Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Island Batiks Christmas in July - The Applique

Island Batik's July project for Ambassadors is Christmas in July!  It was very odd making something Christmasy when it's 90 degrees outside!  I was thinking about ornaments and all those gorgeous ones that are hand painted with gold paint.  I decided that the gold paint could easily be done in gold thread!

The fabrics used in this quilt are from Island Batik's Holiday Happenings collection.  I started with the ornament shapes.  I drew this on Steam-a-Seam 2.  Since the ornament shape was huge (almost the size of a piece of paper), I decided to try using fusible only around the edge.  I've never done this before and I was quite happy with the results.  I also cut out nine ovals and a gold piece for the top of the ornament.

For all my friends who are new to machine applique, this is a great tutorial for how I do my work.


Since I'd never done a large shape with fusible only around the edge I didn't realize that I should've cut my fusible on the inside line.  Oh well, it's only an extra 1/8 inch so it wasn't that big of a deal.  However, since I learned something I thought I should share it.


Here you can see that I've applied the dots to the ornament.  I did this using my pattern and a lightbox (the Artograph lightboxes are absolutely fantastic and I HIGHLY recommend them if you use a lightbox regularly).  I decided aligning these through one piece of fabric (the red) instead of two (the red and the background) would be simplest.  I also knew they were going to stick out a little over the edge.  To get these prefect ovals I used an oval template tracer I bought at my local office supply store.  I have a circle one too.  They're fabulous if you use circles and ovals a lot like I do.


Below you can see that I did indeed have a bit of green oval sticking out.  I cut these off before I applied the ornament to the background fabric.


Here you can see that I am testing out my background fabric and borders.  I wanted to see how wide I should make them.  I usually do this visual test when I'm designing.


Here is the finished quilt before the binding was turned.  Come back Saturday to see how I quilted this Ornament Quilt!


I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

8 comments:

  1. So pretty. Looking forward to your quilting post. Can you explain what you mean about cutting the fusible on the inside line for this method? I'm not understanding what you mean. Thank you!

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    1. I traced how wide I wanted the fusible to be and then cut 1/8 inch outside these lines. However, I had that extra 1/8 inch on the inside of the shape because it wasn't a line I cut on later. Not a big deal, but good to know. Let me know if that doesn't make sense :)

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  2. Lovin it! Can't wait to see the quilting part2. (ps - I used almost the same fabrics in my July post) Love them!
    ~ ~ Patti ~ ~
    https://lemontreesnippets.wordpress.com

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  3. Like the above this appeals to me it is fun and looks so lovely. Thanks for sharing Glenda Australia.

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  4. Just outlining the appliqué is a great idea. I just finished a multi layered flower - 4 layers at the middle and it feels like cardboard.

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