How Do YOU Appliqué?

[Kathryn S.]

2 great ideas! The last time I really did any applique, was for Sue Garman's Ruffled Roses quilt, a few years ago now. I took a manila folder, cut a piece of batting to fit it, and put my applique pieces on the batting. The freezer paper idea sounds like it would work better.
As for squaring up, many times I have marked out a square on plain cloth and used that. Hmmm, I can see that I will have to try this also. Thanks a bunch, kathy

[Helen W.]

Kathy, I like your manila folder with batting idea and using fabric for squaring up. Not getting to town too often, I like having various substitutes for
when I run out of something and still want to continue on with what I am doing. I also saw Susan Cleveland's video
where she uses different shapes made out of freezer paper; irons them to her sandwiched quilt and stitches around the
freezer paper pulls it off and then moves it and irons it on again. HelenW

[Kathryn S.]

Well, that's just brilliant! I sort of knew about that but hadn't tried it. You are definitely good at sleuthing out uses for freezer paper. I am teaching machine quilting classes at the local sewing machine shop and will pass that on to the students, as well as trying it myself.

[Kathryn S.]

I had never heard of or seen back basting appliqué until I read comments on this forum. Since I like learning new things, I decided to give it a try on Block 5. The outside edge turned out okay, but the center of the block looked awful. I appliquéd a new center over the mess and still may redo this block at some point.

Does anyone with experience in back basting appliqué have tips for those sharp points and tiny edges in the center of this block?

[Kathryn S.]

I had never heard of or seen back basting appliqué until I read comments on this forum. Since I like learning new things, I decided to give it a try on Block 7. The outside edge turned out okay, but the center of the block looked awful. I appliquéd a new center over the mess and still may redo this block at some point.

Does anyone with experience in back basting appliqué have tips for those sharp points and tiny edges in the center of this block?

[Helen W.]

Ckewing, I don't have experience but like you I am on a mission to learn new techniques as I progress on this wonderful quilt pattern.
I found some really good you tube videos by Becky Goldsmith. You can type her name in and you tube and when get her channel, go to videos
and back 7 years ago she did one on pinning outer points on needle turn applique and another on stitching outer points. Since she draws the line and needle turns
it would be a lot like the back basting when it comes to the manipulation of the seam and fabric at the point. She also had a good one just a month ago on
Turned Edge Machine stitched with wash away stabilizer that I watched. If you are like me, you will find a bunch of her videos interesting. HelenW

PS I just found Becky Goldsmith's website www.pieceocake.com and on the home page at the top she has free videos. Click on that and she has them
all organized by topics.

[Judith A.]

Ckewing,
I am learning back-basting too.
Jo Morton does back-basting. A few of her books have a concise explanation of how she does it in the back of the book. Jo's Little Favorites III, and Jo's Floral Album.
Back-Basting Applique Step by Step by Hand or Machine, by Barbara J. Eikmeier, is very helpful. Barbara started back-basting by machine when she realized how much time she could save this way. But I found machine bask-basting harder to do. She free-motion stitches the design. My free-motion stitching got some tiny stitches at tricky spots that were aggravating to remove when appliqueing.
I recommend starting by trying back-basting by hand with a simple heart design. Use a large needle and thicker thread in a contrasting color for the back-basting, so you can see the holes and the line easier.
Other tips:
If the basted stitching line becomes difficult to see, draw over the line with a marker. The marker will show up on the fabric in the spaces between the basting stitches.
The Bohn chalk marker worked well on dark fabrics for me. It didn't smudge or rub off as easily as some others, and it came off afterwards - even after I accidently ironed it.

Back-basting applique is a form of needle-turn. In my humble opinion, one really needs to know the basics of needle-turn first to be successful at back-basting on the more intricate outlines of a few of these blocks.

Here is my best tip: Don't let your first attempts discourage you. We can do this!!!!!!

Judy

[Sheree B.]

I am just starting quilt blocks and would like to use my scan and cut. Do you know of a good video tutorial? What tips do you suggest? Thanks