Sunday, January 13, 2008

Hand-appliqued Hearts

My quilting buddy Linda and I took a class today in hand applique. The class was five hours but it flew by. Applique is something I've been very interested in learning. The class was originally scheduled for early December but was cancelled because Linda and I were the only two signed up for i t.

Applique gives a new dimension to your quilts. We made hearts today but not the exact ones shown here. I just pulled this off Google Images. You can machine applique, but I really like the idea of doing it the way that women did a 150 years ago.

We traced the template of a heart that was in our book on clear Mylar. Then you cut it out; this is your pattern for the appliqued heart. Trace it onto the fabric, cut out the heart and leave a quarter-inch seam allowance around the heart. Then pin it to the background fabric and start tucking the seam allowance underneath with teeny tiny stitches using a teeny tiny needle. I really enjoyed it. Linda found one method that she really liked. I have a couple that I want to keep doing. The quilt we are making for this class has 24 hearts. I made five today in class. This quilt won't be a fast one but I'm going to enjoy doing each and every heart.

We had sun today for the first time in a week. The cats were very excited to finally get their sun baths. I had trouble finding my sunglasses but finally located them before heading for class.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This looks fun. Well, it's really pretty. It looks hard (for me).
I'm impressed by how much you've learned in the time you been blogging about it!

Creamy Silver said...

Oh how a cat loves a sun bath!

It seems you and quilting were made for each other. They're all so beautiful. I especially love the wedding quilt you're working on.