In all honestly, this quilt has been bouncing around in my head for well over a year. Two maybe? It's just recently, though, that that voice in my head went from a rumbling "that would be nice" to "how will I go about this?".
This quilt will be all appliqué. I nearly just heard you all shout WHAT!?!? Yes, appliqué. As you know, I wasn't exactly blown away with appliqué when making Cúchulainn, but that was mostly because of the mind numbing satin stitch Here I want use a raw edge appliqué. Problem is, I've never done that before.
So, I made a little mug rug mock up of a portion of the quilt...
It's Galway so we always have a little rain out there. We have a little airport too, so you couldn't leave that out....
And a little bird, a snail and happy trees.
All in all it went reasonably well for a first try. I really need to practice, but I think I can get there. The things that are really bothering me about the mug rug are things that will disappear as the idea is scaled up.
Here's where I need your help. Could you guys tell me:
1. When you do raw edge appliqué, do you use a fusible or interfacing? I mean, do you use a double sided Steam a Seam and just weld it all together or do you use the single sided interfacing type fusible that you might use to stiffen a purse? I like the softer flexibility of the interfacing in a final project, but the Steam a Seam would be great to hold everything in one place. Do you hold the interfaced piece down with glue?
2. How do you stitch down each piece? I went with FMQ using invisible thread. I'll use a matching cotton in the final quilt, but for simplicity here I went invisible. Anyway, I used a FMQ through the center of each object to echo quilt the edges. Now, I know folks use a stitch like numbers 35-39 below. What do you use?
Thank you all so much for your help. If there are any good tutes out there, please do point me in the right direction. I can use all the help (and practice) I can get :)