How to Prepare your Applique with Lori Holt | Fat Quarter Shop

[Music] okay so I'm going to show you how to make this six inch block so but first we will talk about my so simple shapes because I have several sets so far but I wanted to let you know in case you didn't know that they are numbered and letters so here's my first one it's bloom so what I mean by numbered and lettered is each one has a number but a letter in front of it so bloom all has a on all of them because that's my first set the second set is cozy Christmas and they all start with B and you know then keep continuing on C for fruit salad d for be happy e for the let's fake and F for autumn love and G for farmhouse star which is brand new I'm gonna be showing you and these farm sweet farm or H and they will be out next month for my so long but I like to do them in different colors and different letters so that when you mix them all up and make things you know out of several different shapes I like you to be able to use them all together not just for the set that they were made for that you can separate them back up and know which that they go into so it's not so confusing so I started a so simple shaped series on my blog free tutorials on twelve inch blocks and that's all on there including the finished quilt and I used all of my sets of so simple shapes to make that quilt and I'm going to be starting a new series next year doing six-inch blocks so this is the six inch block but I'm gonna show you how to make and these are the ones that I have made so far in the series so after after we do the applique then we trim them down to six and a half inches square so right now they look bigger than six inch because they are but that's what we have so far and it's using all different so simple shapes so the first thing I want to show you is the background so I really like to piece my backgrounds because I think it adds interest to the block and it also is really nifty because it shows a seam here a seam here a seam here you know going this way so it helps to Center all of your blocks so what I do is I've used these the B background 5 inch stackers or you can just start out with 5 inch squares and I like to use them these little art bins but I just use 2 squares of each print and then I make the pinwheel so see you can see that background so here's my background square so again all I did was take two of this print and two of this print and then I made has four triangles I show you how to do that on my blog also in my scrappy project planner it explains all of that so when I'm doing the applique I like to press my seams open so that when I'm applique the piece is on it lies flat so there's your block for the six inch block you want to start again five inch squares and when you sew them together make sure you make them into a pinwheel shape so that you have your lines all going this way so for the pieces I am using for this block I decided to use my fruit salad set I so simple shapes three of them in there so here's three that we're using the C one the C seven which is the leave the C one is the circle and then the C eight for the hearts and we're just gonna talk about the shapes right now and then I'll show you how to do the stem in a minute so what you're gonna do I'm just going to show you an example of what I do with preparing the appliques so I take my pencil I take my sewing interfacing I've developed this so that it's a really nice weight not not too thick not too thin so that it doesn't tear easily and it's easy to make the shape so I just simply lay my shape on there trace around it so I have the line now what I've traced on here is my sewing line okay so I already have one finished for you right here that I've already sewn around the line and all you do is after you've traced it on here is put it on the right side of the fabric so your line is faced up and your fabric is faced up when you're sewing and on this solid there's really no right or wrong side so you can't really tell there but you can kind of see where I start sewing right here I don't back stitch I just sew on the line and then I over so where I started to sew and that secures the seam and then I just sew off the edge so that I can start sewing another piece so I don't have to clip my threads and waste thread and time so once I have that prepared then I just cut around it by an approximate quarter inch so for this block you're going to need to do four of these leaves so I just trimmed that off by a proximate quarter of an inch and I kind of cut to my point I don't want to get clear to my point but you can cut that point off a little bit flat and then just in the interfacing only I'm going to cut like a little X so that I can turn it so you can you can pinch it apart like this you know and just start with a little pet I usually use smaller scissors let me grab some for that or you can use your seam ripper if you're feeling brave just as long as you don't cut into your fabric it's all good whatever you use I just kind of little X in there like that and then I just turn it right side out some of these pieces are large some of them are small for the small pieces I just do a little bit at a time doesn't have to look all fancy because then I use my um this point to point turner by clover I love this and this is really essential in my applicated and see how I just kind of go around and shape and I usually shape it by having the interfacing up and I just kind of go around like this with the point part but I'm not pushing really hard I'm just applying a little bit of pressure and moving it at the same time and what I'm trying to achieve is just you know so that I have that sideways look I can kind of see my stitches there but if you get a little too carried away you might poke a hole through the fabric especially because it's on a curve so we've sung it on the bias so you just want to make sure that you apply gentle pressure until it's pushed out I do that and then I just take it over to the iron and just press I just pressed on the top I just flattened it a little bit and there's my shape so for this block for the leaves I did a little bit of embroidery around here so I use all six strands of my dark-green RF loss and what I do with that is you can mark it beforehand or you don't have to you can just take a pencil and I just mark short little stitches I use this um this green fabric this is confetti cotton by Riley Blake and it's my favorite green is Riley green and I used this as the common fabric throughout each block for all of the Leafs and then I did a little bit of embroidery so all I did with that was just stitch on my mark lines now with all six strands and that I just kind of like the dimension that it adds those chunky stitches and so that's what I like to use all six strands so I would do that at this point before I applique it you could do it after applique but then you would have to go through all the layers so I just do it at this point and that interfacing makes it really nice and keeps it stiff so that you can embroider so also you're going to need four hearts for this block right here I wanted to show you that on this shape it has a little cleavage area or a little V area that you'll need to clip so after you trim I take little sharp embroidery scissors and here's the area that I'm talking about you'll need to clip right to the threads not past them if you if you only go half way if you're afraid I'm only go half way it's still not gonna lie flat when you turn it so you need to clip just one clip all the way to the stitches just like that and then you can go ahead and put your little X back here see how I started that cut with my seam ripper and then it will lie flat when you turn it so I'm turning these hearts I just turned one half at a time I'm gonna push it out a little bit and this is where the turning tool comes in handy that's how you do the heart and because you did the little clipping there that lies flat so any of these like the leaf pieces because it's an outer curve you don't need to clip that the circles or an outer curve you don't need to clip that it's only inner curves and cleavage areas and I always tell you that on each block on my blog when I'm doing my tutorial I always tell where you need to clip just to remind you until you get the hang of it so also I wanted to tell you what I'm stitching around here I just use a regular stitch length like a 2.0 I don't really use a smaller one or a larger one I don't want to gather it up or I don't want to make you know the stitching too tight it's really secure like I've never had my stitching come undone so that's all I do is a regular stitch so on the circle I want to show you how to shape the circle a lot of people ask me about these but again when you turn the circle for the first time it looks kind of crazy and you're like that's not gonna turn out so good because I can't get it shaped right but remember you got to use your tool and the circles are my favorite thing actually because they're a most fun to do because you just twirl them around with this little shaper and I'm pushing on the fabric like oh the interfacing is on top along with the seam allowance is on top I'm just pushing on the fabric just a little bit and again when I say pushing just barely so I'm just going around and around until it goes you know until it looks kind of like that but sometimes there's little flat spots or points so I'll just take that in between and work back and forth just a little bit to push that fabric out a little bit and see that fixed it right there so and then I just flip it over give it a quick press with the iron and there's my circle so here's all my cases all prepared and ready to go I've got these other leaves here and then I'll show you how I put them on to my background okay so now we have all of our pieces but I need to show you how to do the stems so for for this block you need for one and a half inch long stems but we need to prepare them using this quarter inch bias tape maker this is by clover and this is the quarter inch it's green so I like to cut my strips 5/8 of an inch wide just by with the fabric I prepare my strips a lot at the same time so that I don't have to stop and prepare you know each time I'm ready for a block so the first thing I do this is for my cozy Christmas fabric and I like that it's already looks like the gingham is on the bias even though I didn't cut it on the bias because these are straight so I only cut my strips on the bias one I have to do curving and a block but because these are all straight then we just cut them across the width of the fabric so first I cut a little point in the end there so it's easier to go through the maker and then I use just a little bit of starch you can use whatever kind you want this is best press and I just get it a little bit wet I don't really saturate it but it just kind of helps to shape your stem after you run it through the maker so I don't let it dry all the way obviously I want to kind of wet so I like to feed it right through here the point going in through there and you can just thread it through there like from the top or the opening is you can take pins scissors your fingernail whatever you need to do to the point comes out like this and see how it's just almost the same width as this opening it just bends down a little that's how you want it and I start over here I put my iron down so that I have about an inch out and then I put my iron right next to it but I don't touch the metal because it'll get really hot then you won't be able to hold on to it but I just pull on the maker at the same speed that I pull the iron and see how I'm just making it flat like that and you just keep going you can move it up or down or do the whole length of your ironing board I'm just following so for this we just need straight seam see how that's now those raw edges are folded under I normally just let it lie here and cool for a minute but I just kind of wanted to show you that and even though this is not cut on the bias just while we're here I should just show you something that when I do need to curve something and this is cut on the bias then I just this is the point where I curve it I just you know kind of turn it like that and it stays this will curve a little bit even though you've cut it straight but if you really need curves I would definitely cut this on the bias the fabric okay so now what you do is you just cut for one and a half inch pieces from there and that's how you do the bias you can do all different widths for this block and for the rest of this quilt series I'm just going to be using this quarter inch bias tape and the same stem fabric it goes well with the right of green so I kind of like to have the same at least one or two same fabrics in each block just to kind of pull the whole quilt together and so that's what I've chosen to do is use the same green on the same stem fabric these two pieces are for my upcoming farmgirl vintage collection little circle and the hearts when I'm laying my blocks out you know to get prepared for applique always glue baste and pin at the same time I pin first and then I glue base but I'm always using my design boards because I'm pinning to it so it's kind of like a bulletin board and I usually start from the center out so what I want to do is start with my circle and it's really easy to Center it because of all these seams I know where that goes so I'm just gonna put my circle there you know at this point if you're worried about centering it you can always take your ruler you know and make sure it's like the same you know apart like it's a 3 and 3/4 you know all the way around but what I do is I take my applique pins these are one of my sets of pretty pins these are called applique and I know they're longer than then you may have seen normal applique pans I do have many applications that they're really short but I use these to stick in my design board when I'm glue basting so the first thing I do for the center circle is I just stick a pin right into my design board and leave that there so I'm not gluing yet I'm just lining it up and setting everything down so with my stems they're gonna go next because I'm layering everything and what I do is use sue Daly's glue which I love so much I call it sue blue and I use it for everything so I love the little tip that it has on it but these are just an inch and a half long there's not much showing but I usually tuck it under by a quarter of an inch there and then the heart you know will go on top so what I do is I just put it right on the seam just a little ski I barely push so that just a little bit of glue comes out and then I tuck it under the circle by a quarter of an inch and it's right on this line so see you can see that it's straight and centered because the seam is right between that quarter of an inch and then I just go around and do the same thing just a little line there little line there I try not to get a lot of glue on these bias sure it's just right down the middle so that there's no glue to go through to needle you can but it's just easier if you don't have to so I'm just tucking these under like I say by about a quarter of an inch so there's my stems now that I have my stems underneath there I know that my circle hasn't moved where I measured it now I can go ahead and lift up the edges and just put a dot I use this glue just like I would use a pin and I just put a little dot under there like I don't put a ton of glue but just enough to hold it down okay so there's that now I know I can put my hearts you know next now on my blog I always tell you like how long the measurement is and right here you can see that there's one inch between the bottom of the heart and the edge of the circle so I just like to keep my ruler down here and then when I go to do my heart I just put like a few pieces of glue and I don't put it around the edge like I say so I don't have to needle through it and I know that it goes an inch up from the circle and I know this little cleavage area that we trimmed goes right on that seam so that's centered and that's exactly where that goes so then I go around and do my hearts I really love using the glue because then I can take my pins out just want to make sure that's an inch you don't ever have to eyeball anything especially knowing that you're gonna be trimming this block down you don't want to cut these off so you just want to trust my measurements or measure first yourself so that you know you're not gonna cut off the blocks cut off the edges of the hearts sorry not the blocks so how I do that is I take my six and a half inch trim it ruler and you can just lay it down there take that pin out now you can lay it there on the seam see where all these lines line right up with everything and I can see inside this window this is your quarter inch seam allowance where this aqua is but inside this window that's what my finished block is going to look like once it's sewn into the quilt so you can see by using these measurements that there's about a quarter of an inch you know a way which is typically about I do so these are really invaluable they're nice for trimming up but I use them every time I'm setting up my blocks too that's how I knew that this was an inch apart because I had already measured those you know according to my six and a half inch tray my ruler there Center it once your glue is down you can move it up or down before it dries it takes a minute to dry I'll show you how I do that okay so now we have the Leafs left and again you can come over here and measure if you want to but it's just barely tucked under at this point is tucked under by a quarter of an inch so before everything is dry like underneath the circle I hurry and just stick the leaves in pick that up and I kind of just eyeball this part like I know I can see that that's about the same width apart there and I'm just gonna continue going around and lay these out this is a version I didn't stitch these Leafs just so that I could quickly get them on here to show you how I do this part but if you don't care to do the stitching around them that's fine this is what it looks like this glue dries clear and you can pull your pieces off I really like it because you can move it if you need to after it's dry you can even move it but you just have to tug on it just a little bit which I really like because that means it's secure but yet if you change your mind or you want something else there instead it's always changeable and I like to change my mind so okay so now what I've got that down usually use a lot more of my pins when I have a bigger block it's all pinned and then when it's all pinned and glued then I lay it there I put my ruler on top right here and I have I usually put something heavy on there what I've been using lately is as cute be that my friend Joe painted for me because it's nice and heavy she painted a rock and I just put it on there and it takes like five or ten minutes to dry that's nice and secure and then I can just pull it right off the mat he's on board okay when I applicate my blocks I like to do hand applique sometimes I do machine appliqué as well so I'm going to do a couple different videos I mean one I'm going to show you how to do an applique and then a couple different versions for machine [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Fat Quarter Shop

Views: 77,666

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Keywords: “fat, quarter, shop”, beginner, sewing, easy quilt, how to, diy, fabric, quilting supplies, patchwork, sewing machine, patterns, kimberly jolly, sewing tutorial, precuts, learn to quilt, tips, lesson, class, fast quilting, quilt company, quilt show, quilt top, piecing, “quilting, hacks”, ruler, aurifil

Id: JqMYH6KKuGc

Length: 24min 13sec (1453 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 14 2019