Today I’m going to show you how I cut the pieces I’ll be appliqueing down, using the templates I created yesterday.
If you’re following along, you’ll need your templates, your applique fabrics, a marking pencil that will show up on those fabrics, and your iron and ironing board.
I’ll discuss the hand needle-turn method first, then below that, we’ll talk about fusible.
OK, are you ready?
Yesterday I cut out my stem templates, pieces #1, 2, and 3. Since we want to applique our pieces down in numerical order so that everything overlaps properly, it makes sense to start with piece #1, right?
So, find your piece #1 template . . .
. . . and decide what color you’ll be making your first stem. I’m working on my second version of this quilt, so I’ve chosen a tan for my stems this time.
Press this piece of fabric, and lay it right side UP on your pressing surface.
Lay your template on top of it, shiny side down, and press it to your fabric. The coated side of the freezer paper melts just enough to stick it to your fabric and hold the template in place so it doesn’t slide.
Next, move the whole piece to your work surface, and using your marking pencil, trace around the edge of the template.
Cut out around the outside edge of the template, leaving 3/16″ to 1/4″ seam allowance.
Go ahead and repeat this for pieces #2 and 3. Here are all my stems . . . Don’t peel the paper off yet. That way you’ll know which piece is which, and won’t lose track of the numbers.
Now that you’re on a roll, you can proceed to pieces #4 and 5.
Cut out the paper templates . . .
Decide what colors you will make your leaves. Press the templates to the right side of your fabrics, and trace around them with a marking pencil. For the darker fabrics, I used a white marking pen.
Once you’ve traced around the shapes, cut them out, making sure to leave your seam allowance.
Pieces #6, 7, and 8 are the circles (berries) so don’t worry about those right now.
Let’s move on to pieces #9, 10, and 11.
Cut the templates out of the freezer paper directly on the drawn lines.
Choose your fabric colors, press the templates to the right side of the fabrics, and trace around them.
Cut them out, leaving your seam allowance.
I think you’ve got the hang of it now. You can go ahead and cut out the rest of your templates and get them prepared, if you’re ready. Tomorrow we’ll start sewing.
If you think you’d like to use the fusible method instead, read on . . .
You should have your fusible templates made from yesterday, and you’ll need the fabrics you intend to use for the applique pieces.
Press your fabric, and lay it wrong side up on your ironing surface. (Note that this is different from the method above.)
Place template #1 paper side up on the wrong side of the fabric and press it in place. Read the manufacturer’s instructions for the type of fusible webbing you’re using to make sure you’re doing this correctly.
Now, before you cut the piece out, read this:
Wherever one piece gets overlapped by another, you want to leave a bit of a seam allowance. This is why I put little “x”s on my templates. Everywhere there’s an “x”, I know that portion of the piece fits under another piece. So . . .
When you cut out your pieces, cut them out directly on the drawn lines on the paper side of the fusible web. But . . . everywhere there’s an “x”, cut about 1/4″ outside the drawn line.
Here’s a close-up of my piece #2 so you can see where I’ve cut on the line, yet everywhere there’s an “x”, I’ve left a seam allowance.
Here are all my stems cut out.
Here’s what they look like from the right side of the fabric.
Doing good so far? Then you’re ready for pieces #4 and 5. Cut them out of the paper, leaving space around them.
Press them onto the wrong side of your fabric.
Cut them out on the drawn line. These have no overlap, so you can cut all the way around them on the line.
Leave the berries, pieces #6, 7, and 8, for now. We’ll talk about those later. Move on to pieces #9, 10, and 11.
Cut out the templates, leaving space around them.
Press them onto the wrong side of the fabric.
Cut them out on the lines, except where there’s an “x”, and then be sure to cut outside the drawn line about 1/4″ so it can get overlapped.
Here’s what pieces #9 and 10 should look like. (Sorry this is a bit blurry.)
Here’s pieces #9, 10, and 11 ready to go.
Now that you’re a pro at this, you can go ahead and prepare the rest of your pieces, and in a few days, I’ll talk about what you need to do to get them onto your background.
Hello! I am joining along again – although I still have to finish Hazel’s Diary Quilt #1!! Maybe I will pull that out tomorrow! I have all my applique pieces cut out (I am going to do fusible applique) and they are backwards because I forgot to reverse them but it looks great!!!! I had to decrease the size of the pattern because I had 12″ squares cut out for another project that I know I won’t finish so I thought I would just use them and make this quilt a bit smaller (plus I want to try and only use from my fabric stash!) I am hoping to keep up better this time around! Thanks for sharing this pattern with us!
Tamara