Mainly applique

Many of you will know that I love all aspects of quilting and my sewing lately has seen me thinking about appliqué. Last year my on-line quilting group worked on Hop To It from the book of the same name by Edyta Sitar. I loved making this quilt...and doing all of the appliqué by hand. I used my favourite method of needleturn appliqué; the back basting method, as outlined beautifully here in Sentimental Stitches, and I have waxed lyrical about it in the past.
Here is what my Hop To It quilt looks like at the moment.

It's laid out on the spare bed waiting for decisions about corner stones and sashings.

This year my on-line group is working on 'Pieces of Time' by Lori Smith. We are making one pieced and one appliqué block each month. I thought long and hard about what method of appliqué to do this time around... I love the look of hand appliqué but it does take me an age to complete each block. So I have decided to do this project by the invisible machine applique method.
While I've dabbled in this method in the past, I've been a bit scared of using it, worried that I couldn't achieve a truly invisible look.
Well I've bit the bullet!!!
I am doing the method using freezer paper - Joanne (Threadhead) gives a tutorial on her blog, and Kim Diehl does an excellent chapter on it in her pattern books.
I've decided to do a quick run through of it here to inspire others to give it a try as well.

Trace and cut out template shapes from freezer paper.
Use a little glue to stick the matt side to the wrong side of your fabric.
Clip inner curves and carefully press raw edges over edge of template.
This takes a little while but it is worth being patient to get the shapes nice and even.
The fabric will adhere to the shiny side of the freezer paper.

Prepared pieces.
Layer these on your fabric background, as you would normally do for other appliqué methods.

Set the machine to a very narrow, small zig-zag.
'1' and '1' settings are recommended elsewhere but the settings on my machine were '0.3' and '0.4'.
(EDIT - The next time I did this I used 0.6 and 0.7, which was easier/quicker to sew and
because my thread matched so well was just as invisible).
I used smoke coloured Aurifil monofilament in the top and fine Mettler Seraline in the bobbin.

As you complete each layer snip through the fabric at the back and remove the freezer paper.
You must remove the paper from one layer before you sew the next piece on top!

Back of completed block - cool huh?

Front of completed block.

Here are my first two pieced blocks.
Monkey Wench (left)
Northumberland Star (right).

Now I cant rest on my laurels for too long as I still have the February appliqué block to do. It's a nasty one, but apparently not impossible as two of the others in the group have already done it! (Joan and Joanne).
I'm going to rest before giving it a try!!

Now I have a faux pas to correct from my last post. Gulp.
I thanked the very kind Cat for the lovely doily she made me...silly me... it was a wash cloth. Now in reality it is too pretty to use as a wash cloth but once Albert (the bear) has finished with it, I will try it out in the bathroom. I'm actually quite excited about this as I haven't had a handmade wash cloth before. Thank you again, Cat.




Thank you for visiting, I hope you all have a happy, stitching week