Yesterday, I was reading a little bit on a blog about commitment to showing the process of making our quilts instead of just showing a finished product. I am going to go back and read more on it as I found it interesting. I know that I like to see the different stages of a quilt that a fellow blogger is making and interesting to know that many others feel the same way. In that spirit, I am going to show you just a bit of the raw edge machine applique I am working on today.
The first picture is of "Grace". There is no explanation with the pattern as to who Grace is but I have to say she looks like a garden angel to me. This is a Cheri Saffiote-Payne pattern and I showed the fused piece in a recent post. I want to do the machine stitching on the raw edges so I can complete the wall hanging. I used Heat 'n Bond Lite for the fusing process. The pieces still have a softness to them as I used just a ring of the fusible around the edge. About 1/4" wide. Since I have already done that, I will show the process on another post when I am working on a new piece.
I use 50 wt. cotton thread for the edge stitching. I use whatever I have available that is very close to the color of the particular piece I am about to stitch on. I have Guterman, Mettler, and DMC threads in my container. The plastic container they are stored in is two-sided. I purchased three of these containers quite some time ago at Walmart in the toy department. They are meant to house the little metal cars that the boys collect. I wish I could find more of them but Walmart no longer has them.
I have a plastic case for bobbins. I am thinking about purchasing some of the rubber donut shaped rings that hold the bobbins or a better bobbin case as this does not hold the bobbins up for viewing the color very well. These were freebies that came with some plastic storage containers I bought. I keep these bobbins separate from any other bobbins I might use so that I know that I am using the correct weight and type of thread on my project.
I have a Bernina sewing machine. The foot I use is a #20 open toe foot. This allows me to easily see where I am stitching. I also have an open toe foot that has a light green bottom and is teflon coated. I don't use it but it might be handy depending on what kind of fabrics you are stitching on.
I use a #45 stitch on my machine (Bernina Aurora QE440). I found out that the stitch numbers are not the same on all Bernina models and I wonder why. I set the stitch width and length to 2.0. Oh, the stitch is what I call a button hole stitch. One that travels along the edge of your applique piece and then takes a bite in and back out. I can take the width down when I am doing sharp points or narrow edges. I also change the needle position by moving it all the way to the right. That way I can use the inside edge of the foot as a guide for it to travel along the edge of the applique fabric. I study the quilt and, just like in hand applique, choose a piece that is fused down first. In other words, the most under part. I chose the angel wings on this one as the dress is over the top of the wings. I try to think about what other pieces I might be stitching with the same color thread and plan in advance. You can have a lot of thread color changes on a more complicated applique piece. I select a thread color that is as close as possible to the applique part I will be stitching on. I find it better to go a bit darker than lighter if I can't match exactly.
After I have stitched around the applique piece, I cut the threads leaving them long enough to bring them to the back, tie a knot, and then thread them through some of the stitching. I use a self-threading needle for this. I prefer the John James self-threading needles. If you are not familiar with a self-threading needle, they have a small open slot at the top. I pull the threads taut over that slot and they pop down in. Saves trying to thread an eye of a needle. I prefer the John James because I had thread breakage using another brand. Sometimes the slot opening would fray and cut the thread as I attempted to get my threads down into the eye and leave me with too short of a piece to work with on the back.
Once I have the threads pulled to the back, I tie a double knot (surgeon's knot) and then thread the ends into the needle top again. I run the threads through 3 or 4 or five stitches on the back and then trim. This keeps the thread ends from showing through to the front. Sometimes while I am machine stitching, a thread end on the back will get caught under my stitching. I just leave it by trimming the loose part sticking out. I know you can't see any too well in this next photo but it is of the threads about to be pulled through the machine stitching.
I just recently discovered aged muslin and that is what I have used for the background on the quilt. Aged muslin is different than the tea dyed muslins you can purchase. Aged muslin has variations of color all over the fabric. It looks to me like it has been scrunched up before going into the dye bath. The purchased tea dyed muslins look solid in color to me.
I hope you found my process description interesting and helpful.
Stop back again soon.
Karen
This is the desk top. It folds up. The picture shows the hinged legs and that the top is also hinged.
When you unfold the legs & lock into place, the smaller hinged section of the top locks into the top of the filing cabinet section where the raised strips are. When you don't want the extension part set up, you fold the legs back in and then lower that part. I did not take a picture of that to show you. It goes down to about the size of the filing cabinet itself. There is a second filing cabinet just like the first. I don't know if there originally was another desk top or if someone just had a separate filing cabinet. The extra one will slide underneath the back extension of my big Bernina sewing table. The drawers can hold sewing supplies.
And see what sewing machine I set on top of the new table/desk cabinet.
Ignore the mess around behind the desk. I had to move several crates along the wall so that the desk could be set up. That required some other things to be moved. You know how that goes. I have to get everything organized again. The crates had wool in them and they will go back into the guest room closet where they started out in the first place.
