How to Assemble a Quilt that Uses an Alternate Grid – video tutorial

March 8, 2017
quilt showing applique woodland animals - fox, raccoon, owl, deer squirrel, bunny, bear, etc.

Quilts that “break” the traditional simple checkerboard grid can be really fun and dynamic, but if you’ve never worked with an alternate grid before, figuring out how to assemble the blocks can be kind of tricky. Take a look at the Noisy Farm quilt.

applique farm animals quilt

You can’t just sew all the blocks into rows and then sew the rows together!

Instead of rows or columns, you break these quilts into chunks – and there’s an easy way to figure out how. That’s what I show you in this new video. 🙂

See? Now that you know how easy it is, try breaking the grid on your own! You could take the Lovable Mutts pattern – a simple grid. . .

Lovable Mutts applique quilt pattern

. . . and add a bunch of half-blocks with puppy sounds using this free alphabet pattern. Arf! Woof! Yip!

Use this free guide to help you calculate yardage and plan your layout (includes 6 common sizes). . .

And you could have a really fun and dynamic version of the puppies quilt all your own! Noisy Puppies!

Here are a few more posts you might find helpful. . .

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.

Happy quilting!

Stitching Eyes and Mouths – video tutorial

January 27, 2017
Stitching Eyes and Mouths - a video tutorial from Shiny Happy World

I get two questions a lot when people are ready to start outlining on my face applique patterns.

  • How do you stitch around small parts like eyes and noses?
  • How do you stitch the mouth?

I made a video to show exactly how I do both of those steps!

That’s it!

Remember. . .

  • Shorten your stitch length.
  • Go slow!
  • Stop with the needle down and pivot your work as often as you need to to keep a smooth curve.

This post shows my favorite sewing machine feet – include the clear applique foot I use to get good visibility. That’s essential if you want to neatly outline applique pieces.

If you like that adorable sloth face I used in the demo, get the Silly Sloths applique pattern here. It’s one of my easiest patterns – great for beginners!

Here are links to all my posts about outline stitching.

Finished with this topic?

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

Move on to the lessons about how to trim and assemble your blocks.

Happy stitching!

How to Couch by Machine – a video tutorial

November 2, 2016

How to Couch by Machine - a video tutorial from Shiny Happy World


Couching is a method of sewing 3-dimensional “stuff” (cord, braid, strings of beads or sequins, etc.) to fabric by zigzagging over it. It allows you to sew down things that can’t be sewn through. 🙂

I’ve got a video here showing how to couch by hand, but you can also use your machine!

That’s what I demonstrate in this video.

You do need a special foot for couching. I the video I show you the one I use with my Bernina, and point out the features you need to look for when you’re buying one for your machine. They’re usually pretty inexpensive and it’s a nice foot to add if you do any decorative stitching.

You’ll also get a sneak peek at the three new blocks for the Shiny Happy Houses Quilt Club!

Watch the video here or below.

See how easy it is?

You could use it to add raised whiskers on cats, raised stripes on a snake, pearly snow on the ground, and lots more. I can’t wait to see what you do with it!

Happy stitching!

Best,
Wendi
Wendi Gratz from Shiny Happy World

How to Applique with Shiny Metallic Fabric

October 6, 2016
How to Applique with Shiny Fabric - tips and tricks from Shiny Happy World


Whoa! That monster is silver! Shiny, metallic silver!

When I want a bright, metallic look to my applique, I always grab some tissue lamé.

This surprises a lot of people, because tissue lamé is a notoriously fragile fabric and kind of a pain to work with. But I have tricks!

One of the main problems with it is that the edges fray like crazy.

How to Applique with Shiny Fabric - tips and tricks from Shiny Happy World

Seriously. All you have to do is look at it and it does this.

But you can reinforce the fabric with fusible interfacing and it makes it much stronger and controls the fraying. Once the interfacing is applied you can treat it just like any other fabric.

Awesome!

Except that some tissue lamés melt at the temperatures required to melt the fusible adhesive on the interfacing. But you can use a press cloth – just like you do for the satin I talked about in this post.

Here’s a piece all ready to cut and applique.

How to Applique with Shiny Fabric - tips and tricks from Shiny Happy World

And here are the steps I went through to get to this point.

  1. Lay the tissue lamé out on your ironing board.
  2. Layer a piece of fusible interfacing over the lamé. I use Pellon light weight interfacing.
  3. Layer a press cloth over that and press, following the instructions on the interfacing for time and steam/no steam.
  4. Rough cut your paper-backed fusible adhesive pieces and layer them over the interfacing. Cover that with a press cloth and fuse according to the fusible adhesive instructions.

Now you’re ready to cut out the pieces and fuse them to your applique – again keeping a press cloth between the metallic lamé and your iron.

Here’s a block where I used those hexies for shiny windows.

How to Applique with Shiny Fabric - tips and tricks from Shiny Happy World

I just stitched around the edges as usual. The combination of fusible interfacing and fusible adhesive keeps the edges from fraying in every lamé I’ve tested – but the fiber content can vary quite a bit so I recommend testing before you use it for a full size quilt that you’re planning to wash a lot.

A little pop of metallic shininess can add so much to a lot of quilts. And tissue lamé comes in lots of fun colors!

Don’t be afraid to explore the fabric store beyond the quilting cottons section! A lot of those fabrics can be used in applique with just a little special handling. 🙂

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!

Satin Applique – Fusing Melty Fabrics

October 5, 2016
Satin Applique - title image for a post showing how to fuse fragile and melty fabrics, showing a house with a satin tree

Satin applique is just perfect for getting shiny smooooth things like this blue dragon.

Satin applique used to make a shiny blue dragon quilt block

Usually when I use satin in a quilt I use it for soft 3D pieces – like the lining on these fun, floppy ears in my Mix & Match Monsters quilt.

blue monster quilt block with satin-lined flappy ears - one of the blocks in my new Craftsy class

But you can do satin applique too – even if you use fusible adhesive!

Like fleece – the big problem is heat. The heat required to melt your fusible adhesive will melt most satins too.

The answer is simple.

Use a press cloth!

A press cloth isn’t anything fancy, and it isn’t anything you need to buy. It’s just a piece of regular woven cotton that you put between the potentially melty thing you’re ironing and your iron.

That fall tree in the top photo is satin. Here’s how I did it.

How to Applique with Satin - tips and tricks from Shiny Happy World

Fuse your paper-backed adhesive to the back of the satin, just like you would with any fabric except. . .

Ironing with a press cloth to protect melty fabrics

. . . top it all with a press cloth before you fuse.

Use the press cloth again when you fuse the tree top (or whatever) to your block.

After that just stitch around the edges as usual. The fusible adhesive keeps the edges from fraying in every satin applique I’ve tested – but the content of satins can really vary so you might want to make up a quick sample yourself and test it before you use it for a full size quilt that you’re planning to wash a lot.

Wouldn’t it be super cute to make all the cars and trucks in the Beep Beep quilt out of satin, so they’re shiny and smooth like real cars?

Beep! Beep! Cars quilt pattern

Have some fun adding satin applique to your next quilt project!

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!

How to Applique with Fleece

October 4, 2016
How to Applique with Fleece - tips and tricks from Shiny Happy World


It’s lots of fun to use cuddly soft fleece for your applique – and it’s easy!

But you can’t use fusible adhesive for it. The heat needed to melt the adhesive will also melt your fleece. Not good!

The solution is glue stick!

You’ve seen me use glue stick before to hold pieces in place on fleece while you stitch them down, like adding felt details to a softie face.

But you can also use glue stick to hold the fleece itself in place on a quilt block!

You can use any glue stick made specifically for fabric. It’ll hold really well (and make things kind of stiff) but it washes out easily so your finished quilt is cuddly and soft.

That means you do need to stitch the edges down permanently!

If you look at that blue bird up there you can see I used a fairly wide and open zigzag stitch around the edges. That’s one option.

Another option is just to use a simple straight stitch, like I do around all my other applique pieces. You can see that option on the snowy ground in this Shiny Happy Houses quilt block.

How to Applique with Fleece - tips and tricks from Shiny Happy World

I loaded up large images for both of these – so you can click on them to see them closer. The zigzag stitching leaves a slightly crisper edge, where the straight stitch is a softer, fluffier edge. If you decide to applique with fleece, just choose the edge treatment that works best for your project!

Both of my examples are using cuddle fleece, but this method also works well for polar fleece. Just make sure to get the no-pill kind!

I’d love to see some fluffy, fleecy cats and dogs!

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!

Fussy Cutting and Broderie Perse – Fancy Applique Tutorial

September 9, 2016
Broderie perse applique tutorial from Shiny Happy World


There are two kinds of applique that rely on the print of the fabric you’re using – fussy cutting and broderie perse.

A lot of you have probably done fussy cutting without even realizing it has a name. It’s when you carefully position your applique template to incorporate images printed on the fabric.

I did it on this Paper Doll quilt block to make sure the top T.A.R.D.I.S. was centered on the V-neck and the bottom ones were lined up with the hem.

example of fussy cut applique for a tutorial from Shiny Happy World

I also did it on this haunted house quilt block, to make sure there was a bat flying in the center of each window, and the skull was centered on the door.

example of fussy cut applique for a tutorial from Shiny Happy World

Fussy cutting is easy. It just means paying attention when you position your templates. You can hold your fabric and templates up to a window so you can see really well where your outlines are falling.

Broderie perse is similar, in that it uses motifs printed on the fabric. But with broderie perse – the images ARE the templates. You’re cutting out the images on one fabric and appliqueing them to another. It’s traditionally done with flowers – but you can do it with anything you like!

Heres how I used broderie perse to add a couple of cute trick-or-treaters to one of my Shiny Happy Houses quilt blocks – designed especially for Halloween.

You have to start with adorable fabric. I’m using two fabrics from Dear Stella that are designed to work together.

Fun fabrics to use for Broderie perse applique technique - tutorial from Shiny Happy World

Bundle Me Up is the fabric with the sweet animals faces, hands, and feet – but no bodies. Costume Party is the fabric with all the fun costumes for those critters to wear. So clever!

Broderie perse applique tutorial from Shiny Happy World

Roughly cut out the image you want (like the fox in this picture). Back it with fusible adhesive, and then cut the image out neatly (like the dress and crown).

Broderie perse applique tutorial from Shiny Happy World

The dress in this example already has little slippers attached, so when I cut out the fox neatly I decided to cut away the lower part of the body. It would have been hidden anyway and this makes assembly easier – I don’t have to line things up as perfectly.

I’m such a lazypants. 🙂

Broderie perse applique tutorial from Shiny Happy World

After that it’s applique as usual.

Position the critter first, then the costume and fuse it down with everything else in your block.

I stitched around all my pieces in simple black thread for a nice cartoony look. I added a couple of pumpkin buttons for their trick or treat pails, and – of course – some spider buttons on all that magnificent glow-in-the-dark spiderwebbing. 

Have fun with broderie perse! It will make you look at your fabrics a whole different way. 🙂

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!

How to Add Fake Trapunto Applique Pieces to Your Quilts

August 3, 2016
How to Do Fake Trapunto Applique - a video tutorial from Shiny Happy World

See the tree in that quilt block?

It’s puffy and fat – like traditional trapunto applique.

You can read more about traditional trapunto here. It’s. . . a lot of work. Seriously. A lot.

So I didn’t use the (crazy labor-intensive) traditional trapunto technique. I used a fun and easy fake trapunto applique technique I developed to give the monsters in this quilt googly eyes, like this. . .

Calling them "faux trapunto eyes with needle sculpted pupils" makes them sound really hard to make - and they're not - so I just call them googly eyes. :-)

So much fun!

(It’s the button pupils dimpling the eyes in that really make them extra cute.)

Here’s the video tutorial showing how to do it.

You can use this technique for clouds and trees, like I show in the video, but also for any relatively simple shape. Just choose something big enough to be able to turn it right side out after sewing, with an outline that’s primarily gentle curves or wide points.

You can also use this technique without the puffy stuffing. It’s not really trapunto applique anymore, but it’s a great way to get easy turned edges for applique into shaggy or fluffy fabric – like cuddle fleece.

You can see that on the bunny face on this lovie.

cute bunny face and ears on a cuddly soft blankie made with a pattern from Shiny Happy World

I used the same technique on this bear lovie face – again without the stuffing.

By the way – the houses shown in the video and in the very top photo are all made with the Shiny Happy Houses quilt pattern.

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.

Have fun with it!

What Will You Learn in the New Craftsy Class? Part 2

June 24, 2016

I’ve been sharing little peeks of what to expect from the new Craftsy class on Facebook and Instagram and then gathering them all up every week here on the blog. There are so many fun things in this one class!

You can read the first round up here. Googly eyes, scrappy pieced backgrounds, silly eyelids, a kajillion uses for a triangle – it’s all there. 🙂

This week we started with silly hair.

I love this curly-haired monster quilt block! There's elastic inside those curls, so when you pull on them they spring back. :-)

I mean, seriously. Those curls have elastic inside so they spring back when you pull on them. How silly is that?

And then I showed how one simple body shape can look totally different, depending on the other bits you add.

My favorite is the one with the purple toenails. 🙂

More fun 3D parts with these teeth.

green monster 3D teeth

So easy!

And then I went really crazy with the 3D additions with these floppy, satin-lined ears. . .

blue monster quilt block with satin-lined flappy ears - one of the blocks in my new Craftsy class

. . . and these folded, softie-style ears.

Update – there’s a tutorial here showing how to add 3D bits to your applique, and one here showing how to give those 3D pieces extra body so they don’t flop too much.

One of the monsters (this one with folded, softie-style ears) in my new Craftsy quilt class.

We also cover working with non-traditional fabrics in this class!

We use shaggy faux fur (video here). . .

It's really easy to use special fabrics in applique! This shaggy long fur is one of my favorites. :-)

. . . cuddly fleece (video here). . .

It's easy to use cuddle fleece for applique - and it makes soft and cuddly monsters and animals. :-)

. . . and shiny tissue lamé (video here).

Woo! Check out that fancy silver monster! In my new class I show how to appliqué with "tricky" fabrics like this shiny (and fragile) tissue lamé.

So many fun new techniques in this class!

Enter the giveaway for a free spot here. Even if you don’t win – just by entering you’ll be notified when the class goes live (so soon!) and you’ll get a special discount coupon.

Sign up for the class here. It’s so much fun!

Happy quilting!

Best,
Wendi
Wendi Gratz from Shiny Happy World

Tips for Quilting a Cuddle Fleece Back – video tutorial

April 22, 2016
alt text


I love using cuddle fleece for my quilt backs.

When I made the first cat quilt for my daughter Jo, she asked for cuddle fleece on the back. Until then I had only used it for stuffed animals, but she thought it would make an exceptionally cuddly quilt.

She was right.

After sleeping under it the first night she came to me and very seriously said, “Mommy. You should never use anything else on the back of your quilts.”

She was right again. 🙂

Wonderfully – I’ve found that it’s no harder to work with than a woven fabric on the back!

Note – I’ve heard from a few people with Brother machines that they do NOT like pulling the cuddle fleece through. We think it might be that the Brother feed dogs are less “grabby” than other manufacturers? Just be aware – if you have a Brother machine you may need to give it some extra help to get it to move through the machine.

A lot of people have asked me whether they have to do anything special to use cuddle fleece on the back of their quilts.

  • Do they need to use a special needle?
  • Do they needle to use a particular thread?
  • Do they have to use a walking foot?
  • Can I show actually doing some of the quilting?
  • Can I show what it looks like from the back?

I can show you all of that!

I’ve made a bunch of these now and I’ve found that I don’t really need to treat it any different from using a woven fabric background. In fact – I think it’s even less likely to get tiny folds or puckers in it. 🙂

A note about the fluff. . .

By the time I get to the backing/quilting/binding step of a project I’m always super excited to finish – and I don’t take the time to tumble the backing in the dryer to get rid of the fluff on those cut edges. 😛 If you’re more patient than me. . .

  • Cut the backing to size
  • Toss it in the dryer on air dry for 15-20 minutes. That will pull almost all of the fuzz off the edges and catch it in the lint trap.
  • Proceed as normal – baste, quilt and bind wearing whatever you want and not worrying about getting too messy. 🙂

Cuddle fleece makes an extra cuddly quilt with (in my opinion) the perfect weight. And it washes and wears beautifully!

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!