My Foray Into Appliqué

Given that today is Canada Day I thought I'd try and be a little patriotic with my quilting and pull out something red and white to work on. So, cast your mind back to August 2013 if you will and this little yo yo heart project that Jane and I started at the cottage.

Originally I thought I was just going make more yo yos so I started digging through the reds. But a quick count confirmed that I had more than enough to work with so I thought I'd bite the bullet and attempt my first bona fide appliqué project.

A little more digging was required to find my grey linen, and in the process I pulled two other pieces to audition because I didn't think I was going to find the linen and was keen to make sure that I didn't stop. Any of them would work but I opted for the grey with a tiny white vine.

You could play with the placement all day long so I cut that part short and moved on to the heart of the project, so to speak, so that I wasn't just finding reasons to procrastinate.

Once everyone was in place I wanted to make sure that they didn't move as I worked on them, so that meant bringing out all the weapons tools. I was taking no chances. I'd bought a tube of Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It a while back to try on another project so I started with that.











A couple of tiny dabs on the back of each yo yo was enough.

Not having used it before, I was concerned that the yo yos might pop off as I worked with the piece so I went for re-enforcements and used my Clover appliqué pins as insurance that everyone stayed on. I think it might have been overkill, but it worked beautifully.

A deep breath and I was off and running. You can see from the back that it took me a bit to find my rhythm - the bottom left yo yo was my first and I was figuring things out - but things fell into place fairly quickly after that. The one white circle is for the white yo yo - I didn't want red thread showing.

So there it is and I'm pretty darned happy with it. The yo yos are an inch in diameter so the heart is about 6 1/2" x 5 1/2". Not sure what it will be when it grows up - maybe a pillow, maybe the centre of a medallion quilt, or maybe I'll just frame it - but the important thing is that I know that I can do it. Who knows, maybe I'll become an appliqué fiend! There's one more piece of that grey and white backing so maybe I need to make another one :).

From our house to yours, happy Canada Day everyone!....M