Our Sunday Afternoon Applique Group met this past Sunday and I thought I would share with you some of the projects that we are working on. Kathy has been busy stitching, of all things, a bridal veil for a friend. Kathy is the one modelling the veil and I am the bridesmaid, making sure that the veil is lying perfectly flat!
In her spare time, Kathy has also managed to prep a few blocks of her “Aunt Millie’s Garden”.
Christie has been very busy stitching the Cardinal block of “To Everything There Is A Season”. Lovely!
Lynn has been working away on her blocks of “To Everything…” and this is the beginning of the Summer Vase.
I have been working on the centre medallion of “To Everything..” The pieces are bigger than the ones in the blocks, so it is working up quite quickly!
I am also working away on my hexie quilt, which is starting to take shape.
How Much Fabric Should I Buy?? This is a question that I am asked from time to time and I thought it would make a good blog post. First, let me take you on a bit of a tour of my sewing room where I keep all of my fabric. I make no apologies for the size of my fabric collection. A painter has to have her paints, right?
I have a stash of tone-on-tones in clear colours, which I used to make my Friends of Baltimore. I also used these same fabrics for the blocks of “To Everything There Is A Season”, but I added a few batiks and a few fabrics with a bit more of a design on them. I keep these fabrics in containers and I keep telling myself that if I just folded each fabric after I used it, it wouldn’t be quite so messy! It is always a good idea to have a good variety of colours in light, medium and dark.
I am always on the hunt for new fabrics and new colours. I purchased these tone-on-tones recently, just to add a few more to the stash. When I am purchasing tone-on-tones with applique in mind, I rarely buy more than a fat quarter. Fat eighths are even better! These tone-on-tones can range from looking almost like a solid, to having a bit of a swirl or even some dots!
If you are just starting to build an applique stash, I highly recommend purchasing layer cakes, which are 10″ squares of an entire collection. Layer cakes also takes the pressure off of choosing fabrics that “go together”, and a 10″ square is the perfect amount! You can also add tone-on-tones to these collections of fabrics.
For my Civil War Bride Quilt, I used a more muted pallete. Since I didn’t have a lot of these muddy colours, I had to go on a few shopping trips to make sure I had a really good assortment. Again, I purchased mainly fat quarters and fat eighths. When I think that a fabric has a lot of potential for fussy cutting, I usually buy at least 1/2 a meter. You can see that I used fabrics with a much larger print on them and very few tone-on-tones. Most of the greens I used in this quilt came from a layer cake of Civil War greens.
When I made my Aunt Millie’s Garden, I used my collection of brights, which include stripes and polka dots. I find these types of fabrics are easier to buy in a fat quarter bundle (or even better…a fat eighths bundle!) so you get a good assortment of fabrics with the same “feel”.
When it comes to backings, I always make sure the back matches the front!
Til next time…
Kerry
Simple Bird Applique 
Kerry you continue to be a great inspiration to me! Are you coming to Williamsburg this year?
Hi Lily: No, I decided to take this year off from attending Williamsburg. I will miss it for sure. Maybe next year:)
Lovely projects you’re all working on and lots of progress. Thank you so much for the tips on buy fabric for the applique stash. I’ll save that!
Thanks so much!
This was a really good post for me as I am trying to collect my fabrics together for a blue and white appliqué quilt with an oriental plate feel. The tips about tone on tones were helpful so thank you.
I love tone-on-tones (as you can probably tell from my collection) but I just find they make the best applique fabrics.
Loving all the projects you are working on. Thank you again for the tips on material buying, this has been a problem in the past for me, but will remember these. Thanks Kerry.
You are welcome. Glad this post helps!
That was interesting! I love Christies berries but I think I admirer repetitive patience. Well done everyone!
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Thanks! We are a hard working group of stitchers!
I just love your CWB, and of course the fabrics you used for that!
Thanks! I am really loving those muddy colours, as you can probably tell by the layer cakes I purchased:)
Thank you Kerry, this is a very helpful post. Shopping for and organizing fabric for a large appliqué project now seems a little easier!
Hi Linda: Glad the post helps!
Thanks for the great fabric collecting tips. I always seem to buy too much yardage and not enough variety.
The new fabrics look very interesting. Especially the Paint Box layer cake.
The layer cake idea for applique is interesting, but that only works if it’s a sampler quilt, right? If you’re doing a large applique quilt where all of the blocks are going to be identical, you probably wouldn’t have enough of each fabric from a layer cake. My problem is that I do not have any idea what I will use the fabric for when I buy it — and then by the time I come up with the PERFECT use for that fabric I can’t get any more of it! But I really like the layer cakes you pictured with the floral patterns, because those would be fabulous for vases that look like they are made of porcelain.
Another great post Kerry….and so timely for me. This will help me so much in building my “appliqué” stash. Of course, like you, I make NO apologies either for my abundant stash. Funny
thing though, I NEVER seem to have the right fabric/color or one that I think will work better. I have sewn all my life, mainly garments until about 7 yrs. ago when I started my blog and got into quilting…..soooo, I was buying “yardage” ’cause that’s what garment makers do…buy yardage.
It’s still a little hard not to buy up yardage, but I buy mostly fat quarters now. When I joined Fun with Barb’s nine patch swap I didn’t own not one Civil War fabric. It didn’t take me long to get into the shopping mode….like you, I didn’t have many muddy type colors. I swoon over your Civil War Bride quilt. It just danced and came alive when it was quilted. This pattern is on my want to do list too. You just seem to have a flair for picking and blending the right color/fabric choices in you quilts. So, thanks again for this post….until I read it I realized I have never looked at or considered Layer Cakes…….who knew?!