{"id":207,"date":"2008-03-31T07:33:12","date_gmt":"2008-03-31T11:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=207"},"modified":"2008-03-13T18:58:21","modified_gmt":"2008-03-13T22:58:21","slug":"quilting-applique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/?p=207","title":{"rendered":"Quilting: Applique"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anatomy T-shirtWe’ve done patchwork<\/a> and crazy<\/a> quilts, so it’s on to appliqu\u00e9. Appliqu\u00e9 is a two-dollar word for “applied,” and the idea is sort of similar to crazy quilting in that you’re sewing small pieces of fabric onto a larger background. The difference is that the larger piece is meant to be seen rather than just acting as a base. You can use the technique to make beautiful, complicated quilts, and also to do more unusual crafts such as the Anatomy T-shirt shown here (by Etsy seller takeahalliday<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The method is straightforward: Cut a shape out of fabric, turn under the raw edges, and stitch to the base. Mary Graham has a page which illustrates<\/a> this, and Quilter’s Cache has a short tutorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even though it’s possible to create insanely complicated effects with appliqu\u00e9–any really difficult-looking quilt you see (like these<\/a> astonishing Amish ones) are nearly always done this way–tackling an appliqu\u00e9 project doesn’t automatically mean that you’re going to sweat blood. If you’ve ever sewn your favorite band’s patch onto a jacket, you’ve done appliqu\u00e9. Start with simple shapes that don’t have any unusual angles, and make sure that they don’t pucker when you stitch them down. As with other quilting techniques, start off with a small project so you don’t get discouraged.<\/p>\n

Appliqu\u00e9 is much easier to do by hand than patchwork or crazy quilting, so it’s more portable; you can hand-stitch the pieces onto a quilt square or article of clothing while waiting in the dentist’s office or riding the train. And, like crazy quilting, you have a lot more leeway with fabric choices because you don’t have to worry as much about durability.<\/p>\n

You can also cheat a little on the raw edges part, either by using fusible webbing on the appliqu\u00e9 backing or by using a zigzag machine stitch to sew the appliqu\u00e9 to the background. Beware, however, that the former may leave you with stray loose threads and the latter creates a very noticeable border around each piece, so if you’re doing something fiddly you’ll need to just grit your teeth and turn under all the seams.<\/p>\n

Appliqu\u00e9 is admittedly more time-consuming and potentially way<\/EM> more difficult than patchwork or crazy quilting, but it will give you results that you can’t get any other way. There’s a Flickr pool devoted to appliqu\u00e9 quilts<\/a>, which should give you some idea of the range of possibilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve done patchwork and crazy quilts, so it’s on to appliqu\u00e9. Appliqu\u00e9 is a two-dollar word for “applied,” and the idea is sort of similar to crazy quilting in that you’re sewing small pieces of fabric onto a larger background. The difference is that the larger piece is meant to be seen rather than just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doom-it-yourself"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}