Designing Applique'

[Renata L.]

Okay, I'm STUCK... biting off more than I can chew (as usual)... and need help.

I'm working on Month 6 of the Sedona Star but I decided not to do the Hearts and Feathers that Sarah Vedeler designed (they just would not look quite right in my house). So, I decided to make my own design--Chinese good luck bats--to replace the Hearts and Feathers.

I printed Sarah's template 1 in order to have the dimensions of the block. Then I adapted a Dover copyright-free design to my liking and enlarged it. I placed tracing paper over Sarah's template and traced it. Then I placed my design where I wanted it to go and traced that.

Now, I have what I want on tracing paper. What do I do next? The design is on a piece of tracing paper 19"x24". The background of the applique needs to be paper-pieced to the border. I'm totally confused... you might be confused by my email :? :? :? Here is a picture of what I have on tracing paper (with a piece of plain white paper behind it for visibility):



I need to get from concept to execution and I am lost :mrgreen: HELP! Can't believe, another fine mess I've gotten myself into... :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Nancy R.]

Hi Renata -

I would piece the block before applying the applique. It would be really hard to place the applique correctly while paper-piecing if you did that first.

The first thing you'll need to do with your applique is decide which pieces are on top of which. In your picture, I would do something like the bottom of the wings on the bottom, then the tops of the wings overlapping, then the body on top of the wings. You'll have to evaluate each piece in that way.

The rest depends on your applique method. If you are doing raw-edge fusible, then you would trace the individual pieces on your fusible, including your overlaps. Remember to turn your pattern over when doing this part or your applique will be flipped in the end. Fuse the fusible on the wrong sides of your fabrics. With this motif, I would assemble the pieces on top of an applique pressing sheet with your pattern underneath the sheet. Iron the pieces together then place them in the appropriate spot on your block and iron on. Then sew around the edges.

If you are using a different applique method, you'll need to modify the instructions appropriately.

Does that help?

Nancy

[Jo H.]

I see 7 pieces that will be for the applique section. Is that correct? I would transfer the 7 pieces onto freezer paper and if it were me and you didn't want to create an digitized machine embroidered design, I would put the freezer paper on Ricky's stable stuff, cut out and then glue baste the stable stuff to the fabric. Using Elmer's washaway glue stick, I would turn under the edges and then machine applique using a very tiny zig zag stitch to your background.

Clear as mud?

[Jo H.]

Nancy's method sounds good too. Lots of ways to play. Have fun deciding!

JoJo

[quote="rehak"]Hi Renata -

I would piece the block before applying the applique. It would be really hard to place the applique correctly while paper-piecing if you did that first.

[Renata L.]

Thank you, Nancy and JoJo, for your comments and suggestions. I totally agree with both of you, although I had never considered it, to do the paper-piecing first and then the applique'. I also realized, based on your comments, that my question was also not very clear. Sorry!

Interesting that you should mention digitizing, JoJo! Initially, I had actually gone into my Bernina V6 software and digitized my design as an outline in order to do this as an applique' in the hoop. Where things got messy and I could not get out of my own predicament was in the satin stitch outline I was going to do around the pieces of applique'. If you look at the design, there are areas of outline that are pretty curls. The satin stitch would come to a blunt end at the end of the curl and I did not know how to taper it to make it look nice. I haven't given up on this process, I thought I was close, but it was not good enough. If you have any suggestions on how to make the curls end up pretty in the satin stitch outline, I would much appreciate it. In many commercial applique' embroidery designs, I've noticed that the decorative stitch used to tack down is also the only decorative stitch required. Where I'm confused is, do I do a zig-zag tackdown stitch to fix the applique and then create an embroidery design to go on top of that in order to get the curls or can my satin stitch embroidery tack down the applique' and veer off to make the curl and then return to continue tacking down the applique'?

Since my first effort was at digitizing, in preparation for that I had figured out which applique' pieces would go underneath others. So in that respect, I think I am okay, Nancy. If I have to abandon digitizing altogether and do this the traditional way, I know that I would like to use freezer paper and turn the applique' under (sorry I had not mentioned that before in my confusion). So, my thought was to stitch down the applique' pieces with MonoPoly and an invisible applique' stitch so that later I can add to the outline of the design either a satin stitch or hand-embroider the outline so that I can deal with the curl issue in a way that I know how to do. So my question here is, is there a better way to go about this? Should I just be using a satin stitch to tack down the pieces applique' pieces? Am I making this too hard? I will have to repeat this process with nine blocks!

Thank you, Nancy and JoJo for your quick responses and guiding me through this process. I promise to show you what I end up with. Why do I always have to learn with the hard stuff first? Hope my second note isn't more confusing than the first... ops:

[Renata L.]

Hi Renata -

I would piece the block before applying the applique. It would be really hard to place the applique correctly while paper-piecing if you did that first.

Nancy

Curiously enough, I was about to suggest that you applique the bat first on an oversized background, then you could slide it to fit into the middle of the paper piecing lines and then stitch the border pieces on. This would also avoid any problems of the stitching drawing in the fabric to slightly smaller.

Isn't it great being a newbie and not knowing that you can't do something ,so you do it anyway! 8)

[Nancy R.]

Hi Renata -

I dont have an embroidery machine so I can't help you with any of that.

If you end up doing it without the embroidery unit and decide to use a satin stitch, you could just satin stich directly without tacking the pieces down first. If you decide to tack first, which is reasonable, then I would use the same thread you plan on using for the satin stitch rather than bothering with monopoly. The satin stitch will just cover up your tacking stitch anyway. I believe that when embroidery machines do a tacking stitch before a satin stitch, you generally use the same thread. But that understanding would just be from seeing a few videos in different places, so I could be wrong....

Good luck, and I do want to see the results! The applique design looks really cool!!

Nancy

[Renata L.]

Well, Rosemary... I've made blocks lately for the Sedona Star 2012 BOM that have become my practice pieces for FMQ when they did not quite turn out as I wanted for the BOM... :lol: :lol: :lol: I still put my mistakes to good use in one way or another... but I am getting more and more confused... I get bored with the easy stuff so I start in over my head. Just so grateful you all are out there to bail me out!

[Nancy R.]

Hi Renata -

I would piece the block before applying the applique. It would be really hard to place the applique correctly while paper-piecing if you did that first.

Nancy

Curiously enough, I was about to suggest that you applique the bat first on an oversized background, then you could slide it to fit into the middle of the paper piecing lines and then stitch the border pieces on. This would also avoid any problems of the stitching drawing in the fabric to slightly smaller.

Isn't it great being a newbie and not knowing that you can't do something ,so you do it anyway! 8)

Good points! As with everything, it will really depend on what makes the most sense to you and how you are doing other things. I haven't had much trouble with applique drawing in the fabric, but I never use a satin stitch and for my BOM I'm using Ricky's Stable Stuff and am leaving it in, so that would help to stabilize the applique.

Isn't it hard that there is never one right answer!

[Renata L.]

Hi Renata -

If you end up doing it without the embroidery unit and decide to use a satin stitch, you could just satin stich directly without tacking the pieces down first. If you decide to tack first, which is reasonable, then I would use the same thread you plan on using for the satin stitch rather than bothering with monopoly. The satin stitch will just cover up your tacking stitch anyway. I believe that when embroidery machines do a tacking stitch before a satin stitch, you generally use the same thread. But that understanding would just be from seeing a few videos in different places, so I could be wrong....

Thanks, Nancy! I'm taking it all on board so I can sort through your suggestions and play and see what will work for me. Step-by-step...

[Renata L.]

Just read your second post - whilst I have absolutely no experience of digitizing embroidery, I do know that to get a nice taper with satin stitch, instead of having the stitchs at right angles to the sides you need to angle them

Glad you have found ways of avoiding boredom :wink:

[Renata L.]

Thanks, Rosemary! What program did you use to send that picture below? I like that! :P

[Jo H.]

You are on your way to a successful digitizing experience so please don't stop now. Play some more and do some sample stitch outs on practice fabric.

I recommend that you digitize a running stitch placement line so that you know exactly where to place each piece of fabric. If you do not want to digitize a tack down stich in either a zig zag or an e-stitch, you can use a temporary spray adhesive. I do not recommend just laying the fabric down and having the satin stitch start because the fabric can shift very easily and then you will have registration issues and not be satisfied with your efforts.

You don't have to use a satin stitch everywhere. I would play with your fancy stiches in those curly areas and either use one of those or a triple stitch because they will just be for decorative purposes on the solid parts of the applique fabric.

Here's a very quick screen snapshot of me playing with your design. The green stitches is a placment stitch. I usually put this so that it fall just inside of the lines. That way if any applique fabric is not covering it, you will know that you need to reposition the fabric until all of the stitches are hidden underneath. The red area is a tackdown stitch which can be eliminated with spray adhesive. The blue area is the satin stitch with a triple stitch for the curly areas.

Hope that helps you keep going!

[Jo H.]

Thanks, Rosemary! What program did you use to send that picture below? I like that! :P

I drew it in xp Paint (I do have a drawing tablet though), saved it as a 'jpg' - you have to watch out for that, it's default save is 'bitmap' which doesn't upload (don't ask how I know ops: ) Put it somewhere you can find it again :wink: , and upload like any ordinary photo. Simples!

[Renata L.]

JoJo, thanks for your help. I feel like I was so close to what I wanted but not close enough to be successful. I would have never thought of adding a triple stitch for example or a fancy stitch, yet, as I was loading up some OESD Holiday designs to deconstruct what they did to achieve the effect I wanted, and it looks like they did exactly what you suggested. I kept thinking that I needed to use the reshape tool to move nodes to get the tapers and curl endings, but to no avail... So, I will go back in and try again. Your picture did not come through, so if you have a chance to reload it, it would be much appreciated. Thank you and since you can't see me, I have a little smile on my face and I feel like happy dancing a bit until I open up my V6 software again.

PS Why can't I just use Sarah Vedeler's design for this BOM???... :roll: (because I really don't want to?) I don't know whether this is stubborness or persistence... but I just can't give up!