabrics cute?

 

Next you are ready to sew the block into rows.  I help things stay in order by simply pining the rows in each block together.  I don’t have much luck with stacking blocks and hoping they stay in order.  I could blame this on my two year old, but it isn’t always his fault.

 

To keep track of my rows, I put one pin at the beginning of the first row, two pins at the beginning of the second row, etc.

You can also use little Post-it notes or numbered pins.  I kept the rows in order as I chain sewed my blocks together and didn’t clip the threads between the blocks as I sewed, so everything stayed in order.  There are lots of ways to keep track, so just use the method that works best for you.

 

Stop when you get to the point where you have 4 large blocks.  I stop here because I like to do the applique on the smallest possible area, rather than having to work with the entire quilt going round and round in my machine.

 

On a side note, feel free to get creative with your project.  I laid my blocks out before sewing them together, just to see what they would look like as a table runner.  If you come up with something fun and you blog or do some other sort of social media, please leave a link in the comments so the rest of us can see it!  You can also post directly to the Instagram quilt along page at #prettyinpinkqa.

We will talk all about the applique next, so come back and join us for a lesson in machine applique!

 

Little Boys

I had one of my favorite days – ever – last week.  Max turned 5 months and I wanted to get some pictures of him.  I was trying to recreate a day that I had with Carter at this same age.  They are some of my favorite pictures and I will never forget Carter at that age, because of these photos.

Usually when I have a grand vision in my head and try to recreate it in pictures, I only get frustrated and mad.  The lighting is always bad and my pictures blurry.  But today my pictures turned out!  Get ready for little boy overload!

 

 

 

 

 

My kids have great Michelin man arms at this age.  I could just spend half the day tucking kisses into those little rolls.  And there are a lot of them.  It might take all day.

 

 

 

 

It wasn’t long before Carter wanted to join in the pictures too.

 

 

 

I love pictures.  I have a horrible memory, so I think that is why I love pictures and they are so special to me.  They help me remember (or at least think that I remember) a particular moment in time.   It always makes me sad to think I to think I am loosing my baby.  Even though each day brings fun new things as my children grow older, each day also brings them further away from this precious little baby.  These pictures will allow me to go back in time and remember.  In the future, I can look as these pictures, close my eyes and remember what they looked like, smelled like, felt like in my arms.  I can briefly go back in time and have a moment of that special time back.  Minus the midnight feedings and poopy diapers.  Thank you Nikon 😉