Welcome! If this is your first visit to my blog, or just your latest trip, welcome. It’s my honor to take part in Quiltmaker’s Blog Tour for their newest issue of 100 Blocks.
Back when I was still just a kid I fell in love with the old fashioned style of Christmas decorations called Della Robbia. Named for a family of Italian sculptors, Della Robbia mixes winter greens such as pine boughs and holly, with seasonal fruit. It was often gilded. Rich, and lush and colorful, it’s always been my favorite holiday style. So when Quiltmaker invited me to create a block for an issue coming out just before Christmas I decided that I’d go for it.
A little shameless self promotion here, I used my Hand Applique by Machine technique with Wash Away Applique Sheets to quickly and easily create the block. Let me show you how easy it is!
Start by printing out the line drawing of the applique. We can print directly onto the Wash Away Applique Sheets using an ink jet printer. Cut the shapes apart and press them to the wrong side of the fabric. Glue baste the edges. For edges that touch, we’re going to glue baste one side of the edge and leave one unbasted. You’ll see why in a minute. Here’s my guy in pieces. Looks like somebody cooked this goose! (Yikes!)
Next we’ll glue the shapes together. I like to work on a light box for this step, so I can see where the pieces fit together.
The light shining through the unbasted edge will guide the face part into position.
Here he is, all glued together. By working with a line drawing and just cutting the shapes apart we have no paper overlapping at all. This is pretty handy, if we’re working with freezer paper, when it comes time to remove it from the project. The cool thing about the Wash Away Applique Sheets is that they iron on, just as freezer paper does, but THEY WASH AWAY! No need to cut the background fabric away, or to try to tease the template out of a narrow opening. Nope, they just wash away! And, they’re acid free, so if you don’t want to, you don’t ever have to wash your quilt. How cool is that?
Once the shapes are glued together, it’s time to stitch. I’m a big fan of Superior’s MonoPoly invisible thread. Using a simple zig zag, adjusted to be short and narrow, the shapes are stitched together before they are placed on the background.
But what I love most about the WAAS is how easily I can embellish my applique. All of my embroidery stitches were completed before I put the bird on the background. The WAAS act as a stablizer for my stitching.
Well, there you have it, Hand Applique by Machine in a very tiny nutshell. And as a thank you for visiting, and reading all the way to the bottom, I have a little gift for you. Leave a comment (with a way to contact you), and I’ll draw a name for a free copy of the newest 100 Blocks magazine. Let’s see, shall we pick a topic? Hmm, how about sharing your favorite holiday tradition?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 at 12:05 am and is filed under Hand Applique by Machine, embellishments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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