A Cautionary Tale for Fusing!

I have not been doing any quilting for a long time and today, I got my comeuppance! When I teach fused appliqué , I ALWAYS tell students to make fusible fabric BEFORE cutting out shapes! You can surely see why?? When you are working with frilly, fanciful shapes , you DO NOT want to cut out your fabric shape and then stick the fusible on the back and have to cut ALL OVER AGAIN_ DO YOU????? You want to use a piece of your fabric large enough to cut your shape from , iron some fusible material to the wrong side using parchment paper so nothing sticks to the wrong place and THEN cut! Cut only ONCE! Easy peasy, eh? Well, guess who had to cut twice today? Guess whose trigger finger will be very stiff and sore tomorrow? Guess who is a total eejit?

Here is where I am headed. See the little squiggly patches which will represent the stamens? I cut those all out of Reemay last night with a soldering gun and a piece of plate glass on my light box.There are about 15 patches, some large, ALL intricate shapes!!!

This morning, I remembered the Steam a Seam ! Here is an 8.5"x11" photo of my peony with colours enhanced to help me see shapes and contrast. That long white thing is one of the patches- the largest one. You can see my problem!

My little pin box for scale and that same piece of cut Reemay . GRRRR!!!

You can see my problem and I decided to bare my soul and bear my shame for YOUR benefit. DO NOT FORGET TO PUT THE FUSIBLE ON THE BACK OF WHATEVER FABRIC YOU ARE GOING TO USE BEFORE YOU CUT! I am going to post this on the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com I can almost guarantee that there will NOT be any more silly persons posting this week but check it out, just in case! Remember, forewarned is forearmed.

Make yourself a cuppa...

I promised to do this and so here goes. I have been asked by several people emailing me to please demonstrate the procedure for turned edge applique. I will try to be as clear as possible but as I cannot use my hands- only words and photos... If you have any questions, just ask.

 Here is most of the little red landscape sample I am making just now. I have photographed it as I have gone along and will explain the process using those pictures but I thought you should have some idea where this is going. Eventually, there will be a silhouetted tree in the corner and a blazing bit of the sun showing too just before it drops below the horizon. Those bits will be fused applique so not necessary right here, right now.

Here is my pattern drawn out onto freezer paper, pieces all numbered and the registration lines( red marks) all in place. Copy this onto a piece of muslin big enough to cover the back of your quilt and also a piece of tearaway stabilizer. Layer as follows from bottom to top- tearaway stabilizer,then the muslin and then your fabric pieces on the top. Line up all of the drawn guidelines using a lightbox or a window with light shining through and pin your corners securely.

Here are the fabrics I have chosen for my sky set out in order. I need five strips to do this sky plus a scrap for my sun.

Here , I have numbered all of the strips in order from the top to the bottom of the pattern close paying attention to which layer is the furthest back and then which will go on top of that piece- and so on. I have cut out my freezer paper pattern with the numbers on each piece and , although I did not show it here, the registration marks should be made at this point too so it can all go back together again properly when it is time. Registration marks will be shown in a few more pictures.

Just double check the order of the pieces and check the colours too . In the end, I changed some of the colours and fabrics I used . Do not let that comfuse you.

Now, not a pretty picture but important. EVERY piece that will be used with a turned edge MUST be staystitched all around it. Staystitch using a short stitch length in a colour that contrasts well with the fabric you are using. The staystitching does four things-it stabilizes your odd shaped pieces of fabric, it gives you a cutting line to guide you as you clip your curves( more in a minute) , it gives you a guide line for the folding over of the raw, clipped edges and lastly, the seam allowance on the lower side will also have a line of stitching to help you place the next piece and you must cover the stitching of the previous piece with the folded edge of the new piece.

Your staystitching should be evenly spaced all round each piece at a distance of about 1/16 inch from the edge of the freezer paper pattern. On the TOP edge of each piece, CLIP the curves by clipping TO but NOT THROUGH the stitching.

Once the edges are clipped - REMEMBER, ONLY THE EDGE THAT WILL BE FOLDED NEEDS TO BE CLIPPED. DO NOT CLIP THE SEAM ALOWANCE EDGE- using a hot, dry iron, carefully fold the clipped edge over so that you can see the stitching line and press very flat. If need be, use spray starch or even just a bit of water to get a clean edge.

Note that where you are clipping into a CONCAVE edge, just clip but if it is a CONVEX edge, take a V shaped nip out, other wise when you fold , the little fabric tabs will overlap and make a bulky edge. NB, the darker brown piece numbered 8and the orangey gold piece  a few pictures above here. They both show those nips removed.

Now all of the sky edges are turned so I have turned them right side up and put them in order. Note how the top edge is folded over and the bottom edge has the free seam allowance . ALL EXCEPT piece number 1! It has just been stitched all round because nothing needs turning. The bottom edge will have piece #2 attached and the top edge will form the bit that your border will be sewn onto.

At this point, move the pieces together, matching the little red registration marks so they fit together properly. I use a light box as well or you could put the pieces up against a window so you could see through pattern and fabric.

All pinned just to check the clours - I will not use this yellow for my sun- stay tuned! Now I will pin the pieces onto my muslin and tearaway stabilizer and then stitch them into place. I use INVISIBLE thread in the needle and Superior's Bottom Line( very fine thread- ANY fine thread will do) in the bobbin.  I lower my bottom tension a lot so I get no "pokies" showing through to the top.The stitch I use is a Blind Hem stitch, narrow stitch width, short stitch length.

This is the back side of my work showing the drawn lines and the blind hem stitches coming through where I sewed my sky pieces in place from the front

And here is the sky on the right side, all nicely sewn in place and pressed

Closeup of the blind hem stitch along the top edge of this red piece with the seam allowance left free for putting the next layer on.

This is the top right corner . NB, Do NOT turn the top edge . You want it free for trimming and for attaching borders or binding later. See how nice it is to have that guideline stitched in place!

I made all of my hill pieces but had second thoughts about size and colour of some.

Tried again, changed some colours and eventually the size of the two big foreground hills. That sun piece is just sitting there. I will move it to the left and make it a different colour. The sun and the tree and a few little highlights on the water will all be fused later. I will quilt this much first , then fuse the rest of the detail, stitch and quilt them too eventually.

To make the tree, I recopied just the tree shape onto a scrap of freezer paper and ironed it onto a piece of dark batik I already fused to some Wonder Under , then cut it out  .

The freezer paper has been removed

I flipped it to show the back side with Wonder Under on with  the paper still left in place so it is not sticky.

And here is a very rough idea of what the final piece will be like. By the way, when I placed the water, I lifted up the lower edges of the red and the goldy hills and tucked the water underneath and I placed the purply foreground on TOP of the water. Think about it. The land appears to sit ON the water( even though it just pokes through it) so it looks better if you watch where and how you place certain folded edges. 

This has been a long winded post but I have had so many questions that I did want to try to answer them as best I could. Like I said, if you could see my hands, it would be MUCH clearer :-) Let me know if there are gaps or questions and I will amend as needed.

The next few steps

Well, I am making good progress on Clingman's Dome. I have used a tiny bit of old hand dyed fabric and it was coarse stuff to begin with so it does NOT want to lie flat. I think the quilting will cover a multitude of sins though. I shall post the photos and walk you through the process.

You can see faintly through the paper pattern the row of evergreens . The paper strip at the bottom is the interesting part of that layer, ie, the top edge, on freezer paper. NB the instructions to self- add 2.5 inches to the depth of this piece. I want the whole foreground covered by this fabric

Auditioning fabrics for the quilt.

The top three pieces have been cut from the freezer paper, identified, ironed onto the appropriate fabric, cut out with a healthy seam allowance (about 5/8 "). NB the little registration marks too

One piece with the staystitching showing on the overlapping bit and the seam allowance at the top turned over and stitched onto the piece above. I use invisible thread, an applique or blind stitch -.8mm length and 1.3mm width and JUST catch the folded edge with the zigzag part of the stitch, while the straight stitches get buried right tightly against the lower layer  but stitched into the upper piece. Let me know if this is unclear!

The batik fabric for the dead trees in the mid foreground

The Wonder Under ironed onto a piece of that batik and the pattern pieces marked, numbered and drawn onto the paper backing , ready to be cut apart

The quilt top on the light box so I can see where to place the trees. Note the seams . See the clips to make them turn nicely. I can easily see the drawn lines that show me where to put my trees .

First tree just testing the look before committing myself

The tree cut out and the paper backing removed ready to fuse

Back to the light box to be sure

Nicely fused in place.

The batik strip fused to Wonder Under to be used for the dead grasses in the foreground

First few bits of dead grass placed on the quilt top, prior to their being ironed down

I hope this is clear and helpful and encouraging . Try it. It is fun! Choose your fabrics carefully and you end up with a pretty realistic representation of your photo. This piece is almost ready to layer and quilt now. I have to finish the weeds and a few little details.

By special request

Here is a closeup of my little clump of fruit in the upper left corner. The dark green background was layer #1, then the stems of the berries, then the berries themselves, and lastly, they little patches on the blossom end of the berries.Right at this stage, there are four layers here.

Most of the Fatsia project is done with raw edge, fused applique. I will edge stitch eventually but at the moment, it is fused to a background of tearaway stabilizer. That is just what I had. It does not need to be tearaway. The main stem has a turned edge but the rest is simply cut and fused just now. More layers will be added soon. I am using Wonder Under as my fusible material. I like it. It is not too thick to stitch through when all of the layers are finally added, and it sticks well. I like the paper backing too so I can draw or write on it if need be-just like with Steam a Seam. I LOVE Misty Fuse because it is SO fine and SO flexible but it is a bear to cut out unless you have to make a big acreage of fusible fabric to cut from . With the Wonder Under, I can cut what I want and with so many different layers, that is a definite boon!

Here is the main stem with a turned edge. Note the staystitching and the raw edge of the little flange of seam allowance which will tuck under the berry that will sit on top of the stem here.

These two photos, above and below show closer up on the top left and top right berries. You can see where I will need to do some good stitching to cover some wee gaps in the lower photo. No problem! If we had not intended to be able to do that, god would not have given us zigzag stitches of varying widths!

Last but not least, the leaf! The background could have been lighter as I want light coloured veins. Once again, zigzag to the rescue! A nice satin stitch in a paler, limey yellowy green will do nicely.

The main trick to this is to study your photo carefully and choose your fabrics VERY carefully. Write LOTS of notes to yourself and DO NOT FORGET SEAM ALLOWANCES FOR TUCKING UNDER THE LAYER ABOVE!
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And here is a little bit of How To...

I studied the photo, looking at the biggest berries. Here is my strategy. Yours may be totally different but this works for me!

Each berry is numbered and LOTS of notes are written on each one.

Before I cut them all apart, I mark the places where one shape over or underlaps another and I be sure to add seam allowances where appropriate. My red lines mark those spots.

We are looking at berry number 4 , dead centre in THIS picture

I take note of colour and shading and choose a spot from one of my fabrics and fuse the freezer paper pattern to the fabric. Then it is cut out LEAVING SEAM ALLOWANCES WHERE NECESSARY. There are TWO Seam allowances on Number 4.

The back side of Number 4. NB, some of this colour will eventually be covered up by the blossom end patch.

Here is patch number 4 set in place on the quilt front. Note that none of this will be fused down until I add fusible to the back of each patch and until I look at the overlaps making sure everything I want covered IS covered.

I hope perhaps this removes some of the mysteries you have been asking about and encourages you to try one yourself. Small suggestion- if you have never done this before, pick a very simple photo to work from!