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It’s the easiest, most fun way to make an applique quilt. You can do it!
I posted a video recently showing demonstrating the basics of an easy machine applique technique. That basic technique is good for gentle convex curves, but there are a few additional skills you’ll need to handle things like concave curves and points. In this video I tackle inside points – really easy to handle, once you know what to do. 🙂
Like the looks of the hippo block I use to demonstrate the technique? I hope so! She’s part of the Safari Quilt.
This makes sense for when you have a piece of fabric that you might get from the store that has selvedge edges. But what if you are using scrap fabric – like you are cutting up an old shirt or pair of pants to make bean bags? Do you need to make sure that your fabric is true?
Ooooh – good question! It’s really a judgement call and depends on what you’re making.
A good guideline is to ask yourself if the finished thing you’re making is going to hang – on the wall, in a window, on your body, etc. If it’s going to hang, you usually want to make sure you’re working on the straight grain. As it hangs, it stretches, and if it’s not cut on the straight grain it will stretch unevenly. Have you ever had a T-shirt that got all twisty over time? Where the side seams stopped running straight up the sides and instead kind of spiraled around your body? That means the grain was messed up. It can happen with pants too. So annoying!
For stuff that won’t hang it’s not as important. So for most softies and beanbags, most patches for scrap quilts, etc. just cut out your pieces to maximize the fabric you have, or to get the pattern to run in the direction you want.
For really precise pieced quilts (like super-fancy stars and things like that) the pattern will often include cutting instructions and a good pattern will let you know if the direction of the grain is important.
This is the first in a series of videos teaching a machine applique technique that I used to use for all my applique quilts. In previous videos I showed you how to applique with fusible adhesive and how to do needle-turn applique. This technique is kind of the best of both worlds. It’s almost as fast as using fusible, but without the potential stiffness and sometimes clunky outline. It’s similar in look to needle-turn, but not as slow. It’s a great technique for snuggly quilts that you want to wash and dry in the machine without a lot of fuss.
So – in this video I’m using the technique on a specific pattern (the Peekaboo Bear Quilt) but you can use it on any convex curves. Those are curves that bow out, like the edge of a circle or oval. In future videos I’ll expand on the info here – showing you how to handle inner points, concave curves, outer points, and more.
See how easy it is? I mostly use fusible adhesive now (I discovered some really nice quality, not stiff options) But I still go back to this every once in a while – especially for big, easy shapes.
You’ll run into both terms in different patterns so I thought it would be good to talk about the “official” difference between them. In a nutshell – any stitching done on the top of the fabric (that is – not on a seam that will be hidden) is topstitching.
Edgestitching is just topstitching that runs really close to the edge of the project.
In the video I show you some tips and tricks for doing them both, including examples for three different ways you’ll use them.
How to topstitch double-fold tape in place (like binding the edge of a quilt, or the pocket on this free tote bag pattern)
How to topstitch a seam allowance (used mostly in sportswear)
One thing that helps me get a nice straight topstitch is my clear presser foot. I made sure to point it out at the beginning of the video, but when I did the editing I realized that it’s hard to see the “clearness” of the foot, so here’s a still photo.
That clear part right around where the needle goes in is invaluable for letting me see exactly how close to the edge I’m stitching. If your machine has a solid metal foot, buying a clear foot is almost always an option. It won’t be very expensive and it will be VERY useful. I’m always a fan of seeing what I’m doing. 🙂
The outline stitching I do around all my applique blocks is also a kind of topstitching. On my current machine I have a foot that’s entirely made of clear plastic called (naturally) a clear applique foot. It’s marvelous!
Here are links to all my posts about outline stitching.
This is a longish video for me – but it shows you in tremendous detail how to bind a quilt.
You won’t find me being judgmental about many things – but I’m pretty dang picky about quilt bindings. It kills me when I see a quilt that’s beautifully pieced, meticulously quilted. . . and sloppily bound. All that work! All that money (fabric isn’t cheap, you know)! It’s like buying a beautiful piece of art and sticking it to the wall with masking tape.
Binding a quilt the “right” way is NOT hard – but it does involve some hand work. There’s just no way around it. I’ve tried lots of all-machine binding techniques and I’ve never liked the results of a single one of them. So pop in a movie, get comfy, and give your beautiful quilt the binding it deserves. Don’t you know it’s going to be an heirloom?
If you remember how to bind a quilt but you just popped back over for a reminder of how wide to cut your strips – I cut mine 2 1/4 inches wide. I cut mine on the straight grain – there’s no need to cut on the bias unless you’re going to go around curves.
This week we’re continuing work on my little doll quilt. Last week I showed you how to layer and baste the quilt, this week I show you how to quilt it on the machine.
I forgot to mention it, but I always use a walking foot when I quilt. I don’t think about it because I use it for almost all of my sewing, but it’s important, especially on a bigger quilt. The walking foot helps to feed the top and bottom layers through evenly.
I didn’t show the process of actually changing the tension on the machine, adjusting it up or down, sewing a few inches, checking the results, adjusting some more, etc. I showed the final results (so you can see how many tries it can take to get it right) but it occurred to me that I should tell you where and how to adjust the tension. On MOST machines (though certainly not all – that would make things too easy) there is a numbered dial on the left hand side – the side where the needle is. The numbers usually run from 1-10 and you normally sew with it somewhere in the 4-6 range. It doesn’t hurt anything to play around with the tension setting, so do some experimenting with two colors of thread and you’ll see how it works.
Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.
Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.
Once you’ve pieced your quilt top, you need to know how to baste that quilt. That’s the step that turns your quilt top into a quilt, and it’s what I show you in this video.
Technically, basting a quilt is just temporarily pinning or stitching or glueing the layers together to help them in place while you do the quilting – but in this video I’m going to show you how to make a quilt sandwich (layering together the backing, batting, and your quilt top) and how to baste those layers together.
If you’re making a Quilt As You Go quilt, the batting is already quilted to your quilt top, so all you’re layering together is that quilted top and the backing.
In the video I showed how to baste a quilt with pins – but you can also baste with thread (sewing really big running stitches through all the layers) or with spray adhesive. Pins are my favorite method and these are the curved safety pins I use to baste all my quilts.
Want some quick instructions on how to piece together the simple scrap quilt I use in the demo? It’s super easy.
I dug through my scraps and cut 2-inch strips out of anything at least 2 inches wide. The strips were all different lengths – just what I wanted.
I joined all the pink strips together, all the orange together, and all the yellow together so that I had a long strip of pinks, a long strip of oranges, and a long strip of yellows.
Then I cut those long strips into shorter strips, 18 inches long. I used 11 of these 18-inch strips.
Arrange them in a way that looks good to you. I thought the yellow really popped out, so I alternated yellow strips with pink or orange strips. Play around with what you have until it looks good to you.
Sew the 18-inch strips together, press it all nice and smooth – and voila! You have a quilt top!
I did the same thing for the back with blues, greens, and purples. I cut those strips 20 inches long and used 13 of them so that the back would be a bit bigger than the quilt top.
By the way – this is just the right size for an American Girl doll or any of the Dress Up Bunch rag dolls. 🙂
Here are all my posts about layering and basting your quilt, and the final round of quilting.
Here are all my posts about hand quilting and Big Stitch quilting. I don’t use these techniques with fusible applique or Quilt As You Go, but I LOVE using Big Stitch Quilting with my cheater fabric.
In this video I show you how to square up your fabric and how to use basic rotary cutting tools to cut strips – on the straight grain and on the bias.
You use straight grain strips to attach to straight edges – like the edges of a quilt.
If you need your strips to curve (like around a curved hem, or to enclose the raw edges of armholes) then you use bias-cut strips.
Remember – that rotary cutter is razor sharp. Keep your fingers away from the blade at all times, and always remember to close the blade (or engage the safety) before you set it down. No blood on the fabric – that’s my motto. 🙂
Want to put those new rotary cutting skills into action?
This quilt is super easy to make.
I designed this quilt especially for beginners and it’s really easy to make. As in – I don’t care if you just took your first sewing machine out of the box and haven’t even threaded it yet – you can make this quilt. 🙂 Get the Buttonholes quilt pattern here.
If you want to learn some more advanced rotary cutting skills, here are some posts that show you how to use additional rulers. . .
Nothing cuts strips of fabric better than rotary cutting. It’s so much easier on your hands, wrists and shoulders than using scissors! Plus, you get more accurate cuts.
In this post I’m going to take you through the basic tools, tell you what you’ll use them for and give you some recommendations on purchasing.
All of these tools are readily available at pretty much any fabric store. I also linked to Amazon for each product – those links are affiliate links.
My #1 favorite tool – and one I recommend for everyone, whether you’re going to rotary cut or mark and cut with scissors – is a clear acrylic ruler. Mine is 6″ x 24″ and that’s the size I recommend. It should have an all-over 1-inch grid, with markings down to 1/8 inch. Also look for diagonal lines that say 30, 45, and 60. Those seem mysterious at first, but they are terrific for cutting angled shapes.
I also have a 2″ x 18″ ruler, but I hardly ever use it now that I have the big one. Just buy a big one.
The only other tools you really need for rotary cutting are a rotary cutter and a cutting mat.
This my my rotary cutter and I love it. It takes a 45mm blade and it’s very easy to find replacement blades. Some people also have smaller cutters for going around curves, and larger cutters for going through more layers of fabric, but this is all I need. The blade is (and needs to remain) razor sharp – so keep it out of reach of kids until they are ready to use it safely – with instruction and supervision.
I have two different cutting mats. This is the one I use for most of my cutting. It’s big – 24″ x 36″ and I do recommend getting the biggest one you can afford and/or have room for. Most fabric is 44″ wide and it’s very nice to be able to fold it in half just once for cutting – so look for one that’s at least 24″ on one side.
I also have a 12″ x 18″ mat like this one that’s very handy for cutting quilt blocks when I want to spin them around to cut from more than one side. With this small mat I can spin the mat and not disturb the block. I’ve tried cutting mats with a lazy Susan-style base for spinning around, but for me that spins too easily. I’m happiest just using a smaller mat.
There are lots of other specialty rulers out there, with markings designed particularly for a certain kind of quilt block. Only get these if you make a lot of that kind of block. These are the only specialty rulers I have. . .
This 15 inch square ruler is my go-to ruler for trimming finished quilt blocks to size. I use this ruler with every single quilt I make. There’s a tutorial showing how I use it here – How to Trim Quilt Blocks.
So, this is the “old-fashioned” way to applique. It’s definitely a lot more work than appliqueing with fusible adhesive, but you don’t get that annoying stiffness, and you don’t have any visible stitching. This is the technique used for all those traditional Baltimore Album quilts. It’s also the technique I used for my very first quilt.
See all those letters? I hand-appliqued every one of them to the quilt top using this stitch.
Crazy, right? That was over ten years ago and now I find myself wondering where the heck I found the time for that.
But it’s also a reminder that it doesn’t take as long as you think it will. If you watch an hour of TV a night and do some handwork while you watch, it’s amazing how fast it will add up.
By the way – this quilt is over 8 feet tall. Hand appliqued and hand quilted. I don’t recommend doing a quilt this big for your first project. I just didn’t know any better. 🙂
Anyway – in the video I mention a couple of things I wanted to provide links to. This is essentially the same stitch I use to stitch up softies, so you can take a look at the ladder stitch video to get another view of the technique.
One of the weird things about this applique technique is that you draw your shapes on the top of your fabric, so you need to use a marking pen that you can remove from the fabric when you’re done. Take a look at the video on how to transfer embroidery markings to see a couple of options. I like the water soluble pens that dissolve when you spritz them with water – but you must test them on every fabric you will use.
I’m not kidding here. Test them to make sure the ink disappears when wet – and then let them dry to make sure it doesn’t come back when they dry. I’ve only had that problem with synthetics, but I test every fabric every time.
Here are links to all the posts showing how to applique with fusible adhesive – my favorite method. It’s fast and easy and (with the right materials) it holds up beautifully to rough use and repeated washing.
