Monthly Archives: July 2016

Reverse Applique for Susie Q

I used reverse applique for the melon on the Dear Jane LS6 Susie Q triangle. It would not be too hard to applique this melon but reverse applique on a seam gives you a very neat finish and this method is great for really small, impossible to applique melons.

The idea is set the melon into a seam so that you don’t have to turn raw edges under at a point.

For this block start with 2 pieces of background fabric that are 5½” by 2”. Sew them together on the long edge twice to reinforce the seam because you will be cutting into the seam for the applique.

Cut out your melon template for reverse applique. Fold the template in half with the shiny side out. Line the fold up on the seam line of the background fabric and press in place without placing your iron on the shiny side of the template that is on top! 😉

Carefully cut out your melon shape leaving a ¼” seam allowance.

Remove the template, open up the background piece and press the seams open. Unfold the template and iron it on the front of the background piece centered over the cut out for the melon. Carefully rip out ¼” of the seam at the points so the seam allowance can be folded back for appliqueing.

For this triangle block place a 3” x 1 ½” piece of print fabric behind the background fabric centered under the cut out. Baste the pieces together and reverse applique the melon. Trim the excess print fabric on the back leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Rotary cut the background fabric at one end of the melon leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Sew this piece to top of your triangle with the melon centered and lined up correctly. For this triangle the rest of the block was paper pieced.

To finish the triangle trim using your Dear Jane Triangle ruler.

I have used this method on a few blocks. When I see a small melon that needs to be appliqued I try to figure out a way to use this method!

D-4

Sashing Stash Challenge

I signed up for the Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake Sashing Stash Challenge this past winter. The 3/4 yard piece of black and white fabric was given to me in March. I had until the end of May to put a quilt together.

I went with a combination of traditional blocks and some improvised blocks that used up just about all of the fabric I received. I have always wanted to make an Ocean Wave quilt, but all those teeny tiny half square triangles! The Sashing Stash certainly made it easy to put an Ocean Wave block together.

Once I got my blocks and layout figured out I put the top together and then it was on to the final challenge of quilting. I am very comfortable with my pantographs on my longarm machine, but I want to move on to more free motion quilting. This was my most adventurous attempt so far. I definitely need more practice, especially with those little circles, but it was fun and I am excited to do more on the other side of my quilt frame!

A Jane Stickle Block Turorial

I used reverse applique for this block. A bit fussy, but I was happy with the finished block. I have photos from two different blocks since I did not get enough photos with my first block! The tutorial assumes you have access to Dear Jane Templates from the Electric Quilt software, or you have drawn them yourself.

Cut one 6 ½” square of print fabric and cut twice diagonally into 4 triangles
Cut one 3 ½” square of print fabric and cut twice diagonally into 4 triangles
Cut on 6” square of background fabric

Sew the large print triangle pieces back together to make a square with diagonal seams. This will allow you to reverse applique on seams and avoid turning under raw edges in the corners.

Sew each seam twice to reinforce them because the ends will need to be ripped out so they can be folded to set in the applique.

Center your Dear Jane ruler on the square with the diagonal seams lined up. Draw a line around the edges of the ruler to mark cutting lines for the block. This will allow you to correctly position the corner triangles.

Cut out a square and triangle template printed on freezer paper. Cut out on the cutting lines and cut out the center on the seam lines.

Iron the template square in the center of the pieced square. Carefully cut out the center leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Then carefully rip out the seams up to the corners of the template. Finger press the seam allowances to the back.

Line the triangle template up on the seam in each corner to mark cutting lines. The point will go towards the center. The edges on each side of the template should line up with the outside cutting lines drawn on the pieced block.

Press the template into each corner and then draw cutting lines ¼” from the inside edges of the template. Once each corner is marked, cut out the corners on the cutting lines.

Carefully rip out ¼” of the seam in each corner so that the seam allowance can be folded back. Draw the seam lines on the inside and press the ¼” seam allowance to the back in each corner.

Now you can finally applique/reverse applique this piece to the background square!

Baste the print square to the background piece and reverse applique the center and each corner. Once you have finished appliqueing carefully cut back the background fabric diagonally in each corner by lining your ruler up with the ends of the cutting lines on the print piece.

Sew each of the small print triangles to the corners. Trim the block to 5” with your Dear Jane ruler by matching the diagonal seams with the guidelines on the ruler.

Wow! They are both beautiful!! Which one should I use?