How to Use a Light Box to Layer Applique

March 1, 2022

In my never-ending quest to to make applique as easy as possible, I recently bought a light box.

Wow!

My mind is blown!

No more tracing those placement markings to the right side of the fabric. (***ahem*** I may have mentioned here how much I hate to trace.)

This makes layering applique SO EASY and SO ACCURATE!

How did I not get one of these sooner?

Somehow I had it in my head that this was going to be a Very Expensive Purchase.

The one I bought is 15.5 inches x 11.8 inches and cost $26.99. I’m going to use it a kajillion times just in the next year, so that is well worth it to me.

The silicone mat was $14.33.

Those are both affiliate links to Amazon. If you buy something using them, I get a small commission at no extra cost to you – but if you have a local store that sells these things, please support them!

Want to see how awesome it is in action? You’re going to love this!

Wow!

I’m going to say it again – wow!

This makes the process so easy! Especially for folks who are using cutting machines and have had a bit more of a laborious process to transfer those placement markings in the past.

I know some of you have been using a light box forever and can’t believe I didn’t know already how awesome they are.

I’m usually really slow to use new gadgets. I just don’t want a studio full of tools I’ll rarely use.

I’ve used a light box exactly once before – in a Craftsy class I taught several years ago. It was really huge and cumbersome and not something I had space for in my studio. I had no idea how slim and lightweight and inexpensive they are now!

Moving forward, all of my patterns will have numbers on the reference images and corresponding numbers on the template pieces.

I’m in the process of a year-long project to update all my quilt patterns. That update will include adding SVG files for use with cutting machines, and these numbered templates.

I’ll continue to include the placement markings for those who don’t want to get a light box. You can find a tutorial showing how to do that method here.

For those of you about to get a new light box – enjoy!!!

Here are links to all the posts showing how to applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite method. It’s fast and easy and (with the right materials) it holds up beautifully to rough use and repeated washing.

Here are links to special posts about eyes.

Here are links to some extra fun things you can do with your applique.

Other Applique Methods

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about outline stitching.

How Durable Is Spoonflower Fabric with Raw Edge Applique?

February 21, 2022

I get a lot of questions about how durable it is to do raw edge applique with fusible adhesive – especially the way I only outline it with straight stitching instead of a wide satin stitch.

I’ve got a post about that here where I showed one of my daughter’s quilts after almost two years of use with lots of laundering.

One of the caveats in that post is that the quilt was made with good quality fabric. Fabric from a quilt shop, fabric from a big box fabric store, and fabric from a discount store like Walmart are all printed on different quality base fabrics – with the price usually going up with the quality.

When I started using Spoonflower fabric with my quilts I wanted to test just how well their fabric holds up to repeated washing and drying. And they print on several different fabric bases so I wanted to test it on more than one.

For my daughter’s quilt, I washed it. . . like a quilt. That means cold water wash in a front-loading machine and drying on something hot but not the hottest setting. I also didn’t keep track of how many times I washed it in that almost-two years.

For this test I wanted to be even more rigorous – and more controlled.

I made up two samples. For each sample I quilted a background block, then fused on my applique and stitched around it – just like my quilts.

Then I threw it in every load of laundry I did until each sample had been washed and dried twelve times.

I was not gentle.

When I washed them with clothing I washed them in cold water and dried them on hot.

When I washed them with towels I washed them in hot water and dried them on the hottest setting.

For the record – I would NEVER wash an actual raw edge applique quilt in hot water, I would never dry it on the hottest setting, and I would NEVER wash it with towels. So rough! They’ll rough up those raw edges like nothing else will. What I’m showing you here is the worst-case scenario that would result from really abusing your handmade quilt.

Update – a lot of people have asked about color-fastness. I wish I had thought to take before photos just to show the color! But I didn’t, so I’ll just have to tell you that I’ve been very happy with the results. As you look at the photos below, the Petal Signature Cotton looks really faded next to the bright colors of the Organic Cotton Sateen. It’s not. Those started out as very greyed-out, muted colors for an Arctic Chill quilt I was working on. It’s a really unusual color palette for me, so looks very faded compared to almost everything else you’ll see here at Shiny Happy World, but that was by design and has nothing to do with the washing and drying. 🙂

So here are the results. . .

Petal Signature Cotton

The first sample is printed on Petal Signature Cotton. That’s Spoonflower’s basic quilting cotton, and I think it’s their least expensive fabric.

There’s definitely some fraying – an amount that’s desirable to many people. In fact, some people deliberately scuff up the edges with a wire brush to get it to look exactly like this.

One important thing to note is that even though there is some fraying on the edges, in no place is the piece lifting up. In other words – the fraying doesn’t go past the stitching line. The edges fray, but the entire patch remains intact.

Organic Cotton Sateen Ultra

The second sample is printed on Organic Cotton Sateen Ultra. This fabric feels like quilting cotton, but it’s a little bit smoother. It’s not shiny (it’s sateen, not satin) but it does have a little bit of a sheen to it.

One of the reasons I wanted to test this fabric is because it’s wide. The printed area is 56 inches wide, compared to 42 inches for the Petal Signature Cotton – wide enough to back one of my napping size quilts with no piecing.

It’s more expensive than the Petal Signature Cotton – but not as much more as it seems at first glance, because it’s more than a foot wider and that adds up to a lot more fabric.

So let’s see how it did!

Very, very little fraying. The two sides of the triangle cut on the straight grain have almost none – and even the bias hypotenuse edge has a few long threads (easily snipped), but not much general fraying at all.

It’s worth noting that NONE of the fraying showed up until the first time I threw it in a hot wash with towels.

So there you are!

If you’re doing raw edge applique with fusible adhesive, think about the kind of fraying you find desirable.

If you like a soft frayed edge, I recommend the Petal Signature Cotton.

If you want as little fraying as possible, I recommend the Organic Cotton Sateen.

They’re both wonderful!

You can shop for all my fabrics on Spoonflower here. They’re organized in collections by color and by print for easy shopping.

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Why Spoonflower Fabric?

February 7, 2022

Have you seen my new fabric collections on Spoonflower?

For several years now I’m been putting together color-coordinated fabric bundles and selling them in my shop. Now I’m transitioning to selling my own fabric designs through Spoonflower. I’ve had a lot of people ask why I’m making that switch – which is a great question.

There are actually a LOT of reasons.

I has been physically hard for me to cut and bundle fabric.

I injured my shoulder last year and it’s just not getting better – partly because the movements required to stack the bolts and cut the fabric are exactly what I need to stop doing. I invested in some tools to make cutting easier, but it’s not enough. I looked into hiring someone to do that for me, but I don’t sell enough on a regular-enough schedule to make that really work.

By shifting my fabric palettes to Spoonflower, they do all the heavy lifting.

Regular commercial fabrics go out of print really fast.

Every time I assemble a bundle I really love, I’m super lucky if I get to reorder it as-is more than once. Then one or more of the fabrics go out of print and I have to start all over again, ordering samples, trying to create a comparable color palette with all new fabrics. I have to cross my fingers that all the colors in the bundle will ship, and that they all ship in the correct amounts. And every time I create a new bundle I have to take all new photos. It’s a LOT of work to go through in order to create a bundle that always FEELS like it’s made with the same fabrics.

Also, I get a LOT of requests from people for very specific fabrics they see in my sample blocks – and most of the time those fabrics are no longer available.

With Spoonflower, I create exactly the palette I want and it’s always available. None of these fabrics will go out of print.

Now you can buy yardage.

I’ve never set out to be a fabric store. I’m not set up for cutting fabric every day, so when a fabric shipment arrived I immediately cut and bundle all of it. Bolts are never all the same length so any bolts that are longer than the shortest bolt in the bundle are available as leftovers you can buy by the half yard – but that isn’t nearly enough for people who want to get, say, an extra 2 yards of their favorite fabric in the bundle to use as the backing and binding. That just isn’t something I can do.

With Spoonflower you can buy small amounts of the fabrics for the individual blocks, and more yardage of your favorites for backings and bindings. You can even get your favorite prints on other fabrics like fleece and minky to make coordinating stuffed animals and extra-snuggly quilt backs.

You can buy just what you need.

Let’s say you’re making a Woodland Critters quilt. You’re going to need a lot of medium and dark brown and very little rust. In the old bundles you were getting an equal amount of each fabric. Now you can create your own bundles that are exactly what you need.

You can also build in more variety of your favorite colors. For example, instead of just one dark purple and one light purple in the old Rainbow Brights bundle, now you can shop by color and find a range from dark to light of that exact hue, so you know they’ll look good together. You can create your own bundles using exactly the prints you love, knowing that all the colors will go together.

And if you run out of dark purple, you can order more of exactly the fabric that you like the best and use the most. 🙂

Cheater Quilts and Coordinating Prints

Most of what I use in my own quilts are tone-on-tone blenders – but sometimes it’s nice to have a more complex coordinating print to use in alternating empty blocks, for sashing, or as the quilt back.

Since I’m the designer for both the blenders and the coordinating prints – I can make that happen!

Here’s a cheater panel I designed for some fun monsters. (You can find all my cheater fabric here.)

And here’s a smaller scale coordinating print.

I designed both of these using the exact same colors as the Gemstone Blenders.

So you can make a Mix & Match Monsters quilt using all the fun tone-on-tone prints from the Gemstone Blenders for your applique, checkerboard them with some non-applique blocks in the tumbling monster heads print, and use the cheater quilt as the backing.

Super fun!

Bonus – if you make that quilt for your baby, and they want a matching monster dress when they’re a toddler – the fabric will still be available!

Ready Made Items

If quilting isn’t your thing, Spoonflower offers ready-made duvet covers (and other home decor items) in all their fabrics. 🙂

And if quilting is your thing, but you also like other coordinating things, now you can get art prints and printables and other items that match the fabric you use in your sewing projects.

Fancy!

I Love Designing Fabric

Finally – I’m making the switch because I love designing fabric. 🙂

I have Very Strong Thoughts about what kind of fabric works for applique – and now I can design exactly what I want to use. And I love making fabric that coordinates perfectly with the characters in my patterns!

I hope you love using it as much as I love designing it. 🙂

Find all my fabric collections on Spoonflower here.

Spoonflower has millions of options – which can be a bit overwhelming – so I also have my fabric on my own website in these categories.

Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.

And here are links to posts about using specialty fabrics.

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Happy stitching!

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How to Fill-a-Yard on Spoonflower

January 6, 2022

Now you can shop on Spoonflower and get fabric designed by me, especially for use with Shiny Happy World patterns!

Woo hoo!

There are so many ways to shop!

I list each collection in the Fabric section of my shop, with lots of detailed info about the collection and links to shop by color, by design, or the whole collection.

One of the niftiest features they have on Spoonflower is their Fill-a-Yard. It allows you to print a LOT of different designs on a single yard of fabric. So cool! And so cost-effective, too. 🙂

In this video I walk you step by step through how to fill a yard. You can make 6 inch squares (a nice small amount for applique), 12 inch squares (great for background blocks), 6 x 12 inch rectangles (perfect for half-blocks), 12 x 24 inch rectangles (perfect for double blocks), 18 inch squares (great for pillows), full-width stripes (terrific for binding) and more!

Here’s how to do it. . .

I love using this feature to create something resembling pre-cuts. They’re not cut yet, but they’re printed on the fabric so they’re super easy to cut AND I can wash them while they’re one full yard so no shredding or twisting in the wash. Awesome!

So now you have so many options!

Spoonflower is FANTASTIC! I’ve been buying their fabric for personal use (clothing and home decor) for over a year now and I’m just thrilled with the quality. I’ve been dreaming of designing fabric for years now, and I’m so excited that it’s finally happening.

I can’t wait to see what you all make!

Here are links to all the posts about choosing fabric.

And here are links to posts about using specialty fabrics.

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Happy stitching!

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Sewing Machine Feet

January 4, 2022
photo showing a close-up of a clear plastic applique sewing machine foot. text reads: Sewing Machine Feet

I get a lot of questions about sewing machine feet. Mostly people want to know one of two things. What kind of specialty feet should they buy for their machine? And do they really need to have a walking foot?

Well – it all depends on what you want to sew!

There are so many specialty feet out there! I have a few I’ve bought for specific projects – a ruffling foot when my daughter was little and liked ruffles and gathered skirts, a piping foot for I-don’t-even-remember-what. You get the idea.

But there are a few feet that I use ALL THE TIME – and they’re what I want to talk about here.

Zipper Foot

I don’t sew much clothing, but I do like to make little zippered pouches and pillows with zippered backs. A zipper foot is pretty essential if you’re going to sew zippers. I guess technically you can do without it – but I wouldn’t want to. 🙂 The good news is that most machines come with a zipper foot, and if yours doesn’t, there are lots of inexpensive universals available.

A zipper foot is also really handy for sewing piping or other fancy trims where you want to sew right up against a chunky bit.

Handy links. . .

Walking Foot

If you like to machine quilt, a walking foot is essential. Basically, what a walking foot does is give you feed dogs that sit on top of your fabric, pulling it through at the same rate as the feed dogs built into your machine below the throat plate. This keeps the top and bottom layers feeding evenly through the machine. Genius!

A lot of fancier machines now have a built-in walking foot, but there are universals available for every brand and some of them are pretty inexpensive. I highly recommend getting one!

Handy links. . .

Quarter Inch Foot

This isn’t one of the essential sewing machine feet, but I really love it for when I want to be super precise in my seam allowance.

Here’s what mine looks like.

close-up photo of a quarter inch sewing machine foot for a Bernina

That weird piece sitting beside the foot actually screws into the machine and becomes a wall that you butt your fabric against, to help you get an exact 1/4-inch seam allowance (or whatever depth you set it to). This is perfect for joining quilt blocks – especially for quilts with half blocks and double blocks where the seam allowance needs to be really accurate.

For some machines, the quarter-inch foot has the “wall” built right into the foot, but those aren’t adjustable. They ONLY do a quarter inch seam allowance.

Handy links. . .

Clear Applique Foot

I saved my very favorite sewing machine foot for last – a clear applique foot.

If you do ANY machine applique (or any topstitching or edgestitching) this foot is absolutely necessary.

Here’s what a typical sewing machine foot looks like.

It’s metal and it might have a small opening like this one – but you can’t see much. And there’s very little visibility where the needle is actually going in – that smaller slot behind the main “toes.” It’s REALLY hard to see where you’re stitching with this foot.

Here’s a clear applique foot.

Close up photo of a clear applique foot - one of my favorite sewing machine feet.

Look at that! The base of the foot is made entirely of clear plastic – giving you total visibility as you stitch. That ability to see what I’m doing is what allows me to outline applique shapes like this so neatly.

cute applique chameleon made with striped green fabric and the Carter Chameleon - easy applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

Handy links. . .

So there you are – the four sewing machine feet I use most often.

Here are handy links to all the posts about quilting tools and supplies.

Sewing Machine

Iron

Rotary Cutting Tools

Scissors

Other General Sewing Room Supplies

One More Hugely Popular Post that Seems to Fit Here Better than Anywhere Else

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the posts about choosing your quilt pattern.

Happy stitching!

Quilt Block Sizes for Alternate Grid Layouts

October 20, 2021

I use standard quilt block sizes for almost all of my quilts – a simple 10-inch square grid.

Parliament of Owls quilt pattern - grid of applique owls in lots of fun colors.

That makes it super easy to mix and match blocks between my patterns.

Want to combine the Playful Puppies with the Cuddly Cats patterns? No problem.

Want to add the Benjamin Badger block to the Woodland Critters pattern? No problem.

When I say 10-inch square – that means that’s the FINISHED quilt block size. After you sew it all together, then the block is ten inches square.

To get those finished 10-inch squares, I like to cut my blocks 11 inches square. That way I have a little wiggle room – and I LIKE wiggle room. I quilt my block, then applique it, and then trim it down to 10 1/2 inches square so that when I sew the blocks together using a quarter inch seam allowance, my finished blocks are ten inches.

Easy peasy. Cut all blocks 11 inches square.

But what about half blocks? And double blocks?

Varying quilt block sizes is a great way to break up that straightforward grid.

Here’s the Noisy Farm quilt pattern with lots of fun half blocks.

Noisy Farm quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World - applique farm animals with varied quilt blocks sizes and animal sounds.

And here’s the Sea Creatures quilt pattern with some fun double blocks.

Sea Creatures quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World. Applique sea creatures on varied quilt block sizes to create a broken grid.

See how that breaks up the grid?

You can do that with any of my quilt patterns! Half blacks are an especially easy way to add words to the layout using this free alphabet applique pattern.

Here’s the basic Bunches of Bears quilt pattern in the standard grid layout the pattern calls for.

Bunches of Bears quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World - grid of applique bear faces.

And here it is with added “noisy” half blocks.

Bunches of Bears - easy applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World with sounds added using a free alphabet applique pattern and varied quilt block sizes.

Add lots of woofs, barks, snuffles, and howls to the Playful Puppies!

Add a bunch of zzzzzzs to the Silly Sloths.

Add a name and birth date to a baby quilt.

It’s easy! This post has tips for sewing up those alternate grids, and this one has tips for quilting.

There’s also a tiny little trick to cutting these different quilt block sizes.

If you cut the square blocks 11 inches square, you might think you just cut that in half for a half block – but you have to remember to allow for a seam allowance!

To do that we need to start with the finished block size.

So. . .

Your half block will finish at 10 inches x 5 inches.

Cut your starting block 11 inches x 6 inches.

After you do your applique and quilting, trim to 10 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches.

All set!

Do the same thing for double blocks.

Your finished size will be 10 inches x 20 inches.

Cut your starting block 11 inches x 21 inches.

After you do your applique and quilting, trim to 10 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches.

Done!

Now that you’ve got some different quilt block sizes you can use to play with – try breaking up the grid on any of your standard quilt patterns!

Find links to all the posts about pattern size and layouts here.

Quilt Sizes and Supplies Needed

Play with Your Layouts – Multiple Possibilities for One Quilt Pattern

Sashing

How to Make Applique Bust Out of Its Frame

Alternate or Broken Grid layouts (adding half and double blocks)

How to Make an Applique Rag Quilt

How to Make a Polaroid Quilt

How to Make a Wonky Churn Dash Frame for Any Block

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about choosing your fabric.

Choosing a Quilt Pattern

September 14, 2021

Time to talk about choosing a quilt pattern!

All of my quilt patterns have links to video tutorials teaching you any skill you’ll need to make that pattern. Basically – my patterns are really workshops just disguised as patterns. 🙂

You can work your way through all the lessons using any of my patterns.

So where do you start?

Here’s a quick rundown of a bunch my patterns, arranged by difficulty.

There are several free patterns for individual blocks in the mix. Those don’t include instructions for making a full quilt, but you’ll find those instructions for free here at Shiny Happy World.

You do not HAVE to start with one of the easiest patterns!

I’m a big believer in choosing a pattern that really excites you and then just taking it slow enough to learn as you go. But that’s my learning style and you know your own style best. How comfortable are you with fiddly bits? Does making a mistake ruin all the fun for you? Do you like to sew really fast and going slow makes you want to stab things?

Think about what makes sewing fun for you and choose your pattern based on that.

The Very Easiest

These patterns have very few parts, all on the biggish side, and are easy to cut, arrange, and stitch.

cover image of a large pink flower for the free Pretty Posy applique pattern from Shiny Happy World
Lovable Mutts applique quilt pattern

Use these links to get those patterns.

Easy

This is where most of my patterns fall. They tend to have a few more pieces than The Very Easiest patterns, which means there’s a bit more arranging and stitching. But they are not in any way HARD. You can absolutely start with any of these.

Spooky - free cat applique pattern from Shiny Happy World
three stacked bunny faces made with the free Mix & Match Bunnies applique pattern from Shiny Happy World
Bunches of Bears - easy applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - a free applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

Here are the links to the patterns.

The Fish quilt also falls in this category.

Easy – But with a More Challenging Layout

These blocks are just as easy to applique as all the Easy blocks – it’s the assembly into quilts that makes them a smidge more difficult. These quilts break out of the basic square grid by including half blocks or double blocks, or adding sashing. Again – these aren’t hard – you just can’t assemble them on autopilot. 🙂 You can make any of these quilts into a basic Easy quilt by leaving out the rectangle blocks or sashing and assembling them on a basic grid.

Woodland Critters quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
Safari Applique Quilt Pattern from Shiny Happy World
Noisy Farm quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
#8
Beep! Beep! Cars quilt pattern
#12

Here are the links to the patterns. . .

A Little Harder

These quilts have a few more pieces for many of the blocks, and usually a few smaller pieces than the Easy quilts. It also includes a couple of Mix & Match patterns which will push/encourage your creativity a bit more than a regular pattern. Paper Dolls is the most challenging pattern in my collection, with lots of small, fussy pieces and mix & match possibilities – but holy cow is it fun! If you’re up for the challenge, you can even start with that one. 🙂

Paper Dolls - a fun mix & Match quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
Parliament of Owls - an easy applique quilt pattern from Shiny Happy World
#17

Here are the links to the patterns. . .

This isn’t anywhere near all of my quilt patterns – but it gives you an idea of what kinds of things make one pattern more or less difficult than another.

Here’s a list of links all about choosing a quilt pattern – and even designing your own!

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Happy quilting!

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How to Add a Baby to Any Block – video tutorial

August 4, 2021
Mama and baby cats appliqued on a grey fabric background. Text reads: How to Add a Baby to Any Block

Want to add a baby to any block in my quilt patterns?

It’s easy!

You just need to print the baby at a reduced size!

There’s a post here with more info. (scroll down to the section called “Print at 100% Size – No Scaling”)

In a nutshell – tell your printer you DON’T want to print at 100%.

Here’s an example of my print screen. The exact layout and terminology will be different for every printer and operating system, but they all have the same basic info.

Print digital patterns at 100% for the correct size.

In order to print patterns at the “correct” size you make sure the scale is set at 100% – but really you can set it at anything you like!

How do you know what size to use? Well, that takes a little trial and error and I recommend doing some test printouts on inexpensive paper before you print on your fusible adhesive. Here are some samples I tried for my cats. In all the samples below, the mama is printed at 100% size – I just changed the size of the baby.

Mama cat printed at 100% size, baby cat at 90%.

Here’s a mama at 100% and a baby at 90%. Too close. It looks more like a mama and papa – which would also be fun!

mama cat printed at 100% size, baby at 80%

Here’s the mama at 100% with the baby at 80%. Maybe the baby is a teenager?

mama cat printed at 100%, baby at 70%

Here the mama cat is 100% and the baby is at 70%. This is getting closer to what I was imagining.

mama cat printed at 100%, baby at 60%

Here the baby is printed at 60% size. This might be perfect! But I’m going to go down one more step just to see. The eyes might be too small to work with if I go smaller.

mama cat printed at 100%, baby at 50%

This is it! The baby is printed at 50% to make a tiny little kitten. The eyes are JUST big enough that I can still applique them, and I love the look.

So – here’s the video showing how I did it!

See? Easy peasy – and so sweet!

Here’s the link I promised to the post about all the different alternatives to applique eyes.

And here’s the link to the Cuddly Cats quilt pattern where this cutie is just one of the fourteen cats included. But you can do this with any blocks from any of my applique patterns. Just play around with the sizes until you’re happy with the look you get!

Here are links to all the posts showing how to applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite method. It’s fast and easy and (with the right materials) it holds up beautifully to rough use and repeated washing.

Here are links to special posts about eyes.

Here are links to some extra fun things you can do with your applique.

Other Applique Methods

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about outline stitching.

Happy stitching!

Free Wallpaper for Desktop, Phones and Tablets

July 1, 2021

Happy January! Time for new free wallpaper for your desktop, phone and other devices!

Last month I has a poll in the newsletter asking which animal you’d like on this month’s calendar and this sweet zebra was the winner!

(If you want the applique pattern, you can find that here. And if you want printables – including a PNG with no background so you can drop it onto any color you like – you can find that here.)

Download the new wallpaper for your computers, phones, or tablets below. You can get it both with and without the January 2025 (2025!!!) calendar, in case you want to keep this cutiebon your screens during other months of the year. 🙂

Is this month’s free wallpaper not exactly what you’re looking for? No problem! Here are all the previous wallpapers without their calendars – both tall for phones and wide for computer screens.

  • Click on the image you want to bring it up in its own window.
  • Right click again on the image to save it to your computer or device.
  • Follow the instructions for your device to make it your new wallpaper.

That’s it! If only changing wallpaper in real life was this easy. 😁

Free Phone Wallpaper

Goldfinch phone wallpaper

Free Desktop Wallpaper

Have fun redecorating!

Fusible Applique the Easy Way

June 15, 2021
blue gingham applique chameleon on a blue background - text says Fusible Applique the Easy Way

Fusible applique is my favorite applique method. It’s fast and easy and it really lets me play with my designs.

I’ve been using this method for some time now, and I’ve refined the method I use. The most recent big change was adding SVG files to my patterns for use with electric cutting machines like Cricut and Silhouette – and that meant a change in how I design some of my template pieces.

Time for a new tutorial! This video shows all the steps for how I do fusible applique. It’s on the long side, and I mention several other tutorials, so scroll past the video for a list of topics at each timestamp, and all the links I mention in the video.

Introduction – Fusible Applique Made Easy

Quilt As You Go (2:29)

I give a quick nutshell view of my method. Visit this post for much more detailed info – Quilt As You Go: Everything You Need to Know. I also mentioned the following tutorials.

Printing or Tracing the Pattern onto Fusible Adhesive (5:33)

I use Heat & Bond Lite for all my quilts. You can get it at most big box fabric stores, either in a roll, by the yard, or in printable sheets. All of my applique patterns are formatted to work with the printable sheets.

Rough Cutting and Clean Cutting the Applique Pieces (7:15)

I show what I mean by rough cut and clean cut in my patterns, and explain why rough cutting, then fusing, then clean cutting gives you the best results.

Transferring the Placement Markings (9:28)

I show all my favorite tools for marking placement lines when I applique

If you want to skip the placement markings, there’s a tutorial here showing how to get perfect placement without them.

Layering and Positioning the Fusible Applique Pieces (14:43)

I show how I layer all the pieces together – with extra info about how to mark your fusible adhesive to help you get a directional pattern to run in different directions to help create contrast between overlapping pieces. (Look at the legs on the chameleon block at the top of this post to see what I’m talking about here.)

Outlining the Pieces (20:47)

You have to outline the pieces after fusing to get a permanent hold. I use a simple straight stitch. A lot of people ask if that’s durable enough with withstand washing and drying. It is! I show a quilt here after many trips through the washer and dryer.

Whew! That is a LOT of info!

I do love fusible applique – and I hope this helps you love it too. 🙂

Here are links to all the posts showing how to applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite method. It’s fast and easy and (with the right materials) it holds up beautifully to rough use and repeated washing.

Here are links to special posts about eyes.

Here are links to some extra fun things you can do with your applique.

Other Applique Methods

Finished with this topic?

Return to the Let’s Make a Quilt main Table of Contents.

Move on to the lessons about outline stitching.

Happy stitching!