Life’s Too Short To Appliqué…
- Lifestyles
- Special Interest
Author: Britney B.
Released 4 November 2003
…is what I thought as I found myself with some time on my hands and started sorting through my patterns and fabric stash, as I often do to pass the hours of a dull day even though the sorted piles usually just get put back on top of each other again!
Sun Showers
Photograph by Britney B.
But not this time, as I found a pattern ordered from Keepsake Quilting that I had been meaning to do for ages. “Sun Showers”, by Lisabeth Polouski, is a wall hanging of three Japanese ladies with their umbrellas up to shield them from the elements, but I realised as I undid the pattern for the first time and read the short instruction leaflet that I had a slight problem. The whole pattern was a masterpiece in the technique of appliqué. And how experienced in appliqué was I? Well, not at all in fact.
My good friend, Kathleen, an expert appliqué-er and quilter herself, had some time ago given me a book called “Appliqué Made Easy”, (Rodale’s Successful Quilting Library, ISBN 0-87596-813-9), and after studying it for only a little while I thought I could make a start. The book explains in detail a number of appliqué methods, including using fusible web, interfacing, and freezer paper. It also includes an abundance of extremely useful tips and is an all round excellent book.
As I had no photocopier at my disposal, I made a light box according to the book’s instructions by putting a table lamp (turned on of course) under a glass table and tracing the pattern onto the background fabric. This was going to be a practice piece and I would try the interfacing method using some of my oriental scrap fabric. It was also going to take me forever, I thought, as I started to trace. Then I had to trace again on the scraps that were going to form the pieces of the picture. But once I got started, the whole thing started to simply zip along. I did the background (pond, path and bushes) one day, and each of the ladies with their umbrellas on separate days, sewing by hand as it seemed easier with the smaller pieces. And the interfacing method was much easier to do than I had imagined. So, in just over a week I had a finished picture. I added the borders another day and tacked on the batting and backing, and on the last day quilted and bound the whole thing.
Here is the finished result. Bearing in mind it’s just a practice piece I thought it hadn’t turned out too bad. My husband said it would look nice in the spare bedroom. Hmmm!
So here’s a little encouragement to all you would be appliqué-ers (if that’s a real word). If I can do it, you can too.
Denim Quilt
Photograph by Britney B.
By the way, for all those who have enquired, here’s a photo of my (almost) finished denim quilt The Dhahran Women’s Exchange and a Quilting Mission.) I now have to find the absolutely right fabric to do the borders!