Let's Talk Applique!

As anyone who knows me knows, I adore applique! Especially hand applique! It is the reason I quilt.

Over the many years I have been quilting now (almost 20 wow!), I have tried to learn something new, or at least try a new method (to me anyway lol) every year. Over the many years I have tried many different ways to applique, both hand and machine. And I have incorporated a little from each method, well most methods into the way I applique now.

Recently an online friend (thanks Retta!) sent me some fabric and a little book by Ami Simms called Invisible Applique. I had never tried her method, and of course decided I had to try it lol. While her method of using the ladder stitch is not for me, I did learn (why I didn't think about it before is beyond me lol) a new way to make sure that intricate blocks like the Baltimore Blue and Christmas Windows blocks are stitched down right where the pieces need to go. I had made clear overlays and was doing it that way, but if you are familiar with the method, pieces can shift when you remove the overlay. So what I am doing now and it works wonderfully for me, is to use a blue water soluble marking pen, (be sure you read and see if you can iron over the markings, on some of the old kind you couldn't but the one I recently purchased there are no heat warnings) mark the entire block on the background fabric and then worry about one piece at a time. I like to iron the block multiple times before it is finished so that the pieces lay down flat as I add the next pieces. This pen has completely washed out with just a small paint brush and some room temperature water. And I have ironed the completed block and it has been over a week and the lines haven't reappeared on the back or front where I was "off" just a tad in some places.

On the Baltimore Blue block some pieces fit on top of others so I will use a marker to mark the underneath piece and sew that on (which I normally do anyway) then fit the bottom piece into the drawn background.

Clear as mud? Feel free to ask any questions this post raises for you lol.