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Mar
26
The Appliqué Society
Filed Under Articles, Designers, Patterns, Spotlights, Words | Leave a Comment
When I started a blog about appliqué, I said to myself, “You outghta be a member of The Appliqué Society.” So I joined up. I’ve received three newsletters so far, which have given me some sense of what the organization is all about. This from the TAS website:
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“The Appliqué Society’s mission is To Promote, to Teach, and to Encourage the Love of All Types of Appliqué in Quilting. We work to educate and promote public interest in the world of appliqué, as well as encourage and inspire creativity. The Appliqué Society (TAS) and its members want to ensure that the art of appliqué will continue through the generations.”
Membership benefits include a newsletter every other month. This publication is not a slick, overly produced piece. Printed in black and white, with hand-drawn patterns, it's reminiscent of real hometown quilters and appliqué fans. The content is wonderful. So far, the cover stories have been interviews with designers Elizabeth Scott, author of The ABCs of Words on Quilts, Pamela Humphries, author of Award-Winning Appliqué Birds, and Ricky Tims, author of Rhapsody Quilts. Within each interview there’s always a question or two about the designers’ techniques, which I’ve found truly illuminating in each case.
There are free patterns, as I said in many cases lovingly hand-drawn, features on specific topics in appliqué, product reviews, etc. In three issues I’ve picked up at least six tips! I’ll share just one of them, to give you an example. Member Jan Walter from central Illinois contributed a darling Santa pattern, and gives advice about the white beard and mustache: “For iron-on appliqué, back your whites by ironing a medium-weight interfacing on the back before ironing on the fusible web.” Thank you, Jan! We’ve all struggled with what do do about shadow-through with white appliqué pieces.
TAS has many noted professional members among its midst, who do a lot to support the organization by contributing patterns and articles. TAS membership also gives you the opportunity to join or start a local chapter, and stitch with like-minded quilters.
You might enjoy belonging to the Society as well. Visit the TAS website.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Mar
22
Willie’s a homebody
Filed Under Machine appliqué, Stems/vines, Words, Zigzag | Leave a Comment
My little dog Willie loves to go places, and loves to come back. He’s a good traveler, but I think he’s the very happiest when all of his pack are at home.
As you know, he helps me in the studio and is my boon companion while I’m working on all of my “stuff.” Here he is checking out my latest project, Home.
Yes, that’s right, the ink was hardly dry on Teapots 2 to Appliqué when I was already hard at work on another quilt design. I’ve been in a phase of doing things I haven’t done before, and it’s great! Home is more primitive and folksy than what I’ve done before, and I love it.
I knew the word “Home” would be front and center, and didn’t worry about how I was going to get it on there until I was ready to do it. After all, I co-wrote an article about words in quilts, which appeared in American Quilter. I knew I had some tricks up my sleeve! But when it came to it, I ended up doing… guess what… something I hadn’t done before.
Okay, so I’ve made plenty of bias tape in my life with my trusty green gadget (see the post on stems and skinny stems) but I’ve usually stitched both sides, either by hand or machine. This time I just zig-zagged down the center of each strip with black thread. Then I made a trip to the store to get some fresh Fray Chek (the bottle in my drawer was ancient, probably came with me from Ohio 11 years ago). I used a tiny bit of this seam sealant on the raw ends of the letters to prevent fraying. I ended up with the folksy look I was after for this project.
Home’s going to be a booklet with full-size patterns printed in it. Stay tuned!
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Feb
11
Heart seeds
Filed Under Embellishment, Freezer paper on top, Hand appliqué, Holiday, Needleturn, Turned edge, Words | Leave a Comment
Here’s another block from Growing Hearts to Appliqué. A fun one, yes?
When brainstorming on a theme,”growing hearts” or whatever, it’s so wonderful to let your imagination roam free and think up all sorts of notions about how to portray your ideas.
For this crazy design, I used freezer-paper templates on top, and I hand-embroidered the letters. The little black heart seeds are inked on with a permanent fabric marker.
And don’t faint, but maybe you can see that this quilt is hand-quilted. It still happens now and again.
Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs
Oct
4
Promote your sewing room!
Filed Under Articles, Improvisational appliqué, Machine appliqué, Prepared edge, Stems/vines, Topstitch, Words | Leave a Comment
One more quilt from “the article” (see previous two posts). This one had its own sidebar!
I made this quilted sign to hang in my sewing room, thereby elevating its status to a “studio.” If you make a sign for your sewing room it can be a studio too!
To form the letters, I made bias tape with my trusty green gadget, the original Clover® ¼” bias tape maker.
Then I used the fusible strip that comes on a roll, except I cut it in half lengthwise to make a very thin strip applied to the center of the bias tape only. That keeps things more flexible.
A fat eighth of fabric formed the backdrop as I played with the arrangement of the letters, sticking pins straight down into them to hold them until I was happy with how they looked. Then I fused them in place. I put tearaway stabilizer behind, and topstitched the letters on both sides. After removing the stabilizer, I added the strippy borders and machine-quilted the sign. Then I got into my button box and tied buttons through the quilt over all of the raw edges of the letters, and now it looks like a quirky typeface!
Bias tape letters are informal, folksy, and fun. Save this technique for a project where the letters are meant to be tall and skinny, because the wider the strips the less flexible they are.
Until next time,
Kay
Oct
2
Ultrasuede letters
Filed Under Blanket stitch, Embellishment, Fabrics, Fusible web, Raw edge, Words | Leave a Comment
This cutie was also made for the “Ways With Words” article (see previous post). In the article there are some notes about using Ultrasuede™ for making letters, but there wasn’t room for a photo example, so the quilt didn’t make it into the article.
It’s called “Peek A Boo” (as distinguished from my “Peekaboo” quilt pattern, which was named for a traditional quilt block).
The shy bear was needle-turned and then hand-buttonhole-stitched around the edges. For the letters in his sign, I used fusible web, being careful not to smash down the texture of the ultrasuede when fusing.
Ultrasuede is a slightly fluffy synthetic material that doesn’t ravel, so you don’t have to finish the edges. I used some embroidery floss in a running stitch to embellish the letters and to hold them in place permanently.
The frame and post of the sign are also ultrasuede, which I machine-buttonhole-stitched.
So, quite a mixture of techniques from my appliqué bag of tricks for this little quilt!
Until next time,
Kay
P.S. I got the ultrasuede scraps inexpensively on ebay.
P.P.S. If you’d like to see the other Peekaboo, you are invited to visit my patterns page at Quilt Puppy.
Sep
29
Ways With Words
Filed Under Articles, Words | Leave a Comment
I conspired with my friend ellen edith on an article in the latest issue of American Quilter Magazine (Projects 2007). I called the article “Ways With Words.” It ended up being “The Write Stuff: Ways With Words.” As you might be able to tell, the article talks about several different ways of including words in quilts. Appliqué is of course a natural choice.
For the article, I made a little quilt called “Time 4 Tea.” It’s 24″x 18″, and in the magazine is living large on about a half a page!
The letters, the large curly 4, the clock frame, and the teapot are fused and machine blanket-stitched. The clockface numerals are inked on with a permanent fabric pen.
Over at the Quilt Puppy Show & Tell Center, there’s a beautiful quilt (also tea-themed) with words on it that were exquisitely hand-appliquéd by Cheryl Booton. Go see Tea Time For Good Friends.