Feelin’ Groovy QAL – Week #3 – Appliqué the Swirls (Technique 2)

Welcome back!   It’s Week #3 of our Feelin’ Groovy QuiltAlong and it’s time to start appliquéing the swirls to the slash ‘n sew background blocks.

But first — If you’re just joining us this week, be sure to review Week #2’s Blog Post to find out how to slash ‘n sew the background blocks..

READ THE FEELIN’ GROOOVY WEEK #2 POST BY CLICKING HERE

You can also refer to our Fab Friday Broadcast Episode #16 where I demo’d the same slash ‘n sew technique but used a charm pack to make a small pillow top!

VIEW FAB FRIDAY EPISODE #16 RIGHT HERE!

On to Week #3 of Feelin’ Groovy!
I do love to do fusible machine appliqué – it is so fast and fun and you can use a variety of stitches like the zigzag, buttonhole (or also known as the blanket) or decorative stitches to embellish and texturize your shapes.  Remember there are no quilt police lurking so experiment and have fun!

Also, if you’d like a how to video – you can view Week #3’s companion video tutorial right here!

But first things first….
Prepare your Swirl Shapes —
You’ll be cutting out (20) swirls for the Lap Quilt (on the pattern cover) or if you are making the Baby Size version, you’ll only need (9).

1.  First, gather the pattern page (included in the pattern) and following the directions on your adhesive fusible web, trace (20) swirls (or (9) swirls for the baby size) on the smooth side of the fusible web. Use a #2 pencil for tracing.

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Rough cut these shapes out at least 1/4″ beyond the drawn line.

Again, I like to use the adhesive fusible web Heat ‘n Bond Lite.

2. Next select a 9″ x 9″ square of fabric for each swirl, and fuse the drawn paper shape onto the wrong side of each square.

Cut the shapes out neatly on the drawn line and be as exact as possible.  Use a sharp pair of scissors for this step.

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4.  Once you have all (20) shapes cut out (or (9) if making the Baby size), you are ready to appliqué.

Fuse (or Iron) Each Swirl to Your Slash ‘n Sew Background Squares —
1. Before fusing you may want to lay out all of your background squares and swirls shapes on your design board to make sure you have distributed the colors evenly across the quilt top and also have a nice balance of dark and light values.

2. Taking your first background block and first swirl, peel the release paper off the backside of each shape and iron the shape in the center of the background square.

3.  Also place a piece of stitching stabilizer on the WRONG side of the Small Flower Petal Block.   The stabilizer will help to “stabilize” your stitching especially if you are using a zigzag, satin stitch or decorative titch around each of your shapes.

Any digitized embroidery machine stabilizer will work for this purpose, but my favorite is the Sulky Totally Stable Iron On Tear Away Stabilizer pictured below.

Let the block cool after ironing and then get ready for some fun machine appliqué.

Machine Appliqué Around the Petal Shapes —
1. Set your machine up for appliqué stitching by changing your presser foot to an open toe foot and choosing some fabulous matching thread for your first flower fabrics.

2. Set your machine to your desired appliqué stitch.  I usually like to choose the Zig Zag and set my Bernina to stitch width 2.5-3.0 and stitch length to just below 1.0 .

Test, test, test before you begin.  Once satisfied, applique stitch around each of the swirl shapes. If you need some assistance in getting started with appliqué stitching, please watch the companion video above.

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3. Repeat these steps above until you have created and appliquéd the (20) swirls (or (9) if making the Baby Size version) to the Background Squares.   Once stitching is complete, be sure to tear away the stabilizer from the backside and lightly press each block.

Then trim and square each block to 9-1/2″ x 9-1/2″. Refer to the pattern – page 2 for more information.

That’s it for Week #3!!  Next week – Week #4: we’ll be learning Paper Piecing – Technique #4 – woohoo!

Until then, please be sure to email us at colourwerx@yahoo.com if you have any questions.  Or feel free to post questions or progress pictures on our Colourwerx QAL Facebook Group.

Until your next colour fix and next week’s QAL post ~  happy and bright quilting always!    L&C xxoo