I am creating a custom twin bedspread for my grandson which is covered with random appliques. To finish the spread, I am quilting it. How do you handle appliques when quilting? Do you stitch the quilting pattern over the appliques, or is this a personal opinion matter? If the latter, what would you do? If I try to skip over the appliques, then the back of the quilt will have a hole in the quilting pattern, so am I better to go ahead and quilt over the appliques? Thanks for the feedback.
Wendy
Wendy,
I don't think there are any rules in quilting. It all comes down to personal preference. Personally, I quilt around my applique motifs' because I want them to stand out. And the hole in the back...it actually looks really neat because you can see the shape of the motif from the front! I am just finishing up my send applique quilt and plan to echo quilt around the motifs'. My first one is posted in my gallery...it had a ton of applique! I didn't stitch through any of it either. Its been washed a million times as I made it for my niece who was 6 at the time, and still looks perfect!
Mooresville, NC
hi wendy, welcome to the group. it is totally a personal decision on how you quilt your quilt. whether or not i quilt over the appliques, depends on the look i want, how big the appliques are, and how they are appliqued down. if your appliques are really large, you probably want to quilt inside them. you can use an all over pattern that goes right over the appliques. i've done this, it looks good, or you can do a design inside or echo quilting. if you have done raw edge applique, quilting over them is a good idea to help hold the applique down. if the appliques are teensy, it is cool to quilt around them, letting the appliques pop up off the quilt. if you can figure out how to get pictures on here, it will help us to give you advice.
gini in north idaho
Gini, thanks for the info ,I had also been wondering aobut quilting over applique,Barbara
EAT!! SLEEP !! QUILT!!
Thanks, Gini,
The reality is that I have already quilted over the appliques in this quilt. I created a machine-embroidered quilt pattern, so it would have been difficult to do anything other than that. But I wondered for the next time if I should have done something different.
The applique were a mixture of machine-embroidered applique which I digitized and stitched out myself and fabric appliques which I cut from fabric and ironed on with heat and bond. I then finished all of them by satin stitching around the edges, so none of them had raw edges.
I realize this first quilt is very imperfect, but it is providing a great learning canvas. And I'm sure my grandson is not going to care at all. (lol)
Thanks for taking time to help me out.
Hi Wendy, welcome
[Ava, Missouri
Welcome Wendy...can't help you with this one and I haven't done any appliques on quilts, yet. I'll be watching this thread for advice though, because I think I'll try that next.
Welcome to the group Wendy.
Margaret
welcome Wendy!
CLEVELAND, TEXAS
Welcome! As for appliques, I have done a couple of different ways. It is a personal preference as well as the desired look. If this is something that is going to be washed and washed, I would go ahead and quilt over them. I have quilted over them and I have meandered around them. I have also stitched in the ditch around the appliques to make them pop and to not to take away from the applique. I have also done some related designs in them. Like the center of a flower I'll do little stipple circles or a leaf I would make veins in them. Just something else to help adhere the applique to the quilt. It can also depend on the size of the applique. I recently did an applique quilt that would be on a guest bed so not washed much. For it I did the stitch in the ditch method and meandered the rest of the quilt.