At long last, my episode of The Quilt Show – Wonky Piecing & Easy Appliqué: Episode #3012 – has been released! Carl and I had so much fun filming this on location in Austin, Texas with Alex Anderson & Ricky Tims!!
Here’s what Alex & Ricky say: Love color? This is the show for you. Linda Sullivan of Colourwerx joins Alex and Ricky to demonstrate her method of wonky piecing. First, she shows Alex how to create a “wonky piecing building block” which can be used in any number of quilts. She then builds on that idea by demonstrating to Ricky how to use that building block to create fun and adorable machine appliquéd motifs. Linda continues her demonstration by highlighting the use of decorative stitches on the pieces of appliqué. Then, stick around until the end where Linda surprises Alex and Ricky with a “TV treat”.
Watch a preview of the episode right here:
Wanna watch the whole episode?? You can and for free — as well as experience all the benefits Alex, Ricky & The Quilt Show’s website and tutorial videos offer you in a free 7 day trial. Watch other quilt artists’ episodes! Shop for the latest and greatest patterns and notions! And tune into to see what Alex and Ricky are working on in their sewing studios! You can jump into your free 7 day trial at any time that is convenient for you through the special link below…
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged but rest assured we have been super busy! This is our day on the “Juniper” Instagram Blog Hop – welcome!
When my quilty pal, Jessica Van Denburgh from Sew Many Creations asked me to make something from her new fabric collection,“Juniper”, I of course said yes! Quilty friends are the best and it’s always a pleasure to help out a friend and at the same time get to make one of our patterns with new fabrics.
Jessica’s new fabric collection, called “Juniper” for Windham Fabric is oh-so-cute and filled with delightful little flowers and flying creatures like beautiful butterflies, majestic dragonflies and some very cute snails.
Once I saw the fabrics, I knew our Garden Party pattern was the perfect project. I set out to make one Garden Party flower pot ! The Garden Party pattern is available in our Colourwerx shop and Jessica’s new fabric line “Juniper” will be arriving to shops this month so be on the lookout!
First off, I cut the background piece, added borders and layered my batting, backing fabric and the quilt top together in a quilt sandwich. Using my favorite Aurifil 40wt Gold thread – #2975 – I curvy quilted the background. This is just a regular straight stitch and keeping the feed dogs UP (like regular stitching) , I moved the quilt from side to side creating gentle undulations down the quilt. It’s fun and relaxing and always looks so “artsy”.
Hint, hint!- You may have noticed that I am machine quilting my quilt BEFORE I place the applique shapes in place – that’s because I’m not very good at free motion machine quilting, On smaller pieces such as this, I like to machine quilt the background first before fusing and stitching around the applique shapes. That way the piece is quilted and I don’t need to worry about machine quilting in and around shapes. So far, no quilt police have shown up at my door demanding the piece be handed over- lol!
Once the background was quilted I cut out and began to fuse and applique stitch my shapes in place. I started with the stem and leaves – centering them on on the background piece. I love to use my decorative stitches around shapes like these to texturize and embellish the applique – I find the decorative stitches enhance and add an extra dimension of fun and whimsy to the pieces.
Next up – the large pot. I used the widest zigzag stitch around this shape. My Bernina 750QE can go up to 9mm so that was the perfect choice.
Then the large flower head. I used my blanket stitch (aka buttonhole stitch). These pieces took the most time as there were lots of inner and outer curves to negotiate – my patience game definitely had to be ‘right on’ for these pieces.
Finally , the flower center . I used my most favorite decorative stitch from the Bernina – this is stitch #419 – you may have something similar on your machine.
Lastly, and because Jessica designed so many cute little creatures in her fabric, I placed some fusible web on the wrong side of scrap fabric leftover and fussy cut out some super cute flower circles for the pot and lots of cute creatures to fuse buzzing around the flower pot.
I even added a little extra flower growing near the bottom.
That was super fun ! Be sure to check out all the other projects made with “Juniper” on the Windham Fabrics Instagram feed. And also be sure to enter your name for a giveaway on September 3rd by following all of the “Juniper” bloggers and also Jessica’s Instagram page at Sew Many Creations!
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged but rest assured we have been super busy! This is our day on the “Juniper” Instagram Blog Hop – welcome!
That was super fun ! Be sure to check out all the other projects made with 
Colourwerx 