(gentle guitar music) - Hi, I'm Edyta Sitar from
Laundry Basket Quilts, and I'm visiting Fat Quarter Shop. We're doing videos on
our "Pillow Talk" book. I hope you are excited about
the book just as much as I am. I'm looking forward to
show you some pillows and have a little pillow talk
with you about appliqués. One of my favorite techniques
to make something beautiful is to place beautiful
pieces onto the background. Appliqué techniques, there are so many different ways to do it. You can do hand appliqué. You can do machine appliqué. I love fusible appliqué. Why? Because I can achieve a quick
project in really fun ways. There're all different
ways to do appliqués. When you do fusible appliqué, you're gonna need a design, and we have stencil. And of course in your book, you're gonna find all the patterns for a beautiful variety of pillows that we're going to make. I hope today you're gonna fall in love with some of the appliqués
that I have ready for you. I like to use stencil to trace my designs, because if I have to do multiple circle the stencil really helps me. There are a variety of products out there that you can use to fuse
your fabrics together for fusible appliqué. You can use Steam-a-Seam 2 Light or Steam-a-Seam 2, or you can use Heat 'N Bond Light. They're all different
options to those products. One gives you a little
sticky on the fusible so your pieces stay in place as you working with them. The Heat 'N Bond Light gives you a really good option with
giving you nice raw edges. Today I'm gonna spoil you a little bit, and I'm gonna ask you to use a kit that we have prepared for you. For our "Pillow Talk" book, we have prepared all of
the kits for appliqués. So all that you need to
do is open a package. All your pieces are
already pre-cut for you with fusible webbing on it, and the background is included. Why do I like to use those kits? Because they're laser cut. So as the laser cuts
the edges of my fabric, it burns them just tiny bit, and it fuses that fusible webbing really nice around the edges, so the edges don't fray as much as I would be cutting them with scissors. And of course it saves me time. So if I have a short weekend to play, I definitely can make few of those pillows if I have kits. Well, let's start with this one. A simple one is the best one to start for beginner appliquérs. And I'm gonna start with
the little hearts one. Like I said, if you wanted
to, you can take a stencil, trace your hearts from that stencil, and then you have all your heart. Trace them into fusible webbing, then fuse your fusible webbing
to your desired fabric. I already have it pre-cut, and the fabric that we are
using is linen texture, Laundry Basket Quilts' favorite. And those fabrics are just
wonderful to play with it. And I have one that is already open. What I will do is, I start by opening my background square. And notice that this
is a very light fabric. Sometimes you get confused
which side is right and wrong. So the lighter one is the wrong side. The little bit creamier one is the side that we want to have our square on it. I'm gonna place my square on a table. And the first thing that I like to do is make a little crease this way and this way. This crease give me guidelines where to position my pieces. Then I'm going to open
my package of pieces, and notice, one heart is a
shade darker than the other one. That heart is gonna be
placed someplace right here. But I'm gonna start with the middle rows, and I'm gonna follow that line right here where the middle is. And I'm gonna start laying my hearts. Lay your heart out. What a fun thing to say. Oh, I'm so excited to show you how I'm gonna do my pillow with the cute little hearts on it. Notice it. Oh, I'm gonna lay them out. Don't stress too much how far away they're apart when you start laying them out. This is just to give you an idea how everything fits. Your backgrounds are
pre-cut little bit bigger, so read the directions in a book. You're gonna position your pieces. You wanna stay away. You're gonna trim this little bit down to 18 1/2. That's the size of our pillows. So once I lay all my hearts out just like this, I'm going to go ahead and
take one heart at a time. This looks pretty good. Yes. All right. I'm gonna take one at a time, crease the corner just like this, pull the paper away, and I can place my heart down. And notice, it's a little sticky. But it's kind of nice because, that way, once I position, I can go ahead and move to the next heart, and nothing is moving, so I can quickly lay all of those out, and if I have to move
something, I can lift it up, move it gently, and position again. And before you know you're gonna have all
your hearts laid out, and you're ready to carry
it to your ironing board. I already prepared one for you. Let me show you. And that one. Oh, isn't that wonderful? So right there, this
one is already prepared, and I laid all the
hearts and pressed them. Once you press your hearts in place, remember you can, if you
using Steam-a-Seam 2, you can use steam right now. When you pressing fabric to fabric, you really want to get rid of that gook, because for laying, it's beneficial, but for stitching, we don't want our needle to get sticky and gooked up. So pressing really, really nice. And sometimes I press it from the front. When I press it from the front, I just lay my iron down this way. Then I can flip this and go one more time from the back. Press it really nice. And now I'm ready, set, go for stitching. And there are many different options that we can use for stitches. And I'm gonna show you
those in just few minutes. So if you would like to, go ahead and prepare your sewing machine. When you preparing your sewing machine, you're gonna need needles. And recently I have discovered
the non-stick needles. So for fusible appliqué,
they're quite important, because you don't want it, like I said, the needle to be sticking and gooking up. So non-stick needle. Then you wanna choose a beautiful threads. My personal favorite lately are the threads from one
Wonderfil called Invisafil. You can get a package with all naturals, and they will hide your stitches. Or you can get a package
where you go ahead and start showing off
some of your stitches and there are matching colors. Or if you would like to add
a little color to your quilt, you can get this thread. What, it's a wonderful little addition. When you open it up,
it looks more pinkish. And then you can add a little flavor. Or from Wonderfil, maybe
you want a little glamor, so you can add this
thread around the edges. When you switching your threads and you want something different, remember that the thicker thread, the thicker needle you need. So that way it breaks it in and pull the needle down really nice. So switching your needle
is gonna be important when you switching at
different sizes of threads. For now we're gonna use the non-stick. I'm gonna go for size 80
to match to my Invisafil. And I'm just gonna take the thread and stitch a little
zigzag around the edges. Oh, I cannot wait to show you
more options for appliqué. We just finished this
beautiful heart quilt. But what about this lovely circle quilt that I have it right here? You gonna spread your wings with me and start applying and do
all different appliqués. I am so excited for you for this one. This is another block that
could be used for our pillows. It's the first pillow in the book. Super excited about this one. I have a little advice for you. If you are a beginner appliquérs, I would choose a simpler
pillow to start with. And we're approaching the September time. Why not starting with the pumpkin? That could be a fun beginner one. Then go head for something more, with more pieces, like the butterfly one. When I do the butterfly, again, I crease in half, crease in half, lay my wings out, peel the paper away, then start positioning all my flowers, peeling the paper away, putting them down, following the layout
that I have it in a book, and again, beautifully press. And I'm ready to stitch around the edges. And for this one, I would
have used all different colors and add a little bit more to it. You can stitch with zigzag blanket stitch, button stitch, they're all different ways. Now you're gonna find also an appliqué pillows that
the background is pieced. And one of those pillows,
it's my circle pillow. This one right here. All of the background colors are pieced. So you don't have a
one solid piece for it. I like working with
smaller pieces like that, because it gives me a fun way to approach the stitching around it, and I can do a little bit smaller. When it's a larger block, sometimes it's harder to maneuver on your sewing machine. So a small circles are perfect. You're gonna open the package, pull up all of your backgrounds, start laying them out for yourself, and very important that you do the layout the background pieces first. Follow the directions in the pattern, so you have a light
darker one, lighter one. There's a whole rows of them. I'm just gonna lay few more for you, so you get the idea. And notice I have them on a angle going this way on the pillow, so it gives me fun shading. Then I'm gonna go ahead open
the package of my circles, and now start positioning
them on my background, following the layout. And I'm shading my circles from pinks and reds and yellows, keep going that way, to the blues. Notice that all my pinks, yellows, greens, going to the blue. I want a little rainbow arrangement. Once you do that one block at a time, and I have to tell you, this is one of my favorite pillows to do. And I think I'm gonna have to make a whole quilt like this. I'm addicted to that one. One circle at a time. One little dot a time. And look how easily I
just crease the corner. It pulls it away. I peel it, and then I'm
ready to put it down. And you're gonna ask me, where do I put it down? I try to keep it even
distance on each side. If I have not done
perfect, I move it gently. Oh, now it looks much better. One after the other, all my circle will made
it onto the background. And let me show you, what
you do next with those. Once you finish, then
it's time to go ahead, make a choice. Am I gonna put stitches around? Should I use a zigzag, blanket stitch? You can choose whichever one you like it. On this pillow, I choose a zigzag, and I match different color threads from my nice selection of Aurifil threads. And it's a good time
to try different things and see, oh, and do I like as
a little bit more of a thread, thicker one, do I wannna
put little glamor to it, and throw a little sparkle to it? Now is the time to try it and have a little fun with it. Once you go ahead and do that, you can now, sew your rows. Sew your squares into rows and then take the rows and sew them together. And I have started it right here. This was my blocks. I would place my blocks
right side together, sew them, and then make rows like this. And in no time, you're gonna have a beautiful pillow. Look at this. How quickly. And notice the design. Second, third design that
comes from the backgrounds and just works really nice. When you sewing your rows, remember to follow the arrows in a book and push your seams in
the opposite directions. Then when you place those rows together, the seams gonna lock a
beautifully right here. You're gonna open it up. And you're gonna have
a really nice project where those transition pieces
going to work very well. So that one was fun and exciting. But I can tell you want to know more about that stitching. So let's look at through all the pillows that are in the book and see all different ways how I stitch around the edges and maybe visit little
bit more about that. So back to our circle pillow. Right here notice that zigzag
that I put around the edge. There are a variety of
stitches that you can do. And I like zigzag, straight
stitch, another zigzag, and I did this one. This one is with invisible thread. So right there, you
would have used this one. So you would hide that zigzag. Straight stitch, just
regular straight stitch, would work just fine. This one is in color. That means to me that I used a matching color to whatever fabric I have here. I love using a blanket stitch, and there is a single and
a double blanket stitch. When I make a sample like this for myself, I write all my favorite stitches, and I keep that in my sewing box. So that way, when I approach a project, I can take this and look with it and said, "Oh, I love my zigzag. "What number it was?" And then you can put the
setting on your sewing machine, if you have a Bernina, Janome, Pfaff, your favorite stitches, and that way you don't
have to choose and pick. You made a little sample what works the best for you. With, and on the side, I put a tension. And also you can write it on this little sample for yourself which kind of needle you like to use. So here we did a zigzag. Wonderful. Then if you don't want any stitches, you can do that as well. You can just fuse your fabrics down, your fabric pieces, your appliqués. And all that you're gonna
do is do overall quilting. And your quilting will
hold the pieces in place. This kind of technique
called raw edge appliqué. So that means the edges are raw. They're going to fray with time, but for a pillow maybe the little fraying would give a little extra
texture to your appliqué. And that's what you wanted. So raw edge appliqué. Fusible appliqué breaks in
two different techniques. Raw edge and finish edge. Raw edge, no stitches around the edges. Finish edge, blanket,
zigzag, satin stitch, maybe decorative stitches if you have a really nice sewing machine, maybe that's what you would like to do. In this case, the ring bearer pillow. Oh, how beautiful for a
little boy carrying this. That one, maybe you wanna put a beautiful little blanket stitch or a zigzag stitch matching to the colors. And again, I use that
Wonderfil Invisafil threads. All those blues just work beautiful. And I have that little rust, it look just wonderful over. This thread right here, that green, became one of my favorite, and I made a note in a book, so you don't forget it. Notice this cute pillow. Imagine this. I took just this one thread
and stitch everything with this fun green. All of it is just stitch
with this one color. When I opened the thread, it looked great on my blues, on my greens, but also have been wonderful
accent for my reds and pink. So you don't have to
switch it for this pillow. When you start your zigzag, you're gonna go like
this, or blanket stitch. You're gonna go around the edges weaving back and forth, back and forth. Come back, finish. Then you go for next one, next one, next one. And I just went through all of the pieces with one stitch from edge to edge. and I use the little zigzag, same thread for all of the colors. I'm really proud of that one. Definitely gonna make
another one of those pillows. I know my mother-in-law
would love to get one. And we talk about that pumpkin pillow that would be excellent
as a beginning one. And on this one, notice
I use the blanket stitch, and I used more of decorative thread. So little bit thicker thread. I want a little bit more
color and an oomph to it and a little glow around my
bird and around the pumpkin. And I use edge to edge quilting to give a little bit fun spin to it. I use the lighter thread for my quilting, because that orange was very strong, and with this, it reminds me, notice it when you go to a pumpkin patch, how sometimes you have
a little dry branches just hanging around. It's fall coming up. Like I said, with all this pillows, I'm pretty confident, you're gonna spread your
wings and fly and enjoy it. And don't forget there are little antennas on your little butterfly. So make sure, we included
embroidered stitches, so you can grab some of
the favorite threads, take two, three strings
of your favorite thread or use embroidered threads, and embroider really nice antennas. Or you can take a marking
pencil for fabrics and just draw the antennas right here. And you're gonna enjoy that as well. This is wonderful. And the edges of the butterfly all stitch with a zigzag
Invisafil threads. What I think works just
fine and glamorous. You can add more to it, or you can go for a more simple look. No matter what, I hope you enjoyed that pillow talk with me about appliqué. Thank you so much. And please don't forget to subscribe to Fat Quarter Shop YouTube channel. And all the links for
anything that I showed you, you will find below in a box, and I hope to see you again. Happy quilting. (light hums) (camera reel flutters) (scissor clip) (gentle music)
