Applique Tutorial for Turtle Quilt

Hello friends!

I'm beginning to think I should have THREE blogs:

One for just talking.

 One for sewing and pattern-fitting.

One for quilts and quilting.

I can't do it though, so you will have to just TURN OFF the posts you're not interested in.

HEY!!!!!

Guess What?!

My daughter, Tammy, is turning more and more into her Mother!

Someone should notify the authorities!

She texted me today that she has started her own BLOG!  I'm sure her blog will be very interesting to anyone who loves yarns and loves to knit.  She says she wants to have her own Yarn Shop after she quits nursing.  I think that is a GREAT idea!

When I'm 85 and 90 years old, I can sit in a rocking chair in her shop and talk to all the customers.  MAYBE, I could even learn to knit.  Don't hold your breath on that, however.  I have tried and tried.  I really prefer crochet, but I could sure crochet in a yarn store, couldn't I?

Customers will walk in the store and say, "Who is the old lady in the rocker with a cup of coffee and two big black dogs????"

Actually, I couldn't take the dogs in there.  Josie would EAT all the yarn and try to go home with all the customers!

I can't direct you to her blog yet because it isn't working right.  I will when it is lookupable.

And NOW I will tell you all about my latest project, the turtle quilt with Tommy, his wife, Terry, and his daughter, Tammy.  Yes, I named the turtles.  I had to to keep track of all their parts.

Here is a loooooooooooooooooooooooong video I put on Youtube which is actually 3 or 4 little videos stuck together.  It was made two days ago.  I made it for those who ASKED ME to talk more about quilting and how I do it.

And here is a follow-up video from yesterday with more applique information.  (Yes, my red blouse is way too big for me.  I have to wear SOMETHING until I get a bunch more smaller tops made.)

I mentioned in one of the videos that I would SHOW YOU where I want to hang this quilt when I get it done.  How FUN is Photoshop that it looks like the quilt (missing Tommy Turtle) is already hanging up there!?  That is Tammy Turtle on top and her Mom, Terry Turtle.  I'll get Tommy done tomorrow.

And for you newbies to quilting who asked me for tips, here are a few still pictures of my applique process.

First:  You really will want to get a light box.  You almost always have to turn the picture UPSIDE DOWN to trace it, and it is hard to see.  I used a colored pencil to trace some of the shapes because I could not make them out even with the light box.

After you have DRAWN your shapes, you lightly iron them onto the BACK SIDE of your fabric.  Hold the iron down for 3 to 5 seconds.  If you hold it longer, the paper won't come off!

Then, you cut out your shapes.  I used this tiny rotary cutter for a lot of the pieces.  Little pieces require little, VERY SHARP scissors.

A lot of the pieces for these turtles were SO SMALL, I put them in this dish with numbers up.  I did a section at a time:  a leg -- the head -- the eyes -- another leg -- the shell -- etc.

To start, you put the picture of your project UNDERNEATH a sheet of silicone that you can see through.  You can put the pic directly under your Steam-a-Seam cut-outs but DO NOT iron it, or you will have to start over.  Remember, the pieces are all covered with glue that melts under an iron.

You can see the beak still uncovered by fabric.  All the pieces you see here were placed with the drawing showing underneath.  After this part, I could no longer see the picture underneath.  

Here is the sequence:  Cut out the shape.  Remove the paper.  Apply to the silicone over the picture as long as you can see the picture.

Here I have added all the "scales" to the turtle's back and ironed them down.  the white sheet and the brown sheet are silicone pressing sheets that the glue will NOT stick to.  The turtles back feet hanging OVER the white paper would iron to the ironing board if I pressed them.  I used the extra brown sheet as needed for all the parts that hung over the white one.

AS LONG AS you have the silicone under your glued fabric, you can iron the pieces to each other. When I was done with each turtle, I picked them up as an entire, glued-together whole turtle.  

Someone asked me:  What do you do AFTER you have it all glued to the quilt?

Depends on what you are going to do with the quilt.  This will hang on the wall.  You can take the quilt to the sewing machine and sew around every single piece with a satin stitch or straight stitch.  I have done that.  I did it on Kissed by the Sun.  I used a tiny zig-zag stitch around the flower petals, stems and leaves.  It doesn't really show here.

You already saw above how the turtles look and how the coral looks when all done.  Very exciting.  Hope I can figure out how to quilt all of it because it will be on the longarm very soon.

Hugs, Joy