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What happens when you say "Sure, I can do that".


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A repeat customer pieced a Judy N. Pepper Dish wallhanging with bright piecing and a touch of applique. She doesn't do hand-applique and asked if it would be a problem if she fused her floral elements. I suggested she use the lightest fusible to help me with the stitching, and expect to have some quilting outlining the applique and some inside the applique, depending on the size of the elements.

Unfortunately, the piece of information I neglected to ask about was to confirm that she would be stitching around her fused pieces to nail them down. Nope-- they were just fused on and not very securely, mainly because of my suggestion of the light fusible. I called her and let her know there would be some issues, especially with fraying of bias-edged pieces, since I needed to stitch all around every piece. She definitely didn't want it back, didn't want to have to stitch around the applique, and told me to forge ahead. Yuck...

I used invisible thread and spent two hours stitching around--I found a sweet spot for the edge-stitching that didn't fray the fabric too much, but when (or if) it's handled and laundered the edges beyond the stitching will fray. I guess it is what it is--and since they are supposed to be cactus flowers maybe they'll look great!

 

Just thought I'd share and stress that the information you get from your customers may not tell the whole story so be sure to ask all the questions. *sigh*

I'll post a picture when I'm finished.

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yikes!  I have a couple (well actually quite a few) of those types of wall hangings to do...I did them with raw edge applique.  I am dreading doing the tack down of all those raw edges...so...my question is....Who thinks this would be easier to do on my longarm or should I just set down and do it on my DSM?  Anyone have any thoughts on this?  It was fun making the wall hangings...like playing with paperdolls!  but....a quilt isn't a quilt until it is quilted....they most likely will never be washed...not a bed quilt...thanks for any thoughts....Lin

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Fusible with satin stitch edges might keep them safe Lin, but that's a lot of work.   I have seen quite a bit of the raw edge applique, but I'm not sure I care for it.  If you used a really fine thread and a size 3 needle on the machine I wonder if it would be easier on the unfinished edges than the 3.5 or 4.0 that we almost all use.  HHHMMMM....

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oh boy!  Doing a satin stitch would take forever.  The designs are pretty intricate....The one I finished is a McKenna Ryan quilt....with all eight panels...i also picked up two more with all the patterns and fabric....I need to live to be 300 to get everything done.  I am just about ready to put my first real quilt on Lucey....I have been slow getting started but have done a lot of different practice techniques....so it will be a while before I get back to my applique projects...my thought was when I started this raw edged applique  project (was a block of the month club) that I would learn to free motion on my sit-down DSM....but...I think I am going to like free motioning on Lucey a whole lot better  :)  Lin

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An elderly quilting friend brought me a Church Banner she had made and wanted it quilted.   The lettering & scroll work was just loosely pinned on !   No fusible at all.   I had to take it to my sewing machine and stitich down all the lettering before I could even begin to quilt it.........raw edges too boot.   She was beginning to have some issues with health, etc., as she would have never brought me something like that before.   

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I recently did a raw edge wall hanging with mostly batiks. Here's a picture of the edges, quilted down on my longarm:

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I circle stitched around the pink and purple flowers. This is two battings and it made the flowers look like raviolis. I don't think it looks the best but I didn't know what to do with all that raw edge and I used Misty Fuse and it wasn't much fun to try to quilt them down as they were falling off all over the place!

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Bonnie H,

That turned out really nicely. I like the circles too.  I saw a video of somebody doing modified zig zag, more of a tiny wavy stitch with the longarm. I wonder how that would work on the raw edge applique.  I certainly wouldn't try it for a bed quilt, but a wall hanging might be fine.

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Bonnie,

 

That turned out great!  The circle stitch is a good idea for those flowers....I am going to have to give my raw edged appliques a try...but now I know it is possible on a longarm...my Bernina DSM allows me to do free motion with a zigzag stitch (the needle moves side to side), actually I believe my SE will let me use any stich to do free motion...weird but I will have to experiment....hope I don't break too many needles)...The Bernina has a stitch regulator the SE doesn't...so I still may have to try it as there are many jagged type edges in the quilt....Oh dear...I think I will have to try it out on both my longarm and DSM to see which flows better for me......Lin

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I recently made a small wall hanging with the fused/raw edge method. I sewed (on my DSM) around all the applique edges with a small blanket stitch with silk thread. I also quilted as I sewed by assembling the 3 layers prior to sewing down the appliqué pieces, then stitching through all layers as I sewed down the edges. I finished with an easy background fill on the DSM. This went really fast, but would probably work best for small projects. It made a very pretty and quick gift.

Carol

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My first raw edge applique was a quilt from a lady in my guild. When she showed it to me I asked, "who is sewing all of this down?" She said, "you are." I was new at longarming and didn't want to sound dumb so I said "O.K." It wasn't too hard. I practiced a litle first. She loved it and has gone on to win several awards with the quilt. If I can do it so can all of you!!. I keep a little iron handy and if there is ( and there always is) pieces loose, I press it down as I go. You have to be careful not to get too close the edge of the appliqued piece because it will fray the edges. I used gold metallic thread on her quilt. What a brave person I was. I was too new to know it would be trickier.

I have, since, done several quilts and wallhangings. They are great to just hang but if you transport or move them around a lot, the edges don't look as neat. They fray a little. Janice

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well, I am definately going to try this on the longarm...will make a small practice piece first...the McKenna Ryan wall hangings are pretty...but labor intensive both with the making and the finishing.....thanks everyone for the incouragement and feedback...I have done smaller wall hangings with smoother curves and edges using a blanket stitch on my DSM but the McKenna ones have so many pieces and so many sharper and shorter curves and points.....Lin

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