Appliqué

Appliqué is somewhat of a new adventure for me. My son is five years old, so that means I've been sewing for about five years. Of all of the quilts and blankets I've made I hadn't tried it yet. The concept wasn't new. I'd read all about it and admired many appliquéd quilts, but I just hadn't worked up the nerve to try it yet. Last week I got brave and got out the tools to attempt it.

Yes I'm standing on a stool to fit all my appliqué tools into this pic.

There are many methods. The first I read about was on the back of the Wonder Under box. Iron to fabric, cut to size and then iron to foundation fabric. The second I read about was in Jennifer Dick's Modern Appliqué Workbook. It involves using freezer paper to piece together shapes. The directions in the book are clear and the final results look nice, but I didn't have the clear thread she uses. The third method from Modern Appliqué Illusions was similar to the first and used iron on stabilizer.
I actually made these appliqué blocks because I'm following Jennifer Dick's Modern Monday quilt along from 42quilts.com. 
By the time I got to sit down and work on these I was pretty constrained for time, so I just went with the first option and zig-zag stitched the edges. Here are the results.

A simple cat head outline on vintage fabric for both of them. I think they turned out well.
After completing these a friend told me about another method. you cut out your shape a tad larger than normal and cut a piece of usable interfacing to fit it with the right sides together. Stitch all the way around. Then cut a slit in the interfacing and flip the whole thing right-side out. Flatten by hand and then iron into place. You can zig-zag or blanket stitch around the edges.
With so many options, I with I had more time to experiment. I still want to try the freezer paper method and the sew on interfacing as well.

Happy quilting,
Rose