I have had sooo much fun playing with a sketch of a paisley pattern lately, that I decided to use it as applique boarder for my Flowing Lines piece I did in Elizabeth Rosenberg's workshop. So I sketched it out, resized it and pulled out my color pencils to decide on just the right color combination. Sounds good so far... right???
I was having so much fun, that I even posted about my date with paisley applique on facebook! Using fusible interfacing I went ahead and traced, ironed and cut my pattern four times. By the end of the date (;-)) I had a really nice looking applique boarder, all ready to stitch. Woohoo!
But last night was I kicking myself. Now I do alot of applique and I use wonder under as my fusible of choice. Well I forgot, that just because the fabric was the right color, that did not make it the right choice for the project at hand. You see, when I am doing applique that has small curvy areas, I try as a rule to use batik. Why, might you ask.... well batik has such a tight weave, that it doesn't matter if you are working with small curvy pieces of fabric that expose bias edges. Batik doesn't fray and the stretch is minimal if you need to un-sew.
But no... I used a regular woven fabric, because the color was right.... and yes... I had my hands full with stretchy, unraveling fabric that didn't want to cooperate. It took me 3 hours to get 3 small paisley designs raw edge appliqued.... and then I had to add fray check to all the edges, so the piece didn't just unravel when it gets quilted!!!
Let's see if tonight I can get the last applique on without punching myself :!@!@!
Ok, now I can breathe :-)
2 comments:
Renee, thanks for the suggestion to use Batik for curvy patterns. I use to work at a quilt shop and we sold loads of batik, and I never understood it was tight weave and didn't ravel. You do learn something new every day.
Renee, I can't wait to see paisley on your flowing line piece! So very cool. Can we have a play date soon so I can see?
Love ya,
E
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