mettler thread | Simple Bird Applique

I’m so excited to have finished this quilt! I wish you could see my face…I am beaming with pride:) To say I am thrilled with the results would be an understatement….a major understatement! I’m also very excited to announce that I am offering this quilt once again as a Block-of-the-Month. If you didn’t get in on the first go-around, this is your lucky day. The blocks are nine of my favourite blocks from Sue Garman’s “Friends of Baltimore”. I used the setting from Sue Garman’s “Baltimore Squared” pattern.

Here is how it works, once a month for the first 9 months you will receive the pattern and fabrics to do all 9 blocks. The fabrics will be exactly as shown below. Then the following 3 months you will receive the fabric and pattern for the paper-pieced stars, sashings, borders, swags and bindings.

You have until November 1, 2017 to sign up. (Don’t fool yourself…November 1 is not that far away). Details are on the website.

Very often people ask me which thread I use. I have always used Mettler 60 weight and probably always will. It’s the one with the green writing on the label. From time to time I do purchase a spool of something similar, but I always come back to Mettler. It is a little hard to find in shops, so I carry it on my website, along with other hard-to-find applique notions and tools.

Til next time….

Kerry

Have you ever wondered how I tackle those pesky points that stick out of my prepped pieces? Well, go make a cup of tea or coffee because there are lots (I mean lots!) of photos. Hopefully you can stay awake! Oh! Before, I forget, almost all of the products I use are available for purchase on my website!

I am going to start right at the beginning. I use two layers of freezer paper to make my templates. I iron the template on to the wrong side of the fabric and cut the template out, leaving 1/4″ seam allowance. Next, I use starch and a paintbrush to apply starch to the seam allowance.

Then I use my Petite Press Mini Iron and my Stiletto and press the seam allowance over the freezer paper. Once the whole shape is prepped, I pop the freezer paper out.

These are the pesky points I am talking about!

Next, I use just a few dots of Roxanne’s Glue and place the prepped piece on the background that I have marked with a Clover Water Soluble Marker. Sometimes, I place all the pieces on the background and then start stitching. Other times I just place a few and stitch. If it is a really complicated design with lots of layered pieces, I just do a few at a time.

I thread my applique needle with matching thread. I use 60 weight Mettler thread. It is the one with the green lettering on the spool.

Still awake? Good! Ok, next I scrunch the background in my left hand and start stitching. The very first stitch I take is in the very tip of the point. Notice the pesky point is at the bottom, and I am stitching on top of the piece.

I start stitching, from right to left, until I get to the other point. I take my last stitch in the very tip of that point.

So now we are going to trim that point a little. I hold my scissors parallel to the folded edge and trim off just a tiny bit. Keep your thread out of the way!

Then I turn the angle of my scissors and trim off that other little point. The tip of the scissors should be underneath the piece.

It should look something like this!

Next, I take my Perfect Scissors and tuck the trimmed point under the piece. These scissors work perfectly for this because they are blunt at the end.

So, I just continue on my merry way, until I get to the point at the other end.

I trim the point and tuck the point under in the same way as before.

Finally, I just stitch to the end. Voila!

Today is my daughters 27th birthday. Yikes! Where did the time go? I made this quilt for her and gave it to her on her 10th birthday. The inspiration for the appliqued circles on the border came from the opening credits of my favorite TV show, “3rd Rock from the Sun”!