Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Hand Applique

Goodness knows, my hand stitching has never been anything to write home about but I am planning to make a quilt from a pattern I bought when I was at the Quilt & Craft Fair in Hamilton a couple of months ago. The pattern is a wall hanging with 16 fused daisy blocks. I want to double it in size to make a bed quilt and I don't like fused applique on bed quilts . What method of hand applique to use?

While I have done heaps of fused wall-hangings I haven't done a huge amount of hand applique and mostly it has been single layer. I've used freezer paper on the back, spray starch painted on the seam allowances and the iron to press them over. I then take the freezer paper out and hand stitch the applique piece on. I thought I would make a couple of samples to try the back basting method and compare it with my freezer paper method. Here are the results so far:

Can you guess which method is which? Which one looks best?

There is a circle to be attached to the middle and the background is cut out as a circle to be appliqued onto another background. Then there are the pieced blocks to do. This ain't gonna be a quick quilt!

9 comments:

Nellie's Needles said...

What Fun! The flower on the right looks to be the neatest with smooth curves to my eye. Are you planning to cut away behind the flowers. If so, consider appliquing those somewhere else on the quilt.

loulee said...

Hey, they look good, I can't tell the difference, is there one?

His Office, My Studio said...

The blocks are great! I enlarged the photo and I can't not tell the difference.

Janice said...

I agree with Nellie - the one on the right has smoother curves - but I can't tell which method is which. That's because I have no experience of either method... hand applique? what's that??

Anne Ida said...

You have peeked my curiousity; I have no idea which is which! And believe me, I've studied the pic!!! I like the one on the right best - smoothest curves and sharpest inward points - so I'd really love to know what method you have used! Thank you for this fun and challenging post!

Shelina said...

I agree that the one on the right looks smoother and more even. What's back-basting? I'm an applique neophyte and do needleturn which probably yields results like the one on the left.

atet said...

The one on the right looks a bit smoother, but I can't tell which method it is! And nothing wrong with a project that takes some time, it will be beautiful in the end!

meggie said...

I hope you are going to tell us which is what! I have never heard of backbasting. I think the one on the right might be slightly smoother?

Tanya said...

I'm there with everyone else who doesn't know what the backstitching method is and can't really see that you'd loose either way, they are so close. Maybe the one on the right? Yes, tell us which way you choose to do and what the different methods entail.