Reverse applique project

the finished applique (not yet quilted)

This hasn't been a Forever Project™ for very long.  Mr. Pirate and I recently went on a short road trip to a nearby quilt show in Shingle Springs, CA.   This show was delightful, although it didn't have a lot of quilts displayed.

One of the vendors was Jill Rixman of Placerville, CA (a nearby town to Shingle Springs).  Jill designs utterly fantastic applique patterns.  Because it had been raining, there weren't too many customers in the vendor hall.  I took advantage of that situation to strike up a rather lengthy conversation with Jill about this, that, and the other but not necessarily sticking to applique or quilting.

the pattern I used

I bought one of her patterns, "Beauty" from her In a Word For the Love of Applique series.  Although she has intended this design to be done using reverse applique, don't let that stop you .. you can certainly do the design with standard applique, using whatever method is your favorite.  You can find her Reverse Appliques here.

I've never done reverse applique and this seems like a simple enough project to wet my toes.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with reverse applique, this technique is exactly what you'd think the name implied.

Here's the basic technique: in standard applique, the design is placed on top of the base fabric and stitched to the base fabric.  In reverse applique, the applique fabric is roughly cut bigger than the finished design and that piece of fabric is placed right side up UNDER the base fabric in the desired position.  On the right side of the base fabric, you draw the finished seam lines of the applique .. I used an air erasable (purple) marker.    Then you take a BIG breath because you are going to be cutting the base fabric inside the drawn lines, leaving a small seam allowance to turn under.  (ummm ... I do it that way because I like to do needleturn applique.  If you were doing say, a zig zag stitch, then you wouldn't leave a seam allowance at all.)   Then, it's just regular, old needleturn applique to finish off the edge.

The finished motif appears to be sunk beneath the base fabric .. because it is!  :-)

one of the fabrics I used

For all the butterflies I stitched, I used vibrant multi-colored fabric as the applique fabric.  This gives

Since Jill's design is three closely spaced butterflies, I treated them as one unit.  The applique fabric I cut, encompassed all three butterflies.  BUT because the fabric is so multi-colored, it doesn't appear that I'm using the same fabric for all of them.  You get fantastic results without needing to actually HAVE  to work with lots of small pieces of fabric.

This is just ONE of the multi-colored fabrics that I used.  A chunk of the fabric, big enough to cover all three butterflies, was placed under the desired area of the base fabric.

the stencil I created from the pattern

Jill gives you a full sized pattern to use.  In this case, it is three closely spaced butterflies.

You need to trace the pattern onto the right side of the base fabric.  The very low-key way of doing this would be to tape the pattern to a window (or light box), put your base fabric on top, then trace the pattern.

But that's obnoxious.  I've done that enough times in the past to want to avoid doing it again.

Enter one of my crafting tools: a Brother Scan-n-Cut electronic cutting machine!  I'll think about doing another post about this AMAZING machine later but for now, all you need to know is that I cut a stencil out of sturdy cardstock.

motif with traced lines

I placed the stencil on top of my base fabric and used the air erasable marker to trace the motifs onto the right side of the base fabric.   Gosh, I love this machine!  :-)

In this photograph, you can see the basting thread that I used to secure the applique fabric to the base fabric.  I basted the applique fabric from the wrong side .. I just needed to run a line of thread around the perimeter, which, of course, is much easier from the back where you can see the applique fabric.

On the front of the base fabric, I traced the butterflies.  In this picture, I'm beginning the reverse applique process: I've already cut a hole in the base fabric and started the needleturn stitching.  To the left of the needle, you can see a small portion of the raw edge of the base fabric that hasn't been turned under yet.

finished reverse applique desgin

This next photo shows the completed reverse applique design.  Because of the applique fabric that I used, doesn't it look like I really used a whole bunch of different fabrics?

Nope, I totally cheated. :-)

I used the stencil to trace several clusters, and even single butterflies, onto the green base fabric.

I used about 4-5 different multi-colored fabrics for the applique.  Finally, after long last, the final stitch was done!  Hooray!

applique is below the base fabric

Here is a close-up of one of the motifs ... I'm trying to show how the appliqued piece is BELOW the level of the green background fabric.

Initially, I wasn't terribly overwhelmed by this technique.  From afar, you could easily replicate the same look-and-feel by using standard applique.  So, why even bother with reverse applique?

Well, it was an itch that needed scratching.  A box that needed checking off.  I've now done that.

While I'm not sure I will use this technique again, it has grown on me.  I might have second thoughts as to a repeat performance. :-)

The only real annoyance I had was with my choice of base fabric.  This was regular, ol' quilting cotton *but* it wasn't woven quite as tightly as others.  This caused the fabric to fray annoyingly, especially around the tight inner curves.  I think that if I had chosen something like a batik, or similar that has a tight weave, my experience might have been more positive from the beginning.

But let me reiterate .. this was not a fault of the pattern or of the design .. it was totally my error in choosing a base fabric that had a somewhat looser weave.

Now that the reverse applique is done, I really should finish it off.  I have ambitions of doing some embroidery work around the butterflies ... some vines?  some flowers and leaves?  That really shouldn't take too much more time (she says optimistically ::cough:  ::cough::). 

The final product is going to be a long, skinny pillow for a couch.. something to put behind your back to support it whilst you are slouching (which you should never do but we all do anyway).  :-)

So .. where were we?

or ... Returning to blogging

Diagonal 9-Patches (1/2017) unquilted

[Note: I'm going to sprinkle some eye-candy photos of quilts that I've worked on, that I haven't previously posted.  They have absolutely nothing to do with the text .. it's just to keep you reading. :-)  ]

I recently read a blog by Jessica Sprague , where she talks about her hiatus from blogging.  Jessica is an extraordinary crafter and creates some of the most amazing and informative instructional video tutorials.  I'm very glad that she's back.










One of her statements really resonated with me.

Dinosaur Diamonds (1/2017) unquilted

She said, "...But it’s HARD to get started blogging again. Hard to get out there, when it’s easy to let the old status quo become the permanent status quo. It’s hard to get started with anything you once enjoyed and have let lapse, I think. And the guilt...."

Ribbon Box  in flannel (2/1017) unquilted 

I can see from my own history that my last real blog post was .. geez! .. August 2018.  And there were long lapses along the way.  The last project that I actually created a webpage for was in ... holy moley!  2015.   Cripes.


One thing I really dislike is reading blogs about "oh, I've been so bad about blogging."  "It's been so long since my last post."  And yet, here I am, making just that kind of post.  :-/

Two Fabric Bargello (2/2018) unquilted

Jessica's statement about it being difficult to get re-started with blogging is so true.  Even though I haven't been blogging, I haven't stopped quilting or crafting.  I just haven't blogged about it.  I've been keeping track of my projects but not writing them up.

When you finish a project, there is a certain amount MORE energy you need to expend to get the project ready to blog/publicize.  There's a lot of behind the scenes activities that need to be done. Properly taking photos.  Editing those photos.  Researching web links, if you didn't do it before, for proper credits.  *Writing* the doggone blog.

Ginger Jars wall-hanging (3/2018) unquilted

And while the blog step has always been part of the creative process for me, back in 2016, I just became lethargic about it.  It was a big case of "meh".

AND THEN .. as if that wasn't enough for me to do, I started a NEW hobby, one that has become increasingly more insistent over the years.

I've always been interested in my family's genealogy and photos.  I've collected photos of my family and of my husband's family for decades.  I've done family research for both him and me.  I've "discovered" long lost or formerly unknown family branches .. and I tell you that was WILDLY exciting!

Since I'm the only one in the family who is really interested in doing this research, I'm the one who need to get all these stories out of my head and onto paper.  Creating heritage/vintage photo scrapbooks of the family genealogy has been increasingly more important.  It's like an 800 lb gorilla sitting in my craft room, staring at me.

Shadow Box/Illusion with border (4/2018)

And once I've discovered information, I need to properly preserve it, which is where the scrapbooking comes in.  Oh boy ... a new hobby for which I can buy supplies and take lessons and, hopefully, make some scrapbook pages!   Along the way, I discovered that I can use the same scrapbooking supplies to make cards!  Holy smokes!  Card-making is darn near instant gratification!  I found myself procrastinating making the scrapbook pages in favor of making cute cards.   Geez.

Jessica Sprague also mentioned the "guilt".  Oh yeah .. all this time, the projects that I have been working on, both quilting and crafting, have been nagging me to publicize and share!  Since I wasn't, there's another pile of guilt to deal with.  As much as I might like to, I just can't simultaneously do family research AND quilting AND paper crafting.

Spoolin' Around (12/2018)  **quilted**!!!

So, the purpose of THIS blog post is to acknowledge that I've been a lamer.  I'm going to see if putting the blogging bit on a schedule will help with the backlog of what I'd like to share with y'all.  I know I work better with deadlines.  So, if I have a scheduled day/time for working on the blog, I think the chances are better that I'll actually DO it.  :-)

As the saying goes, "hope springs eternal."