Behold the back of Hopkins.
And on the right, the back of the applique practice piece, just barely underway.
Having traced the design onto freezer paper and cut along the lines with an X-acto knife, you iron it onto the back of the fabric. The fabric is supposed to be black to make it look like stained glass, of course, but this is just for practice. You then cut out one of the design openings, shove a bit of cloth into the opening, and sew around the edge. This gives you the effect shown on the left below, where I have actually gotten three pieces into place.
I can see that, in a complicated design, this method will increase the chances of having all the little pieces end up in the right spots. Compare it with ordinary applique, in which the pieces are cut out separately, arranged on the fabric, and sewn down. An example of this is the table runner I made at Thanksgiving, shown on the right.
With traditional applique such as this, you have some flexibility. You can put your pumpkin a bit more to the right and adjust the angle of the leaf. The stained glass look probably calls for a bit more precision.
And it is good for a person to try new things.
I have to admit, though, that I am not really enjoying the sample piece, and I probably will not even finish it. I think I’ve got the concept now, and I will leap right into the large pattern. Probably next Saturday.
My menfolks have the day off today, for Presidents Day. This is a sort of bastardization of Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays, moved to a Monday so lots of people can have three-day weekends. I will be going to work, of course. All the teachers have the day off, so many of them will probably come and shop with us. The guys will stay home, waking up sometime after I leave for work. I can come home and have lunch with them, which will be fun. And then they will greet the Schwann’s man, a nice fellow who comes to our house in a yellow truck every couple of weeks while I am at work, bearing ice cream and frozen pizza. Without him, my boys would have to live on nothing but whole grains, fresh produce, lean meats, and nonfat dairy products, and they would probably wither away to nothing. I like the Schwann’s man because he delivers. He brings frozen fruit for my smoothies and reasonably wholesome junk food for my boys and asks nothing in return except money.
Hey fiber mom, I was reading about your quilt and you said you were having problems finding freezer paper. Did you look in the plastic wrap section that comes like on a roll in a box that you just rip off. Our grocer here has it there and it comes in a box just like plastic wrap. Are you turning under the edges of your applique? I found this stuff one time that came in real handy called, Steam-A-Seam 2 double stick. You can make your applique piece then stick it on the fabric background with pressure from your hand. If you don’t like where it is then peel it off and reposition it. Then when your satisfied as to where its placed you can iron it to make it more permanent. So you got some pick and peel time to play with before you decide to iron it all down. Here’s what the package says, stick to fabric for a temporary hold * iron only once for a permanent bond * Fuse with fabric, lace, ribbon, paper, cardboard, wood, and even small beads * As much as you quilt you’ve probably come across this but just wondered if it would help. I also used one of those fabric glue sticks that was great because you can sew right through it when dry. I used it to tuck under all my applique edges before sewing the buggers down. Feezer paper is great too. I used that for one of those balls made out of a bunch of pentagons. I cut the pentagon out of freezer paper then ironed it to the fabric and cut the fabric a little bigger than the freezer paper ( 1/4 “) and folder under the edges and ironed those down. Sewed the ball together then picked out the paper when it was done. Good luck with your quilt. It looks complicated. You are a brave woman. LOL
men cannot live on whole grain alone…there is also meat to be consumed.
wow, sounds confusing, especially after dweezy’s blurb!
I didn’t get President’s day off 🙁 still school, still work
Hopkins will look a woollen piece of body armour – engraved on the front to impress the enemy with whom you are trading sword blows, plain grey on the back so as not to offer too conspicuous a target. I like it 🙂
I think the quilt will be more interesting to do than the sampler.
If I had to choose between 1) tolerance for human foibles and stuffier services and 2) intolerance for human foibles and lively services – I’d pick the former.
And as far as excitement is concerned, I always thought it was over-rated. But then, I’m boring and prefer a quiet life without too many peaks – the higher the peak, the greater the fall – level ground where you can smell the flowers and listen to the birds seems pretty good to me.
The glue stick is by Prym-Dritz corporation, LOL, I can’t find my glasses this morning to read the address, so I’ll tell ya that later. Any way, they used to be hard to find then all of a sudden I quess they became popular and now you can find them at places like Wal-Mart : (, and fabric stores. Nancies Notions on line has that kinda stuff too. She’s got a lot of that sewing parafanalia. It comes in a stick form, like chap stick. On television on Simply Quilts one time they were using some kinda liquid glue, but I’ve never seen that on my scavenger hunts. If you can’t find any and want some just let me know. I’ll send ya some. : )