Raw Edge Applique Session 4: Appliquilting: Straight Stitch

So, so far we have been doing edge work on our applique, and then we would have to go in and get that piece ready for quilting and then go in and quilt. I like to do things that can kill two birds with one stone, and the way to do that is this wonderful technique called appliquilting. Now, appliquilting can be done lots of different ways, there's not just one way to appliquilt. But basically, you're appliqueing and machine quilting at the same time, and that is what's so cool about it. So, you are actually doing both of those things at the same time and really cutting your work in half. So here I've got one of my flowers prepared, it's ironed in place, and I've already stitched one of my leaves, and I'm using a simple straight stitch. I took that appliqued block and put some batting behind it, I'm using cotton batting because that's my favorite batting to use, and a backing. Now, if this were a part of a quilt, so let's say you've got big flowers in the border of a quilt, you'd of course, get that whole thing basted, baste the whole quilt, quilt the center of the quilt first and then go and appliquilt the flowers at the very end 'cause they're in the border. You can add as little or as much quilting as you want, you wanna have it quilted in a way that goes along with the rest of the quilting in your machine density - I mean on your quilt density wise, so if you're really heavily quilted there then you probably wanna heavily quilt here too. But what you mostly wanna do is make sure that all of your edges get stitched down during the quilting, so that's what I've done so far in this leaf, is I have top stitched around that edge, and then I've done a little bit of quilting on the inside. Now I want you to notice here two things. This happens to be a very loosely woven cotton, whereas the next leaf I'm going to be doing is a batik and it's much more tightly woven. Because it's loosely woven, anytime I come close to hitting the edge, I'm gonna get a little bit of fray, so here I'm really close to the edge and I have a little bit of fray. Now if that bothers you, then don't use a loosely woven cotton for these techniques. It doesn't bother me, I kind of like it, especially for a leaf because it's gonna give it a more natural look. If this is a quilt that's gonna get lots of laundering, I would not want to use a loosely woven cotton, I'd wanna stick with things more like batiks that are more tightly woven. And then I also want you to notice that it's poofy. You can see it's very dimensional, and this is happening because of, I put some little bits of heavy quilting down the center of it, and it's not wunder undered or iron on adhered throughout the whole leaf, it's just that edge. So that's why earlier when I said to cut away all of that center part of the shape to hollow it out before you put that iron on adhesive on, that's why it's so important because it gives you this dimensionality during the quilting that you wouldn't get if the whole thing was ironed down tight, so it's worth it to cut out that excess when you're doing these iron on techniques. So let me show you how I did this leaf, and again, this is simple top stitching. I've got my free motion foot on, and I've got my feed dogs down. So I wanna talk a bit about this free motion foot real quick, and I wanna talk a little bit about those feed dogs. Now, a lot of you who've watched me before know that I often quilt with my feed dogs up, but not on this little baby, this little baby doesn't like to machine quilt with the feed dogs up, it doesn't give me a nice stitch. Soon as I lower those dogs, I have a nice stitch, so I have to stitch with the dogs down on this one. Also, this is the foot that did not come with the machine but it is the foot that was manufactured to go on this machine, and it had a bar across here, it was a complete oval of plastic with two little red lines on it, and this is how 90% of the machines that use this foot, I mean that use a free motion foot, have a foot like this. It's closed, and I like an open toe free motion foot. So I took a pair of metal shears, or tin snips sometimes they're called, and I simply cut that plastic out, it broke nice and clean, no problem, and then I went in and sanded those rough edges with a nail file, just a regular old emery board. And so it's nice and smooth, my thread doesn't get caught on it or anything like that, and I now have an open toe foot. Now, this foot cost me 19.99. So if for some reason I broke it wrong and it didn't, you know, didn't end up working, it's not a huge investment, so don't go out and buy a 79 dollar foot and then, you know, have to cut that thing open and worry about whether or not it's gonna be perfect, I can't guarantee it. But I have done this for literally hundreds of students in the past and never broken a foot, so it is pretty easy to do, but I believe modifying that foot is gonna make things a lot easier. Because even though it's clear plastic, it's very hard to see through, and on all of these appliquilting techniques, you - and basically for free motion quilting - you really need to see where you're going, and that plastic doesn't allow that. So I'm gonna start off like I would with any quilting, and I'm gonna pull my bob and thread to the top, and I'm gonna stitch a knot. So I'm basically going to take two or three stitches while I'm moving the quilt back and forth ever so slightly, ever so slightly, okay, and now I can just let go of that. And I'm gonna try to stay on the edge of the shape. And I'm not really moving the block in different directions, I'm simply skating across it, and gently moving it to follow the shape. Not having to turn the block, it's not big enough to have to worry about. I'm gonna go ahead and cut this thread that was from the beginning to get it out of my way because now I'm gonna do a little bit of quilting inside the block. So I've done the outside edge already, I'm going to stitch over here to the middle, and I'm gonna stitch up the middle with an undulating line, then I'm gonna stitch back on that line, and stitch just veins on one side, the side that has the little finger basically on it, and now a second little vein, and veins coming off of it, and then back down that center, and over, and I'm gonna knot off by moving back and forth every so slightly. So that's how simple a straight stitch appliquilting is. My edge is down nice and firm. There is some raw edge showing that may or may not fray along the way, but because this is kind of a natural design, that fray is okay. So we're gonna do it one more time, and you can see now that I did not cut the threads, I'm not bringing them back up. If I travel, which is what I'm doing, I'm going from one motif to another, if I travel, there's already tension on that thread and I don't need to draw that bob and thread up and start all over again, but I do need to knot off. So I'm going to move the quilt back and forth ever so slightly as I take two or three stitches, and now I'm simply going to follow the edge of this leaf. Apparently I'm caught, there we go. We don't want that to happen. If you're caught, lift up your foot and negotiate, there we are. So I'm gonna follow the edge of this leaf. Go up its middle, and put in one little vein on one side 'cause it's just a little leaf, and knot off. And that's how simple a straight stitch is. So I have used a straight stitch to appliquilt, applique and quilt at the same time, on these leaves. Next we're gonna do the herky-jerky.