Delving Into Applique


Two weekends ago I attended a local quilt show for the Herring Run Quilt Guild. It’s a biannual show that I remember enjoying last time around. I reversed my usual show order and perused the vendors first. I picked up one of those nifty lap size ironing boards thinking it would be nice to use a small lap table for when I’m doing English Paper Piecing. LOL –  I make it sound as though that happens all the time but really it’s about once every three calendar page turns!

Then a funny thing happened as I walked through the quilt exhibit. I came upon a beautifully appliqued wall hanging. I didn’t take a picture of it because the program said cameras were welcome for personal inspiration but a no no for publication anywhere else…and really, why else do we take pictures of things but to put them on our blogs to give us something to talk about, so I tabled the photo taking idea! I did read the card though and the maker of the quilt stated that she had never considered applique before coming upon something called the back-basting method of applique. Hmmmmm…..I’m one of those anti needle turners myself but this held some sort of promise…like even I could do it. I looked closely at the stitches from the front and back and committed the phrase, ‘back-basting applique’ to my mind for later Googling! It was her first go around with applique and I knew right then, it surely would be mine too!

And it solidified my purchase of that nifty lap ironing board!

So, I did what  any good quilter does when introduced to a new method of anything, I pulled up Amazon on my laptop faster than you can say, ‘applique’. And ah ha!

And thanks to Amazon look what arrived on Sunday…

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And look what I started on Monday…

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And finished on Tuesday…

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Hey, I’m appliqueing!! With this method, you basically trace the applique pattern on the back of the background fabric. Then you baste around the tracing of that applique pattern piece while hold in place the applique fabric on the right side. The basting shows up on the applique fabric.

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Then you trim the fabric leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance around the basting. You do needle turn the applique but you remove the basting as you go. The perforation of the fabric from the basting allows the seam allowance to roll under very nicely. The blind stitch or ladder stitch is used to actually applique the piece. I use the blind stitch. So now I need to try it again with a different pattern and maybe make a table topper using the method. The step by step process in Barbara Eckmeier’s book is fantastic! She has beautiful project instructions included.

This past Saturday, I was vending at an area Rainbow Girls Camp. I split my table in half using part for Quilt Cabana and part for Creative Memories. Sadly, the craft fair had very little foot traffic and I don’t think many of us made our table money back. It was a total bust. They did provide a nice lunch, coffee and donuts but it added up to a loss for so many vendors. In fact, we all received an apology later that day from the organizer. This is what my table looked like…

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I was seated next to the Avon lady and she was killing it! She definitely made her table back and I was really in awe. I had no idea that people even bought Avon anymore! Shows you what I know! I talked with her quite a bit and took home the catalogs to look through. They now have clothes and shoes and a separate home living catalog. What? Yup. She was also a great sales lady and drew everyone in with her, “Have you seen an Avon catalog lately?” sales pitch. Sure enough, the ladies came flocking and buying up products they used to order ‘all the time’.  The lady on the other side of me was selling homemade dog biscuits. She didn’t sell many but she enjoyed talking about her dogs and she was good company…because it was a long day, y’all.

That’s about it from here. I’m working on my quilt kit that I bought in Hawaii. Also working on getting the Seaglass quilt ready to load on the long arm. Enjoy your day!

*this post contains an Amazon affiliate link

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2 responses to “Delving Into Applique”

  1. Sorry that vending didn’t work out well for you–but it was nice that the organizer apologized! I’ll have to put your recommendation of the appliqué method and book in my mental reference file for sometime in 2018when I touch fabric again…👍

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