Here's the result of my Sunday night (and Monday night) slow stitching. It is #50 of my 365-project and will likely become a cover for a throw pillow.
The large size of the appliqué and the many seams in the crumb-pieced black and white made fabric, gave me the idea of using a new-to-me technique for securing/marking the appliqué: back-basting.
The leaf silhouette is the same I used to produce the tiny pink feather pincushion which was my first project in the series of 365 feather-related efforts. I enlarged it to 8-by-16 inches and then used it as a reference when putting together the small scraps from my black and white scrap bin.
Earlier this year, a friend explained back-basting to me in a way that I finally got it ... but didn't actually try it until this week. Although the feather shape was lightly marked with a chalk pencil on the front and not the back, I used the back basting technique to stitch along the marked line to secure the two pieces of fabric together (with red thread). Rather than attempt to turn under the edges of the black and white crumb-pieced fabric, with all those seams and the extra fabric in those seams, I used reverse appliqué and needle-turned the teal batik background and stitched it down to the black and white fabric underneath.
I removed the basting and cut away the background fabric a few inches at a time, revealing the black and white fabric underneath, a little at a time. after all the applique was done, I turned the piece over and cut away the excess black and white fabric from the corners.I loved how the back-basting technique held the fabrics in place–especially that skinny little feather spine–and, although it added to the time to prepare the piece for appliqué, I know I'll be using it again ... and I'll be using more made fabric in appliqué, too. As an experiment in trying something new, this project was a win-win for me.
I'm linking this post to the lists for Esther's WOW (on Tuesday in the US) and Angie's Appliqué Tuesday ... on Wednesday and WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced.
(I confess that one of the reasons I think that appliqué appeals to me right now, is that I'm brushing off my skills and finding the courage to begin Esther's fabulous Love Enwined BOM).
8 comments:
It's fabulous! Love the new skill, too. I don't applique, yet, but I might now that you've shared your technique.
Hugs
Great with your back basting I still have to try that.. So much to learn with appliqué and the different techniques to get one piece of fabric onto the other.
Bunny
sophie, this is beautiful~!!~
and so smart to reverse applique it. i'm still trying to figure out the back basting method but clearly it gave you great results.
:-)
libbyQ
What a beautiful, beautiful applique!
Oh Sophie so lovely to see your blog again. I have missed you. Love your feather; your designs always make me look twice. Cheers Glenda
I was wondering how you were going to turn under all those seams in your black and white piece. You found just the right method - looks great, Sophie! Thanks for linking to Applique Tuesday.
Excellent!
That is definitely on my to-try list!
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