Appliqué Like a Pro! Part 1/4 - Rectangles & Appliqué Basics

right hi I'm Jenny from the Missouri star quilt company and I am here with Jan Patek Jan has been with Mota for over 25 years and is a phenomenal stupendous amazing applicator and we're we're going to show you how to applicate everybody's been asking how to do the hand needle turn applique and so we're going to do a tutorial for you on that we're going to be making this project right here when you finish with this project you will know everything about appliquéd from inner and outer curves to those crazy star points and houses so this is going to be really really fun there are certain things that you're going to need for this project and like my husband always says you've got to have the right tool for the job and Jan says the same thing she likes these Milner's needles we they are a longer applique needle and it enables you to kind of turn under the edge of that fabric and I wasn't I wasn't sure I was going to be a fan because I used the little short quilting needles then I used one of these longer Milner's what are they size nines yes and it really made it easier and so you know you can teach the old dog size eights we'll do two but the reason it's so important to have a longer needle is when you quilt you're just using the very tip the end when you applique you're holding the needle in your hand and you don't want your hands to cramp up you need to be comfortable and you need to be able to maneuver the needle so this really is a prime tool that you really almost have to have you can do what the short ones if you want to but don't write cut me if your hands grant okay you're going to need a tracing instrument you know a pencil or a pen you can I keep a one of those little packets of colored pencils for so my level show up on different fabrics you're going to need scissors and they need to be good scissors with a good little tip and you need very small sewing scissors because you're going to be getting into teeny spaces especially with the Stars and the inside and outside points Jam likes these silk needles because they stay slide in like button so pens oh yes a pen sorry silk pens and you're going to need an assortment of threads you know to match your fabric colors also you're going to need a glue stick this is one of the things that Jan uses that is I was so amazed at how much it helps to do this and this the only thing you need to know about your glue stick is that you need to make sure it's for fabric and it you can get your needle in and out of it and it doesn't dry hard we like the lapel stick this you also need a bias what is this called that's a clover bias maker the bias Magana doesn't have to be clover it's what I use but you need a bias maker in in various sizes to make stems and vines and you actually don't really need that you can do it on your own but this makes them clean and perfect really good there are tools in in the quilting world and then there are gadgets if you're using them all the time and they make it easier they're tools or these these are all tools and then the last thing is a thimble and I've used lots of different kinds of symbols over the years the problem with the all-metal ones is that when it gets cold and your hands get cold they fall off yeah the problem I found with the leather ones is they have a little steel tip in there and you're going to be using the end of that needle and if that steel tip slips or moves you can send that needle up on the inside of your fingernail which I've learned the hard way so I don't like those I really like the cloak this clover one because the rubber keeps it on but then you have you have the metal to the metal tip that will help you push the needle through if you hit a hard spot you're also going to need some freezer paper and you're going to need one of these a sandpaper board now you can buy them like this these are great you can also glue a piece of sandpaper on a on a piece of board and it'll work the same keeps your fabric from sliding around when you're tracing it's really help if you're going to make your own get the extra fine it's usually black at the hardware store or Walmart or whatever and glue it you can glue it to the back of a clipboard you can glue to a piece of cardboard yeah anything the reason I like these is because they're 12-inch yeah and that gives you more space it also has then when you turn it over you have a space to work on if you're sitting in a chair or you're traveling or you're someplace ah you don't have to just work on your lap now on the freezer paper we have it in these eight-and-a-half by 11 sheets but you can also buy it on the big rolls they have them like it the big big-box stores where you can you know they used to use them for wrapping meat and stuff like that and so you can still get that on the rolls or you can get it in an eight-and-a-half by eleven sheet so let's talk about this overhauling this project Cedar Creek and Jen designed this exclusively for us which is really fun and it will have everything that you ever wanted to know on it the series is going to be in four parts and on this first series we're going to cover the house the windows the doors all those precise lines and sharp points and corners that you want to cover and and it will go progressively you know so so really by the time you get done with this you really are going to know how to do everything now when Jen puts her patterns together she puts them with a color picture on the front so you can refer back to them and then on the back there's also a list of fabric requirements so like she'll say the tan floral is the background for the house or something like that you know so you'll know the fabrics and these little kits could change you know we all know that if you don't get the fabric that moment the fabric on could be gone so this the fabric could change but it'll be like fabric and like you know so it you'll pretty much be able to tell where it goes so Jen why don't what do we need to get started on this first little house project okay the first thing we're going to need to do is cut the background for the fabric and we have a diagram in here now it says right on here that the measurements in here are the finished size that means after you've sewed it together so make sure you add a half inch to each measurement on here but the measure the background for the house needs to be cut it says fourteen by twelve so we're going to cut the background fourteen and a half by twelve and I think you have a cut we already have a cut piece alright that over here so here's our background and this diagram really is pretty cool because it shows you exactly you know where the different blocks are going to go and what size they need to be just remember to add you know you have you're going to add a half inch a half inch when you cut it or a quarter of an inch all the way around correct okay all right half inch total all right so then on our house we need the house pattern now there's two ways you can do this you can take regular freezer paper you buy on a roll at the grocery store or Walmart or wherever and trace around the pattern on the house if you do this I would highly suggest that where's the ruler yeah we use a ruler to trace it because you want your lines to be straight and precise so you can use the light box you can use a window you can use anything you can do you can think of to make sure that you can trace that through the other thing you can do is scan this into your computer and use the freezer paper here to print it print it off and that way you know your lines are precise they're exactly like they are here I have found out this doesn't work very well in a copy machine because the heat of the copy machine melts the coating on the back ah well let's get a piece out of here I'm going to go ahead and oh it looks like is it slid open yet no should all right I'm going to go ahead I think that freezer paper in eight and a half size sheets is like a little miracle gift for us it is my video I still want to know it had to have been a farm woman now excuse me city ladies Oh figured out that you could iron freezer paper onto fabric and have it stick yeah figured that out for real who was packing meat and decided to do bad that's all I can under way around and what makes it freezer paper you'll see it's got this shiny side right here and that's the side that you're going to put your fabric on and it actually sticks to it without leaving any kind of residue so your matte side is the side you want to trace you can do this on a light box or a window or you know but usually you can see the lines through it and I can and you're going to take you're going to take your ruler particularly on this house and you're going to lay it on and you're going to trace this pattern exactly so we're going to put this on here and trace it and I'm just going to do one of these real quick because Jan has some already done for us she's so amazingly prepared so I'm using my ruler but if I had a small flower or something like that I would just I would just trace it through just like we did yep just like we did in school so now you've got this precise square house and you're going to cut that out just like that so here we have one that's cut out okay now the reason we added where's our diagram again oh it's right here the reason we added 1/4 inch no it's not we just wide heritage the reason we added 1/4 inch all the way around here is because this is going to be sewn together we this is your stitching line for your house so this has to be cut out exactly the way it is on the pattern because your stitching line when you're sewing on to applique means to apply to when you're sewing on to the background you're stitching line has to be exactly the same as so after we have our pattern drawn and cut out exactly the way we want it we have to iron it onto the fabric and the fabric will be a much bigger piece than this we know that already but we are knit onto the fabric and the wonderful thing about freezer paper applications freezer pad paper patterns will stick again and again now your a you ironed this on the front side you are this on the front yes and like I said freezer paper application instructions will be with each pattern you iron these on to the front now this is going to be pieced together before we applique it down so we're going to cut it out with a rotary cutter and a ruler and you sense we need to know exactly we're going to sew this together since we need to know exactly it's like piecing we're going to use a ruler and cut around the edge exactly 1/4 inch we always have to have our seam allowance and this we want the pattern piece to be exactly right and then cut the fabric 1/4 inch around okay so when you lay this on your fabric make sure your pieces make sure you have a little bit of room because you're going to have to trim around that so that you can sew it together so this is we've cut out all the pieces you can see them here together this is the house and the side and the roof and they're all going to have to be mushy we can now you can hand sew them together but we can machine sew them that'll be easier for us so we're going to sew the side of the house to the house front right here at a quarter of an inch right right okay so I'll go do that I usually leave the paper on your brave woman to leave the paper on well a little tear off sometimes I sew it do the same but not usually it's right there and it shows you because you can feel from the paper where to start and stop all right so we've got that side down let's see see how we did see if we got any paper on it all right we got it good now torso the roof on do you want to peel these off now if you want to go ahead okay and are we going to iron this seam down you may yeah oh look I got it a little bit yeah you did but see it tears oh yeah it comes right off that's really cool all right let me and does it matter does it matter what size what side we're putting this seam toward not really okay I mean especially when they're both dark yeah all right now we're going to put the roof on and you know you're really a much better painter than I am what I have well you are what I have learned is what you would think is you'd so from the inside out but it really works better if you sew from the outside in and the good thing about having the paper there is you can kind of tell where to stop because of the paper well and you can put your needle down yes and then you know we'll turn the whole thing in the sewing machine and then just bring this piece excuse me up right here what not as good a piece or as she is is make sure that my paper is right there at the corner now I know word to start and stop and then I will sew in okay and then take it out perfect I'm not as good as she can do it without it I can piece you can piece and then I'm going to stop right there at that seam and pull this out and take a look at it because I I want to make sure this is right before I go on so I'm going to pull that pin out of there and I got a little bit of the paper roof in there but let's see this should just come out look at that all right now see I have this other little seam right here so I'm going to fold this over and I would start from the outside and come in again somebody taught me that years ago in making bowtie quilts oh yeah which is one of the first be that that it's a lot easier to get a precise if you go from the outside coming in and I don't know why but it works so if it works don't fix it there we go all right now let's go put an iron on this roof make sure it lays nice and flat yeah and let's see I'm going to go ahead and iron this down so that it just lays nice and flat all right so our house is together and let's here's this background and the house is together and that's backward this goes like oh this piece goes sideways okay not backwards that sideways okay and we're going to need to put the tree over here so we need to be sure and you look at the picture leave room for your fourth inch seam allowance but you still need you're gonna that's where you're going to place it now I want to tell you everybody worries about points and curves but to me the hardest thing in the world is sewing a straight line it's you know without a sewing machine okay has to be precise so basic yeah not once again my houses can be wonky but if you want to precise one of the things I've learned to do to get it precise is based a fourth inch under because you can pretty well eyeball 1/4 inch and so I have done that with all of this house that we sewed together except and you just use a big now do you iron the edge under you can iron the edge under if you want to now one of the things I'll tell you about needle turn applique is years ago when I first got married I'm kind of a type-a person in case you can't tell I would have a lot of trouble sitting down at night and watching TV with my husband and my husband would keep saying will you please sit down well so I have developed when I found quilting a method of needle turn applique where I don't have to get up so yeah you can get up and go iron that down you've been at the machine anyway so before you go sit down at night you can but I can based it sitting in my chair so if you want a failure so right ahead and do it oh yeah everyone can see I'm going to iron mine some people are taller and have longer arms than other people who are shorter and have shorter arms but yeah just a big running stitch so so basically when you're basting you're going to do it's just a really big running stitch you're going in and out along the bottom and fabric and why we do that is so is because when you go to applique this on you're stitching right along the edge and if you baste it it eliminates the need to keep folding under that fabric and making sure that what you fold under is 1/4 inch because you can't see it whereas if you baste it down first you can be sure it's around 1/4 inch now it does look around 1/4 inch you can iron it but then you've got to make sure that's turned under I really prefer basting so now we've got well but I would iron mine under and then still baste it oh ok yeah yeah because it because like you said that straight line is is a one of the hardest things to get with sewing and so now I've ironed mine under and I don't have to wonder you know and then I can just do my needle and do this long running stitch across here and then because now comes the applique part when you're when you're going to applique along this edge and it's already turned under so we don't have to worry about trying to make sure it's all even in turned under and next what are we going to do next ok in most freezer applique freezer paper applique you iron the pattern to the front and then either cut around it or draw around it the exception to that is circles and windows and doors for windows and doors you take your freezer paper pattern you trace it you cut it out just like you did the other you've got everything cut out you notice used an old piece of paper now what we're going to do because we want this to be precise and let me tell you I have tried as many different ways of doing Windows without coming before I came on this and they always ended a bunkie and now I don't mind wonky lady windows but I've got ladies that so for me that do so I came up with this and what we're going to do is we're going to iron this on the backside now we're going to take a glue stick and we're going to go down the side this is such a great tip what she's doing is she's glue sticking on all the edges that stick out from the paper remember you put your pattern on it's going to be a little you're going to cut so it's a little bit of quarter of an inch all the way around the pattern and now she's glue sticking the edge of the fabric and it will stick that down to the paper because she's ironed it on the backside and and any of the corners right here at corners and now you have a perfectly straight neat and tidy window and if anyone has ever tried to applique a window on without doing that this is gonna be like haha it's like an amazing little you also do your door where's my door I was over here got a look at the pattern so she's she's done that with her door she's done it with the windows and she's done it with the chimney so you're just going to use your glue stick and one two off this one goes down there right yeah that was a turn to figure out where it went now the exception to gluing all four sides down is the chimney because what you want to do the chimney needs to go under the roof when you sew it on and so you leave that side open you don't glue it down so it will stick under there if you do glue it down see you've got to make sure that it's very precise on there and when it goes into the quilting machine and gets pulled you're going to end up with a little white line there so you don't do that you leave it open here anything that goes under like the tree trunk the chimney anything that goes under something else you leave the bottom part open when you glue it so you can put that there and now when you sew that it'll go under when it pulls you will not end up with a white line there so now do you pin these all on then you can either pin them on or you can glue them on and hump I've gotten very lazy in my old age I tend to just now this is a little stiff so you have to make sure you don't get too much and you also also she leaves the paper right in her quilts most of her quilts are you know really an artistic expression so it's a they're you know they're not going to be run through the wash 50 million times but you know it's like Jan says it's like you know you're doing a utility quilt and it's going to be washed a lot you're going to want to take the paper out if you're not and if you hand quilt it yeah you want to take the paper out but if you're not now to make sure they get lined up correctly on the house this this is another reason why I use the glue it was inches I can go ahead and do them and she's lined up this ruler on the seam of the roof and then the houses she's making sure I mean the windows she's making sure will sit just one inch below that so she's okay now and you just move your ruler you don't want the house at the top of the door but you do want it I mean your window at the top of the door you could have it at the top though do we want it there or not you know it's yours do it however I think let's do that so then we move that down so the top of the door and this are lined and then we move this line over here so it's exactly under that and you glue those down that shouldn't cause any and I generally just pin mine but I'm up I'm up and about you know I'm I'm a well on see this is once again why I like this board because I can do these sitting in my chair with my husband sitting right there I just put the whole thing right here and he's happy she's happy Peppa's watching TV I'm sewing and every once in a while I'll say what did they say because I'm not I'm listening I'm not really looking I'm watching what they say in him I don't know I don't know you're supposed to be watching the TV not me I'm supposed to be sewing so sir this is how it looks all together and now you're ready to actually sew and she's that saying I would do one more step and to make sure our chimney comes in I would take that and and once again baste it in just do a big stitch to make sure your chimney stays straight because otherwise believe me they'll go crooked okay now now I use pins now I would pin the whole thing to the background all right and so and this is my little needle turn applique thing that sits beside my chair and I have found out Mike my granddaughter has a Japanese chin which is a little dog that thinks it's a cow I'm glad you explained that I thought it was no English it is dog it's a breed of dog it's a darling dog but it thinks it's a cat it staying off furniture just isn't in the thing and it has taken I have to put all my thread that I'm using if it's not attached here in here or it'll get up and get the thread off my table and chew it yeah it's almost died a couple times there will be hello you can mess with lots of stuff but not my quilting don't mess with your sewing huh yeah please now I will say before I iron I mean before I sewed the big house on I would sew the windows on so the windows and doors on before you sew the house to the background but it will be easier to show you the stitch we use if we sew the house on okay ah no though I suppose I could unpin it what do you think well that's just so the edge of the house yeah yeah the stitch is the same it's you use the same stitch for all your applique no matter what it is and it's a so like I call it a ladder stitch hmm you probably need a black thread I've got black thread well now we have to thread it of course I should have done that beforehand but now I use the needle threader because uh because I don't want to take 20 minutes to thread mine yeah well actually I already got this problem yeah she's pretty good at I've been doing it for a year - another thing about these needles are is they're large-eyed needles that's good they say yeah it's a large relic daf nolley okay go in there there ya go look if she did that that's why don't use a needle threader's because i usually don't have any trouble but it's also why I listen to TV because I really need new bifocals I can't do that can't do both okay you come up let me move this sports yeah let's get that out of there I can see you come up from underneath and that buries you're not okay yeah the basic application is I don't know the names for all the stitches but anyway is I don't know the names but I've given them names so oh okay this is Jenni's ladder steps ah you you come up through the back now your needle goes in at an angle and by at an angle I mean this way it doesn't go in straight down okay if it goes in straight down your stitch will show if it's at at an angle like this it won't show and you come up right through the fold yes and you come up right on the fold okay and I've got the door that goes let me just move this door so that they well I think the top story on okay yeah that's a good idea though okay now is there any reason that you started like the reason I started there is because when the doors there you're going to want to sew it down with red so this is black and I'm going all the way black and then I'll come around here but that's the only reason all started okay that makes sense because applique is like quilting you know once you get started you don't want to have to keep starting and stopping and starting and stopping and tying knots and doing all that stuff okay so you just take that stitch and I here's where my thimble comes in otherwise I start getting a sore finger let's move that pull the needles out as you go along and we'll try to get some really good close-up shots of this so you guys can see it because this is it is this had a triangle it's not you do not go straight down I really have no idea why but I know when I teach whenever I have ladies and their stitches are showing I go stand behind them and watch them and somehow their needle is going straight down instead of being at an angle and for some reason that makes your stitch show so we want your stitch oh and we need to say one more thing always use thread the color of the piece your applique down not the background yes OSU's your your fat your thread color is going to be the piece of your your the part you're sewing down your applique so if your leaf is green you want green thread whatever you're putting on your thread is that color yeah not the color of the background and so basically what simple what she's doing is she's she right where the thread comes out she puts the needle in and slides it over and comes out and up about it a maybe a quarter of an inch not an eighth of an inch yeah it goes in just behind where it came out and then about an eighth of an inch now you can get your stitches what I almost consider I used to have a woman who sewed for me Barbara who was an awesome applicator but every once in a while I decide I want to move something and Oh My heavens I couldn't take her application oh because her section was so close together it was kind of like will you quit that now I mine aren't that close because I know mine is going to be quilted right over the top I know the top of it and that's it the cool things gonna the quilting is going to hold it on hold it down - so anyway there's your basic stitch and this is once again why you need the longer needle see your hands using this needle it's not just sitting on the end perfect also the thread you can use any kind you want I prefer cotton threads cotton threads cannot if so use some kind of not like way I remember when these wagons that's what I was looking for the people from nodding at just you know pull it through that first and I kind of keep that handy because I use any thread I can find I'm not I don't care you know I'm just like I wanna sew match you know so it works yeah the important thing is it color so if you find it in the color you want then do it silk threads are really nice but once again they tend to not because they're so so now we've reached the point where we need to switch colors of thread so we have to end the black make a double stitch and then take your needle and go to the back now I usually do this twice because I don't want my applique coming use you did loose you just take a stitch and take your needle through it and go through the loop and go through the loop yes yes you've got now you've got a loop right there and you're just going to slide your thread back through the loop and then I take yes and pull it tight and then I take my needle and just bury it now you don't want to go clear through you want to keep it between the background and your thing but it keeps that thread right where it's knotted from getting hit and loose and you're not cutting it off right where you put it together so it won't come out so easily right great tip that's a great tip so you've done that now what you'll do is start here with the rib so now what you've done in this first course is you've learned about the background piece if it says 14 by 20 you're going to cut it 14 and a half to make sure you have a seam allowance all the way around you've learned how to trace onto freezer paper you've learned windows you've learned piecing your large pieces you've learned to leave the the pieces that go attached to the house you're going to leave that bottom part open and you've learned the basic appliqué stitch to put your applique on and we'll see you in session - yeah

Channel: Missouri Star Quilt Company

Views: 365,199

Rating: 4.8337183 out of 5

Keywords: applique, how to, howto, applique techniques, learn to applique, applique quilting, quilt, jan patek applique, jan patek, applique like a pro, learn to, Educational

Id: NWordIFbjqs

Length: 33min 37sec (2017 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 14 2012