Tag Archives: applique

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

One Kite and Three Triangles

Here is the latest on my Jane Blocks.

: Right Side 7

: Right Side 3

: Bottom Row 9

I finally decided to do one of the corner kite blocks. My thinking is that I have enough triangles finished to justify this accomplishment. A wonderful reward!. This block has octagon pieces. I glue basted the seam allowances to card stock templates, then used Best Press to set the seams before removing the templates. The octagons were then hand pieced together and appliquéd to the background. I am happy with the finished block.

The three triangles all have some hand piecing as well as machine piecing. BR-9 needed to be adjusted because I cut the points off of the curved background pieces, so the bottom section is wider than it should be. This happens sometimes when you cut out the Dear Jane templates exactly as printed from the Electric Quilt software. I am not too upset about it and am not planning to redo this one.

My color scheme for the quilt has yellow for this block. I used a yellow with pink to add some color, so the hearts are not as obvious. The seams for the hearts were also glue basted to templates before setting the seams.

The next block was quite an adventure. First the diamonds and middle triangle at the bottom are appliquéd to a 6.5″ x 8.5″ piece of background fabric. The center circle started with a 6.5″ pinwheel block. The melons started as 3.5″ squares with just the inside curve cut on one side of each square. The curved edges were appliquéd to the pinwheel block resulting is a 6″ square for the center. Then the block was reverse appliquéd over the center piece. It was not my idea. Pat K. from Quilters Common came up with this fabulous method and it is just about the same as the one used on the That Quilt blog. It is time consuming but was not frustrating. I am happy with this one, too.

Jane I Have Not Given Up on You!

Okay, here they are! More Jane blocks.

My Jane Stickle group is concentrating on the G Row to get one entire row done. I am now about 6 months behind, so I decided to focus on those as well, rather than do them in the order assigned.

I completely hand pieced Block G8 and I am happy with the result. It was a bit frustrating at first and I concluded that I am happy the sewing machine was invented! This is not a Kaffe or a Phillip or even a Westminster fabric, but I think it works well with them. Guess I have decided to branch out and mix some other fabrics in. If I have a fabric that works I am going to use it! No one in my group seemed to notice my Kaffe Fassett/Phillip Jacobs departure, so I got away with it!

I did give hand piecing another try with G1. I thought it would be too difficult to try curved piecing on the machine because the curve seemed a bit too tight. I finished this block with the machine.

For block G7 I decided to go ahead and try machine piecing the curves and it went quite well. I pressed the pieces in half to line up the centers and pinned at the center and each side. I put the convex piece on the bottom when sewing. I only redid one of the curved seems and I actually ended up redoing that one twice!

G9 is just straight forward paper piecing and I used an Amy Butler fabric this time (at least it is a Westminster fabric!). I wanted to use this orange!

Finally, I was looking at my progress chart and double checking to see if I had everything in the right place. I found my chart had a couple of blocks in the wrong row and also discovered a block with the wrong fabric! But, aren’t I lucky because the block is D13, which is just about the easiest block you could find yourself redoing. So, I now have a red and an orange D13.

And to wrap things up I will also show you the second B12 that I made some time ago because I was not happy with my first try at reverse applique. The first is really not so bad, but I think I like the fussy cutting in the redo better.

Is this more than you ever wanted to know about my Jane blocks??

Oh!! …. in case anyone is counting I finally got 50 blocks done! WOOT WOOT!!

Poor Neglected Jane

After many moths of neglecting my Jane quilt I finally got some blocks put together for the July meeting.

Here are each of my blocks. The Star block was a bit of a challenge, but the method we used for the center was to fold a little square in half which worked out wonderfully.

I did have a bit of a hard time getting one of the background pieces lined up correctly when paper piecing the star. After ripping out three times I grabbed a 6″ width of fabric strip, placed the paper on top off that and ran it through the machine. Plenty of room and no wasted fabric after I trimmed it … how’s that for a new paper piecing method!

Another Applique Quilt

I am working on my version of Peggy Anne’s In the Meadow Quilt. I know it is supposed to be a counting quilt, but I am getting a bit creative here, so the number of babies will not be quite the same and some may be missing from the scene all together. Changing my approach to a smaller quilt with separate blocks for each applique has re-awakened my creative spirit.

Here are the two blocks I have finished

Here is the current plan

Here is my previous background for the quilt, which may now be the backing?

November Jane Blocks

I am now up to date with my Jane Blocks. This month I was working with my Singer 301 Sewing Machine which just got cleaned and had some adjustments made. It is such a nice machine. It has a great stitch and is amazingly light. Perfect for taking to class.

I also wanted to comment on this month’s triangle block. Instead of appliqueing the curved piece on the bottom I decided to just sew it on with the machine because it is not much of a curve. And I cheated with the little melon. Yes, I did. It is fused in place with steam a seam and machine stitched around the edges. I think this will be just fine. After all, this is a MODERN Dear Jane quilt, so I am using as many modern techniques as I can!

September Jane Blocks

Here they are! This months selection of Jane Blocks. I found some time to get them together. All warm colors this month for my color scheme. Lots of paper piecing and one block with applique. I cut out templates for the circles and melons and then used a needle and thread to gather the edges of the fabric around the template. A blast of “starch” held the gathered fabric in place … and sorry I did not take pictures to show you how to do that!

August Jane Blocks

Good Grief. It’s nearly the end of August and I still haven’t shared my Jane Blocks.

I enjoyed putting these blocks together … not too much applique this month. Just the handle of the basket, which I did by machine. Not sure if that was a good idea or not, but it looks okay. I used steam a seam and ironed the handle in place and then machine sewed along the edges.

Month three of Jane

Here are my latest Jane blocks. Three of the five blocks are purple this month as indicated in my plan for the quilt .. a rainbow scheme starting with green in the middle, followed by yellow, etc. I still love working with the Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs fabrics. You can use the large scale fabrics and pick sections to work with. The blocks seemed fussy to me this month, but maybe it was me! The reverse applique is the most trying. Hard to get the corners sewn without the raw edges poking out. I think I need most improvement in that area and will not doubt get the opportunity to do so in the next few years of my Jane Journey!

June Jane Blocks

I have finished my Jane blocks for Tuesday night’s meeting. I am enjoying this quite a bit …. so far! I love the fabric I am working with and the fact that each block is so different. This month I had two rotary cut and pieced blocks, two paper pieced blocks and one applique block. The paper pieced blocks are the fussiest, but the triangle block went together pretty quickly. Take a look at the May blocks. 10 done 215 to go!

Here are the blocks: