You’ve been asking for it and here it finally is! A tutorial for how I like to appliqué vines and similar quilt elements. I am using the pattern “One” by Quiltworx for my example.
The first thing you need to do is determine how wide you want your vein. I have 2 samples here. Captains Wheel is the first one, it has a very thin “rope”. The next is ONE and I used a wider cut strip for this one. I make a sample out of scrap fabric and just do the steps to see what I will like. Be sure to use contrasting fabrics for your sample.
This is “rope” on my Captain’s Wheel quilt. I have placed the dime so you can see how small this one finishes. This strip was cut 1″Here it is folded in half and stitched downThis one is 1 1/2″. Press wrong sides together, like a binding stripHere it is pressedStitch down with a straight stitch. All raw edges together. I used 1/4″ seam hereStitched – ready to ironNow iron!Do NOT trim before ironing! In this sample I did trim before ironing – OOPS!In this photo I trimmed the end before I ironed – DO NOT DO THIS! IRON FIRST!See what happened, after I pressed? The angle is wrong! Now I have 2 options, I can take the whole thing off and restitch — or – I can just trim the end of the leaf a little bit? What do you think I did?Now place the second side, leave each end a little long so you can fold it over for a nice finish. If you are comparing my sample to the pattern you will notice I switched sides for the long/short edges. It’s your quilt!
Stitch using approximately 1/4″ seam allowance, all raw edges lined upPRESS – this is the top of the leaf. See how much length I left?Pressed – determine how long you want the stem at the bottomCarefully trim and fold the end over for a nice finishThe stem at the bottom of the leaf after I have folded the end for a nice finish. I did take this back to machine and finish stitching to the end at the top and bottom.Choose your thread colors, I wanted mine to blend, you may want them to accent. You may also want to use your favorite invisible threadI used a button-hole stitch on this one, sometimes I use a tiny zig-zagThis is what the back looks like. The white straight stitch is from the first line of stitching I did. Then you see the yellow button-hole stitchAnd ONE is DONE!
I hope you find this tutorial helpful. I plan to do a few more so if you have any gentle critiques please post them in the comments.
Remember I am available to teach at your local quilt shop or your quilt guild. You can find my schedule here.
Once a month I hostess a finishing class for students that are working on their Judy Niemeyer quilts. Some come to pick out fabric, some come to cut fabric, some come to sew. We all show up to be inspired! I have been teaching these classes for several years now and watching these quilts come together is always a treat!
So to inspire you I have chosen a few delights!
Rita’s Flowers for My Wedding Quilt – This will be for her Granddaughter.Pauline is working on Indian Summer – here are a few of her lights.Marilyn has been busy working on Mariner’s Compass – her first Judy quilt!And look – here is Cheryl’s Mariner’s Compass – she has her center completely doneBut she will be adding 4 Compass Rose units to elongate her quilt!Cheryl has already chosen the fabrics for her split log cabin!Shirley has had her center done for her Mariner’s Compass and is now working on her borders!But look what else Shirley has completed – this beautiful feathered star came home with me for quilting!And another feathered star – Janeane added the queen borders for Glacier Star to make this beautiful Feathered Star Quilt!And Janeane has also completed her Mariner’s Compass!Janeane’s time consumer has been this rendition of Flowers for My Wedding – a 50th wedding anniversary gift for her parents!Won’t appliqué look stunning in this wide open corners!
Be sure to check the calendar to see if I am coming to a guild or shop near you in 2014. I would love to come teach at your guild or shop!
I may have mentioned that I host a longarm bee in our area (Clearlake,TX). We meet at Pinwheels and Posies monthly and usually have about 35 participants. Each month we have new members and it is such a fun bee. We have a few experienced quilters and several newbies. I love to see the newbies take the ideas they see at bee and bring back their show and tells the next month! This month we had a special treat, Kim Norton, from A Busy Bobbin was our speaker. I became familiar with her work through one of my students (who is also one of Kim’s friends and customers).
When I found out Kim had only been longarm quilting for 4 years I just knew she would be an inspiration to our group and SHE IS! Kim has a website at http://www.abusybobbin.com One of Kim’s sons is in the Navy stationed on a medical ship as a Medical Tech. Her other son is in high school. Kim’s husband is retired Navy and now works locally. He is very supportive of Kim’s career choice!
This is Kim – she lives about an hour away from our bee and she agreed to speak at our bee in exchange for a dinner prior to our meeting!
Kim and her beautiful smile!An attentive groupWondering if they can really do that – yes you can!
Kim began by telling us a little bit about how she started, she bought her first longarm with the intent of having a business and had her first customer quilt on the frame within days of receiving her machine. She now has 2 Innova machines so she can work leave a “custom” quilt on one frame and churn out other quilts on the other frame.
Kim loves templates and showed us how she uses these to design her quilting. Sometimes she uses them for marking, but usually she guides her longarm around the templates.
Using an ARCH ruler to create a secondary design to the piecing.2 lines will frame the work much better than one. Just move the template approximately 1/4″ and stitch the 2nd line
How does Kim keep the template from moving and how does she “ditch” around her appliqué?
Sand paper dots. She also does not put a lot of pressure on the template.DeLoa’s Appliguide is her goto tool for “ditching” appliqué. This ruler has a beveled edge and I can’t wait to order mine!
This quilt belongs to Kim’s mom and it was a block exchange. Some blocks were pieced some were applique. To tie them all together with a common quilting theme she used one of her “Gadget Girl” templates to add and additional frame around each block, then custom quilted each block.
Adding an inside frame of quilting to each block – these rulers come in various sizes at Gadget Girls
Ok Kim we see HOW you do some of these techniques – but we want to know where do the ideas come from? Kim uses her iphone and ipad to take photos of quilts that inspire her. She keeps these ideas in folders on those devices to refer to later. She also prints ideas and keeps them in a notebook where she can flip through them until “THE” idea jumps out. She also taught us that we all have the same tool for conjuring inspiration – in fact we are born with it.
SAS – STAND AND STARE – she explained her SAS technique is stand and look at the quilt, put hands on hips, cock her head to the right, cock her head to the left, repeat as needed!
Once she has some ideas in her head she uses a reusable auditioning medium to draw the design over the quilt to see if it plays on the quilt as well as it did in her head. She will also sometimes take a photo of the quilt and then using tracing paper audition designs over the photo.
Reusable audition medium.
This beautiful quilt was made by Kim’s mom – mom’s applique is beautiful! And Kim really knows how to make it shine. Kim used 2 battings on this quilt, a thin cotton against the lining and wool on top. Kim reminded us that if you are going to do dense quilting in the blocks you MUST quilt those little sashings too – keep your quilting density consistent.
Great sashing treatmentThis quilt just makes me smileWhat is not to love about this border, love the applique circles and the quilting – they play so nice together.
And here is Linda’s Quilt – yes I have included this quilt in previous blogs – but now I get to share some of the secrets behind the quilting!
Kim used small dots to mark start/stop points for designs. This is the frixion pen she used. Use the marking tool sparingly – but it does iron away.Once again minimal marking to mark each sideJust a dot is enough.Gadget girls “fan” template is the perfect tool for the curved cross hatch in this design. Start on one side, use the lines on the ruler to space your quilting lines continue to the other side. Flip your ruler over and now go back the other direction.Stitch your circles with templates, remember 2 lines of quilting is better than one. Find the perfect template to add that spinning motion.
And of course the question we all wanted to know – how was the scalloping on the border on this quilt accomplished?
Linda explains her technique for the scalloped border – a bias flange that is tacked back like a cathedral window block.
And now a little show and share
Cindy G made this quilt for the teacher of her kindergartner. Cindy teaches middle school PE and she says she is overwhelmed at the thought of teaching (25) 5 year olds. It was her pleasure to make this quilt to thank the teacher!Close up of the quilting. When asked how much marking she did – Cindy said ZERO!!!Look at this beautiful carpenters star. Oh how I wish I had gotten the quilter in the photo so I could give you credit! You did a fabulous job!The back of the carpenter’s starDonna shows the FIRST quilt she quilted on her new frame!Close up of the loops panto Donna used.Cindy B is working on completing quilts for all the family members. She uses a sit-down machine.Cindy B. is giving this quilt to a brother and didn’t want her usual flowery designs and so she realized she could undulating lines to fill the space between the straight lines.
Then we all put our thinking caps on for “How Would You Quilt This!”
Beautiful quilt – her husband informed her she could not give this one away. It will hang in their home.Kim suggests imitating the white flowers in these squares.Kathie’s Borders Quilt. Made in a class taught by Winnie Fleming at Pinwheels and Posies.Kim shows us to create squares of quilting above the ohio stars in the blue/cream fabrics. I like it!Cindy G. was on task to give some wonderful ideas for adding modern quilting to this delightful quilt.
I also brought a quilt top for ideas. No photos because I was talking – but when I started to open it up Kim and Linda started chuckling – Kim had recently completed the quilting on this same quilt for the Peace by Piecing Quilt Guild. She shared how she quilted theirs and then Cindy G came up with some really fun ideas – I think I will be doing a combination of both ideas. But first I must finish this blog and get back to work!
