melody, set it aside and do the next one. it may not look as bad as you think when you go back to it.
gini in north idaho
I do exactly what you do except I put a little glue stick on the wrong side of the freezer paper and fabric and paste it down to where it should go. Then I leave it on and needle turn right up to the freezer paper. When it is done, I just remove the freezer paper. This saves that one extra step of drawing it on to the background. I do prefer silk thread but if the Sulky works that's great too.
I have decided to jazz my cottages up a bit, so i have brought a book on ribbon embroidery so i can put flowers round my cottages. (never done ribbon embroidery before so should be interesting)
If it all goes wrong im blaming Gini :-)) love you really Gini.
lots of love
Francesxx
MelodyP MO/KS:what should the stitches look like on the back? Should they be uniform or will they differ in length,or does it matter?
as long as your applique looks good from the front, why would you care, the back will be hidden. you do know, that it is very bad manners to turn over someone's raw applique and look at the back without permission? : 0 yes, it's true. so i always ask before i peak at the back.
back to your question. as you become more proficient with your applique, your stitches will automatically become more even. then, remember, as you go into an innie, or where ever you clip your threads, you need to make your stitches closer to hold the threads on your applique and keep them from fraying.
umm, a rule of thumb is, your stitches need to be half the length that your seam allowance is wide. so if your seam allowance is 1/8th inch, your stitches should be 1/16th inch in length.
i hope i wasn't too smarty pants with you, sometimes my mouth gets me into trouble. : )
Frances:I have decided to jazz my cottages up a bit,
woo hoo, jazzy cottages. ribbon embroidery is easy peasy, and will add a lot of interest to your cottages.
and, melody, you can always jazz up your first cottage like frances is going to do to hide some of your mistakes. i, once fnished all the applique on a beautiful quilt, got the blocks all sewn together, got the borders appliqued and sewn onto the middle, was clipping the outermost border to do a rickrack edge and clipped into my beautiful quilt. after some cursing and turning the air quite blue, i stitches a little bee over the hole with some broderie perse. it just happened to be close to the beehive block so it worked out just fine. when you're given lemons, figure out how to make lemonade out of them. in my haphazzard life, we drink a lot of lemonade.
Melody,
Sounds like you are making good progress and getting some great advice. Thanks for sharing your woes with the rest of us beginners so we can all learn together.
I've got my first block cut and pack for a trip to a convention with students. I'm not sure if I'll get time to work on it or not but I'm hoping I will on the drive down and maybe back will see how it goes.
Robin
Emily: I do exactly what you do except I put a little glue stick on the wrong side of the freezer paper and fabric and paste it down to where it should go. Then I leave it on and needle turn right up to the freezer paper. When it is done, I just remove the freezer paper. This saves that one extra step of drawing it on to the background. I do prefer silk thread but if the Sulky works that's great too.
Emily, are you saying that the freezer paper is on top of the fabric when you place it on the the background? Then using the freezer paper as your guide and needle turn to the edge of the freezer paper? If that is what you're saying, that is a wonderful idea. I've never done it that way and now must try it.
northern colorado
Frances: I have decided to jazz my cottages up a bit, so i have brought a book on ribbon embroidery so i can put flowers round my cottages. (never done ribbon embroidery before so should be interesting) If it all goes wrong im blaming Gini :-)) love you really Gini. lots of love Francesxx
Frances-you'll love ribbon embroidery. I've been doing crazy quilt block swaps and the ladies in that group got me hooked on ribbon embroidery. I've been using YLI silk ribbon most of the time. "The ladies" mentioned some hand-dyed silk ribbon as well. OHGosh! It's all so beautiful. I've used 2mm, 4mm, and 7mm silk ribbon. There are also tons of free vids on YouTube for making flowers, leaves, stems, etc. You should join the Crazy Quilt group here on QCA. It's a blast!
gini: back to your question. as you become more proficient with your applique, your stitches will automatically become more even. then, remember, as you go into an innie, or where ever you clip your threads, you need to make your stitches closer to hold the threads on your applique and keep them from fraying.
When I first started doing hand work my stitches were horrible. Different lengths and different widths apart from each other. No matter how hard I tried, I just could get them perfect. Now, since I've been doing it for a while, just 2-years, my stitches are very small and "almost" perfect distance from each other. It just takes practice.
melody, sharp points---
first, stitch up to the point, as you get closer to the point, make your stitches closer together, take another anchoring stitch right at the point.
next, you're going to use your needle as an extra finger. you are going to make two sweeps. the first sweep, grab your fabric, the seam allowance, with the tip of your needle. hold the side of the needle tightly up against the tip and sweep that fabric under the tip, pushing it very firmly up against the far side you have just stitched up. make sure your thumb is at the ready to hold this fabric. now, grab the extra fabric sticking out with the tip of your needle and sweep it under, really cramming it up against that far side. i am not gentle with this move if it is a tight point. you can see why i need those stitches at the tip of the point to be close together on that far side. now gently, tug the thread the direction the point is aimed and your tip will pop out. now take one more stitch in the tip about 2mm out from the tip. this elongates the tip and makes it look more pointy.
you may have some extra fabric that needs to be tucked in. if you aren't happy with it, pull the seam allowance out and do it all over again. usually by the third try the fabric gives up and co-operates.
if you are having trouble getting that last bit of fabric under, pinch the tip wioth the fabric as far under as you can get it, now with your thumb and forefinger and roll it back and forth, again , this isn't a gentle move.
by now you should have subdued that tip enough that it is co-operating and looks pretty good.
fabric selection: if you have a more open weave fabric it is really hard to get pointy points. this is one of the problems i have with fabrics bought at walmart, joann's, etc., even some of connecting thread's. they may have a good hand feel, but once the sizing is washed away, the weave is too open to behave. and another thing. i prewash all my fabric so it isn't an issue with my applique, but the sizing makes it more difficult to get those smooth curves. if you haven't prewashed your fabric, you may want to try that.
Yep, Lillie, that's what I'm saying. Use a bit of the glue stick on the back so you don't have to pin the piece down. Pinning it down leaves pin-holes. And no one will see that tiny bit of glue that holds the piece in place.