Applique (encaje de aplicación) is a technique for making pictures out of cloth. I have admired my neighbor’s many wall hangings done in applique and expressed an interest in learning the skill. She has taken me under her wing and is now guiding me in the fine art of applique. We decided to get me going on a 4-block wall hanging with a relatively simple floral pattern. The overall piece will finish out to about 3’ by 3’ or just under a square meter.
]]>Applique (encaje de aplicación) is a technique for making pictures out of cloth. I have admired my neighbor’s (Theresia) many wall hangings done in applique and expressed an interest in learning the skill. She has taken me under her wing and is now guiding me in the fine art of applique. We decided to get me going on a 4-block wall hanging with a relatively simple floral pattern. The overall piece will finish out to about 3’ by 3’ or just under a square meter.
She likes to use butcher paper for forming her applique pieces, then arranges them on the background piece to her satisfaction. She then taps into her endless reserve of patience to hand stitch each piece into its proper place. I am presently working on my first block, and am even using her hand stitching technique to stitch my pieces in place – although I suspect that machine stitching is in my future.
One thing she has impressed upon me is the importance of building a hoard of fabric pieces in all colors and in every shade and texture of all colors – even tiny pieces may be useful at some point in the future. She said this while we sorted through her stash of several boxes looking for just the right shade of brown for my Brown Eyed Susans. Now I understand why so many of my suppliers offer bundles of small pieces of fabric, either color coordinated or in random large packs.
Here is a link to one of my fabric packs – the supplier offers your choice in size of pieces in the Charm Pack, or you can choose a specific fabric in larger sizes.
encaje de aplicación
]]>The table runner is comprised of three blocks set on point with triangular fillers between the blocks. All the shapes are squares and isosceles triangles. It takes 12 fabric pieces to build a block.
Cutting the pieces cleanly, accurately and straight is essential to any quilting project – as any experienced quilter will tell you.
With my new rotary cutters in hand, along with my ruler and cutting mat, I set to work cutting all the pieces for my table runner. I used the Rotary Cutters available in the store The blades on these cutters are razor sharp and cut several layers of fabric very easily – one word of caution, though – the blades come with a generous coating of oil to preserve and protect them in shipping, so I had to carefully wipe them with a paper towel before using them. The results were great – I was slow getting the job done only because of my lack of experience.
I also had an opportunity to test my Thread Snippers and found them to be...
I have successfully put together the blocks, and am now ready to put the entire quilt top together.
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