How to Machine Applique with Freezer Paper – All the Lessons

July 30, 2013
Cute turquoise monster face appliqued on a pink quilted background. Text reads: How to Applique with Freezer Paper

Want to learn how to machine applique with freezer paper?

This is the post for you.

You can see all my applique videos here, including needle turn applique, how to applique with fusible adhesive, and how to applique with (and on) fake fur.

My preferred method is Quilt As You Go and fusible adhesive, but some people don’t like the raw edges on fusible applique. But they also don’t like the amount of time and handwork involved in needle turn applique. For those folks, freezer paper applique is the best option.

This post rounds up all the lessons on freezer paper applique – all in one place.

If you’re getting ready to start your very first applique project, grab a cup of tea and sit back and watch these lessons first. It’s like a mini online workshop – for free.

Lesson #1

How to Machine Applique Convex Curves – Basic introduction to the technique, why I love it, and how to applique the easiest curves.

Lesson #2

How to Machine Applique Inside Points – Super easy once you know the trick.

Lesson #3

How to Machine Applique Concave Curves – A logical extension of lesson #2.

Lesson #4

How to Machine Applique Points – The trickiest shape to handle.

There’s one more post guaranteed to come in handy if you use this method. . .

The Joy of Starch – If you’re having any trouble getting nice sharp folds on your applique pieces – or having them come uncreased before you have a chance to sew them down – try starch. Read this post to see photos of the difference it makes and learn two ways to use it.

You can use this method with just about any applique quilt pattern. 🙂

You can find all of my Applique Quilt Patterns in the shop!

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!

My Secret Weapon to Make Fabric Behave

July 29, 2013

starch - secret sewing weaponStarch.

Starch!

Simple. Cheap. Old-fashioned. Starch.

It has been crazy humid here this summer.

It’s beyond humid. It’s wet.

We had over 17 inches of rain in the first week of July – and we’ve continued to have heavy rains in the last few weeks. We usually get about five inches for the whole month.

My flour is clumpy. My cereal boxes are soggy. My salt is unsprinkleable. And my applique pieces won’t stay folded!

Aaaaargh!

Five minutes after I press them they look like this.

http://petapixel.com/2013/07/27/outdoor-nature-cam-captures-a-veritable-bear-hoedown/

It’s coming unfolded before I can even press all the pieces for one block!

The solution, my friends, is starch.

Look at the difference.

applique with starch

This is two days after I pressed it.

Starched folds stay folded.

I just use regular spray starch from the grocery store. Nothing fancy or expensive. And I think I’ve been working off this same can for over 10 years.

You can spray it on just before pressing, like I do in this video.

Or you can spray some into a small dish (like a little custard cup), wait for the foam to subside, then paint the liquid starch on with a paintbrush. If you do that you don’t have to paint the whole seam allowance – just make sure you get it right up against the freezer paper. That’s where the fold will be that you’re desperately trying to hold in place while you get the rest of the pieces for the block pressed.

I use both methods interchangeably. It depends on my mood, how many pieces I’m working on, my tolerance for mess that day, and how generally lazy I’m feeling.

If I’m only pressing a few pieces I just spray it on and ignore the mess from the overspray. The extra flakes of starch will brush right off my ironing board and wipe off my iron.

If I’m doing a whole bunch of pieces I’ll actually go downstairs and get a dish, then dig around for a paintbrush and use the paint-it-on method. I actually prefer that, but sometimes I’m too lazy to go to the extra trouble.

If you want to see the details of the machine applique technique I’m talking about here, click here to find all the tutorials about it in one handy dandy place.

But starch isn’t only useful for applique! That’s where I use it most often, but it’s great for holding any pressing. It’s especially useful for hemming – particularly if the fabric you’re trying to hem isn’t a crisp woven cotton. It can be really helpful in making slippery synthetic fabrics behave like a nice, obedient cotton. 🙂

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi
Applique Wendi (with fabulous hat)

 

Starry Night Block #5 – Red Giant

May 28, 2013

finished-red-giant-1000-px-600x600

The newest Starry Night Quilt Block of the Month Block is here – a Red Giant!

What is it about pink and red together that makes my heart sing? It’s one of my favorite color combinations.

And here’s a quick look at all the blocks so far. They’re starting to get wonderfully complex – but still very easy to make!

Starry Night Quilt - collage #5

Update – I’ve pulled the Starry Night pattern temporarily while I reformat it to be released as a regular pattern. Sign up for the newsletter to make sure you know when it’s in the shop.

Happy sewing everyone!

Best,
Wendi
applique wendi

My Favorite Tip for Machine Quilting without Swearing

May 8, 2013
My Favorite Tip for Machine Quilting without Swearing

Nothing – and I mean nothing – is more likely to make me curse like a sailor than when my bobbin runs out of thread in the middle of a long row of stitching while machine quilting. You sew and sew and sew, shifting the heavy weight of the quilt over and over again – and then get to the end and realize you just stitched a whole row with no bobbin – so there’s no stitching. Grrrrrrr. . . just thinking about it is making my blood pressure go up.

*breathe*

I had this happen one too many times on my last project – and then I had a little epiphany.

Actually – a big epiphany. 🙂

Wind a bunch of bobbins before you get started. Like – at least ten for a twin size quilt. Pop matching full bobbins into the top (where you’d normally use a spool) and in the bobbin case. The top and bottom stitching should use the same amount of thread, so you can look at the top bobbin at any time to see how much thread you have left in the bottom (secret hidden) bobbin.

Check before you start every row. If it’s close to empty – go ahead and replace both bobbins. You may waste a little thread – but you’ll be saving your sanity. I say choose sanity.

And even if you miscalculate and run out in the middle of a row – you’ll know right away instead of continuing to stitch on in painful, oblivious ignorance.

Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.

Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.

Finished with this topic?

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

Move on to the lessons about binding and finishing your quilt.

Happy quilting!

Video – How to Sew or Quilt Perfectly Parallel Lines

May 7, 2013
How to Sew or Quilt Perfectly Parallel Lines - video

In this video I show you how to install and use the quilt guide – a mysterious-looking tool that comes with most sewing machines. It’s really easy to use and lets you sew or quilt perfectly parallel lines.

You can do quilting that looks like this. . .

Buttonholes Quilt with parallel line quilting
Buttonholes Quilt with simple parallel lines quilted

Or you can topstitch on plain fabric to give it pinstripes. I did that on this Mighty Casey baseball jersey I made for my husband.

Mighty Casey baseball jersey

You can click on it to get a closer look.

Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.

Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.

Finished with this topic?

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

Move on to the lessons about binding and finishing your quilt.

Happy stitching!

Video – How to Machine Quilt a Big Quilt on a Standard Sewing Machine

May 2, 2013
How to Quilt a Big Quilt on a Standard Sewing Machine - video

I know. You look at that mass of quilt and you look at the space under the arm of your sewing machine and you think, “No way!”

You’d be wrong.

You can totally quilt a big quilt on a regular sewing machine.

I’ve actually quilted king size quilts on my machine – though in this video I’m demonstrating on a twin size.

First, watch this video showing the basics of machine quilting. That video uses a little doll quilt as a sample – easy to see and get a feel for the process – but it doesn’t answer the question you really have about doing the same thing with a bed quilt. That’s what I tackle in this video. So watch it now.

Important! See that little black bit behind the presser foot on my machine? That’s my walking foot. I forgot to mention it in the video – but it’s pretty critical. You really can’t machine quilt without one – it’ll end up all puckery and you’ll be sad. 🙁

And what if you want to quilt lines that don’t follow the seams of the quilt?

Tape – my friends. Painters tape.

Using Tape as a Quilting Guide

On the Flower Beds Quilt I wanted to quilt a diagonal grid over the whole surface. I laid down a strip of masking tape to guide my first line. See how the edge of the tape intersects the corners of the blocks? (That’s what those red circles are showing.) That helps me get a perfectly straight line. Quilt right along the edge of the tape.

Using Masking Tape as a Quilting Guide - detail

Then remove the tape.

You only need to do this for the first row of stitching. After that each row serves as the guide for the next.

I usually just eyeball the distance between rows, but in case you want a little more precision – check out this video showing you a nifty little gizmo to help you stitch perfectly parallel lines.

Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.

Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.

Finished with this topic?

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

Move on to the lessons about binding and finishing your quilt.

Happy quilting!

Free Pretty Posy Applique Pattern

April 25, 2013
cover image of a large pink flower for the free Pretty Posy applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

This flower is super simple to make – just three easy pieces. And it mixes in perfectly with the other flowers in the Wild Flowers pattern.

Download the pattern here.

Cut your background fabric 11 inches square. Cut your batting 11 inches square. Layer the background fabric and the batting and quilt them together. You can find my favorite straight line quilting designs here. You can find my favorite wavy line quilting designs here.

Print or trace the pattern onto the paper side of paper-backed fusible adhesive. I like to use Heat & Bond Lite.

printed pattern page for the free Pretty Posy applique pattern

Roughly cut out all the pieces and fuse them to the wrong side of the fabric.

Pretty Posy applique pattern pieces cut out and fused to fabric

Cut out all the pieces neatly. Cut directly on all the solid lines. Leave a little extra seam allowance wherever there’s a dotted line.

Flower pieces cut out, for the Pretty Posy free applique pattern

Peel off the paper backing and fuse the pieces onto your block. Tuck the seam allowance at all the dotted lines behind the adjoining pieces.

Pretty Posy applique pattern instructions - flower pieces fused in place

Outline all the pieces. I like to use black thread and a simple straight stitch for a fun cartoony look.

finished flower applique using the Pretty Posy free applique pattern from Shiny Happy World

Finished!

A lot of the fun of this pattern is in the fabrics you choose. You can also play around with the angle of the stem, and the flower at the top of the stem.

nine flowers made with the Pretty Posy free applique pattern - each using different fabrics

Want more flowers? You need the Wild Flowers applique quilt pattern. 🙂

Have fun with it!

How to Turn a Quilt Block into a Pillow

April 3, 2013
How to Turn Any Quilt Block into a PIllow

So. Let’s say you really like one of my quilt patterns, but you’ve never made a quilt before and you’re kind of freaked out about making the whole thing.

Start with one block. You can make one single block, right? Of course you can! And you can turn that fun quilt block into a pillow. Here’s how.

Make a quilt block.

Any block from any pattern.

How to Make a Pillow Out of Any Quilt Block - a free tutorial from Shiny Happy World

I made this monster block exactly as the pattern specified. It’s a 10 1/2 inch square. Almost all of my applique quilt patterns are 10 1/2″ squares.You could always enlarge the pattern so it fits on the pillow form you want to cover – but depending on the size you’re enlarging it to, that could make things a little tricky. I’ve got a class (Think BIG!) showing how to do giant applique. For now let’s keep things simple and just add some framing to enlarge the block.

Add Frames

My pillow form is 18″ square. That means I need the front of the pillow cover to be 18″ square. (I like my pillow covers to be just a little bit smaller than the pillows so they have a nice snug fit.)

My block is 10 1/2″ square. That means it will finish at 10″ square when I take up the seam allowances. I want it to end up 18 inches square, so I need to add 4 inches on each side of the block.

I could add 4″ frames all the way around, but I want a narrow frame inside a slightly wider frame. So I’m going to add a 1″ frame all the way around, and then a 3″ frame all the way around that. That will add up to the 4″ frame all around.

Start with the sides.

How to Make a Pillow Out of Any Quilt Block - a free tutorial from Shiny Happy World

Cut strips 1 1/2″ wide. (Remember – if you want a 1″ frame you need to cut your strips 1 1/2″ so seam allowance is included.) Sew a strip to each side of your block using 1/4″ seam allowances. Press them flat.

Sew strips to the top and bottom. Press them flat.

How to Make a Pillow Out of Any Quilt Block - a free tutorial from Shiny Happy World

The inner frame is done. Now your block is 12 1/2″ square.

Do the same thing for the outer frame, but use 3 1/4″ strips for a 3″ frame.

How to Make a Pillow Out of Any Quilt Block - a free tutorial from Shiny Happy World

Once the outer frame is sewn on, your pillow cover front should be an 18″ square. Remember – that will finish at 17″ for a nice, snug fit for an 18″ pillow.

Make the Pillow Back

I like using zippers on my pillow covers so I can take them off for washing. You can add the zipper to the side seam where the front is sewn to the back, but I think that sometimes distorts the look of the pillow. I prefer to add it to the middle of the pillow back.

How to Add a Zipper to a Pillow Back - a video tutorial from Shiny Happy World


This video tutorial shows how to sew a zippered pillow back.

For this monster pillow you need to make a back that is 18 inches square.

Finish Your Pillow Cover

Unzip the zipper at least part way. Don’t forget to do this or you’ll be very sad!

Sew the pillow front to the pillow back, right sides together, all the way around the pillow, using 1/2″ seam allowance.

Turn it right side out through the zipper opening. (See why you left it unzipped a bit?) Slip your pillow form into the cover. Zip it up and toss it onto a chair.

Finished!

How to Make a Pillow Out of Any Quilt Block - a free tutorial from Shiny Happy World

One silly monster quilt block made into a pillow. 🙂

Here are several free patterns that work with my basic 10-inch applique squares – no resizing needed!

Here are several free patterns that work with just some simple resizing. This post about making coasters has info about resizing an applique pattern that can be applied to any of these projects.

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

Happy sewing!

Joining Quilt Blocks and Nesting the Seams – video

March 27, 2013

How to Join Blocks with Nested Seams - video

Want to learn how to make a quilt with an easy online workshop – totally free?

Sign up for Let’s Make a Quilt here. You’ll learn how to get started, the tools and supplies you’ll need, and how to make a quilt from start to finish using Quilt As You Go and applique with fusible adhesive.

It’s the easiest, most fun way to make an applique quilt. You can do it!

When you’re joining rows of quilt blocks together, the seam allowances at the corners can get pretty bulky. You can’t eliminate that bulk altogether, but you can minimize it – spread it out a bit – and that’s what I show you how to do in this video.

See all the quilt lessons here.

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi

My Favorite Quilt Batting

March 20, 2013
My Favorite Batting - a Shiny Happy World review of Warm & Natural battins

What’s the one quilting supply I can’t live without? Quilt batting.

Good quality batting.

You don’t want to mess around here.

You probably just spent a couple hundred dollars on fabric and a good bit of your time making a beautiful quilt top.

You’re about to put it all together and finish the quilt.

You need good batting.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions lately asking for batting recommendations. Luckily – that’s an easy question for me to answer.

Warm & Natural 100% cotton batting.

It is – hands down – the best batting I’ve ever used. Every once in a while the place I shop runs out and I need a batting right away so I buy another brand and it’s always terribly disappointing.

Here’s what’s so awesome about it. . .

It doesn’t beard. That’s when the fibers of the batting start to migrate out the front of your quilt. It looks awful and there’s no way to fix it once it starts. 🙁

It’s the perfect weight – not too heavy, not too light.

It’s beautiful for hand or machine quilting. That’s important to me because I like to do both.

You can quilt up to 10″ apart. This is really important to me for the style of quilts I design. Lots of battings have to be quilted 2-4″ apart. All of my quilts are designed based on a 10-inch block – so with this batting you can make one of my quilts without any quilting at all within the block – just stitch in the ditch. (I always quilt inside my blocks too – but it’s because I want to, not because I have to.)

The amount of shrinkage is perfect. See the crinkly Buttonholes quilt at the top? That’s exactly the amount of crinkle I like. Quilt your quilt without pre-shrinking the batting. Bind it and toss it in the washer and dryer. When it comes out it will be perfect.

It doesn’t shed cotton. I’m lazy and often leave the batting hanging out around the edges of my quilt while I do the quilting. Some battings will shed cotton fibers all over outside of the quilt while I work – which means I have to painstakingly remove them with masking tape when I’m all done. That doesn’t happen with Warm & Natural.

It holds up to lots of machine washing and drying. I’ve had some of my quilts for many years now – and I use them. That means they’ve been washed and dried many, many, many times. The ones with Warm & Natural look like new – no shifting or bunching at all.

So there you go! Lots of independent quilt shops carry Warm & Natural. As far as big box stores go, Joann’s seems to always have it and also carries it online. It comes on a roll so you can buy yardage, but I usually get the precut battings in bags – just because it’s easier for me to store.

Do you have batting scraps you don’t want to throw away? This post shows you a thrifty tip – how to piece those batting scraps together.

These links go to all my posts about quilt supplies.

Finished with this topic?

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

Move on to the lessons about cutting and quilting your background blocks.

Happy quilting!