Machine Applique -- Give it a Try

One of the things I get to do for my local quilt guild is to choose a block for the block of the month.

The next one for Mountain Laurel Quilters is a Halloween theme -- 8" finished. Today I made a little machine appliqued witch as an example. Here's how I did it. I'm no artist so I went on the Internet to find a witch I could machine applique. She's doable -- not a whole lot of lines but she's too big. So I reduced her... it's hard to see but I wrote 85% on the smaller one. I generally write down the size I reduce or enlarge on the copy.

Next I traced the witch pieces on fusible web. I began picking my fabrics for the different pieces. Luckily for me it was easy to pick fabrics for my little witch. After ironing them on to the fabric I put the witch together on a piece of mylar so when she gets put together all I have to do is iron her on as a whole, rather than pieces at a time.

Because the witch was all together I decided to audition various background fabrics. Here's a background -- purple on purple print.

Then I tried a blued purple solid. It washes out the green face.

I tried it on a darker purple. I was happy with this one. Just an aside -- this fabric is from the very first large quilt I made. It was the backing to a Quilt in a Day, Log Cabin. I made it in 1982 during a class with Eleanor Burns.

Here she is being ironed down. Silly me, I forgot to peel the paper off the top of her hat.

Then I put a piece of stabilizer under neath it before I machine applique the pieces down.

Here she is with a tiny zig zag stitch over the pieces. Usually I do a tight zig zag on machine applique but this time I wanted less weight from the threads. She still needs her face which I will probably embroider on her. Notice the fringe on the dress -- the fabric was frayed and before I cut it I decided I would use it on the dress.

Here she is ready to trim down the background fabric and add her face. We'll see what she inspires in the guild members.

Happy quilting all!