We have a new kit listing called Snowman Parade and are sharing a little bit of the process that we followed to make.
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There are three of the snowmen characters from Janet’s Snow Sweet art/fabric collection translated to 16″ – 18″ raw edge appliqué blocks. These can be used for pillows, a table runner or any quilt projects and are simply fun to display throughout the winter months. In addition to the steps/photos posted here, you can view some tips we used, on our YouTube channel.
Our Snowman Parade kit can be purchased here in the shop and will contain Painters Watercolor Swirl, Snow Sweet, Blue Button Dots and basics from Riley Blake Designs. The kit also includes 12, 8.5″ x 11″ sheets to assemble for your templates and a basic appliqué instructions guide.
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In addition to the kit you will need a fusible web product along with the typical sewing supplies. We like to use Pellon Fusible Featherweight 991FFW1 as our fusible web product from a 20″ wide bolt. We also recommend purchasing a large tablet of tracing paper to make a ‘placement door’.
1.) Trace the appliqué templates on the paper side of your chosen product. Our templates are already in mirror and ready to go. A light box is a great help with this step however, taped to a window works perfectly fine. Rough cut them out and fuse each to the wrong side of fabrics. You will have this blog post, YouTube video and our IG posts as a fabric color guide. Sorry, no full color photo comes with the kit. Next, cut all of your appliqué pieces out with a sharp pair of scissors. You may like to place them under something to keep the pieces from curling up.
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2) Assembling each block can be done with accuracy and best results using what we call, a tracing paper door. Appliqué pieces are sitting on top of one of ours in the photos below. However, you simply sandwich your pieces onto your pressing surface, background fabric, blue dots snowman silhouette with the tracing paper outline (traced using templates ahead of time) on top to achieve near perfect placement. This is best demonstrated here and here.
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Next we will get these sewn down using decorative stitches on the machine and assemble into our project. We’re thinking a table runner!
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Thanks for visiting, as always and Merry Christmas!!!
Using our favorite fusible applique technique, and the free pattern which can be found on RBD’s website, we created a Birdhouse Bunting!! Our bunting features Riley Blake Designs fabrics from Hush Hush, Painters Watercolor Swirl, and Hungry Animal Alphabet. Basic applique instructions are written below:
General Instructions for Fusible Applique:
Refer to photos for fabric choices/placement
Download the template sheets (using the link bottom of this post) to create your bunting flags by tracing onto paper backing of fusible web. Rough cut around each.
Fuse according to the product instructions on wrong side of selected fabrics.
Cut out the applique pieces on the drawn line, cool and remove paper backing.
Fuse applique pieces onto the background blocks according to fusible web directions.
Once all of your flags are fused you can secure your applique and/or further embellish with decorative stitching.
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First, trace your pieces onto the paper side of your fusible product then fuse to wrong side of fabrics and cut out your blue bird pieces. I found this was helpful to do first to help in choosing my Hush Hush background fabrics.
Next, choose your fabrics.
Print out your two sheets for the bunting flag using the link at bottom of the page. Assemble with tape to form half of the flag and use this template to make the full pattern image on any craft paper of your choosing. Once you have this you will also trace the various pieces on to the paper side of your fusible product and cut out.
You can chose to fuse backing fabric to your bunting flag for a flat result as we did here or layer with batting before attaching backing fabric.
We always make a tracing paper ‘door’ to enable accurate appliqué placement as shown in the photos above. Pinning to the top of your pressing mat makes it easy to flip open and closed to nudge the pieces where they go.
The bunting flag pattern can be used to piece your top and bottom fabrics which form your birdhouse shape or fuse them as we show here. These are first, then fuse scallops, then (tape measure fabric) trim. Next we fused the birdhouse hole (black Swirl fabric) and last assembled our blue bird.
Now, for the fun part, decorative sewing!
You can see our Birdhouse Bunting finish photos on Instagram and/or Facebook later today and throughout the week.
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We also used Hush Hush fabrics as the background for a Maple Leaf nine patch table top quilt, made with Painter’s Watercolor Swirl fabrics. A perfect pairing with our Fall Leaves Place Card project and HERE, that we created with Painters Palette fabrics.
By this time you have your three snowmen blocks completely fused and are ready to sew. If not, as always continue at your own pace. The only thing we have left to complete these blocks now is to secure the appliqué designs to the background fabrics and add any decorative stitching. There are many stitches and styles you can use to do this and the choice is entirely yours, you’re the maker!
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I am most comfortable using one of my (basic Pfaff) machine’s options that is most like a blanket stitch to outline and secure my appliqué pieces to my background fabrics. I started with the large white pieces first. These are a bit stiff since we used an extra layer of interfacing and your appliqué pieces can pull up with handling so be careful to get them well fused. If this happens however, before you are ready to sew simply press over them again to reactivate the fusible glue. If you use this type of stitch you want to lay your needle right beside your appliqué fabric edge close as you can for the running stitches.
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I also chose the same color thread that best matched my fabrics or close as I had on hand. I used 50 weight cotton Aurifil. Both of these choices (blanket stitch and same color thread) seam to make up for any imperfections due to my beginner sewing skills. Of course you can go with any style such as free motion or any number of decorative stitching that you like.
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I continued by sewing the next largest pieces first red, then yellow, green and so on until I finished stitching around all of the smaller pieces.
For my green, I only had a lime shade but I think this helped to distinguish the tree branches against the two darker fabrics.
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Remember! These blocks still have to be quilted so, hold off on any 3-D embellishments like buttons or charms, etc. Which explains the blank look on our snowmen faces. Lol! I actually have tiny black buttons for his eyes and mouth and can’t wait to see them finished. 😉
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We will post our finished blocks on Instagram and Facebook so, if you want to see our updates and the rest of our blocks in this quilt, plus anything new, you can follow us here:
All About Christmas fabric has delivered and is in a shop near you. Find a list of retailers in my last blog post here.
This collection is beautiful! It includes the Christmas story from Luke 2 making it VERY Christmas-y and we especially love those details. In addition, the printing quality is wonderful thank you to our fabric partners at Riley Blake Designs.
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So, here we go with another little Sew-A-Long. This time it will be a mini. The two items that we will be sharing over the three weeks are,
Our three large snowman blocks (row 4)
Reverse raw edge appliqué blocks (rows 1 & 5)
This week we will be looking at number 2, reverse raw edge fusible appliqué for the ornament blocks. The snowflake blocks are done the same way only much less detail so we will be focusing on row one.
Do you have your pattern and fabric ready? If not, visit this link to find a shop.
Are you ready to sew?! Let’s go! According to the All About Christmas pattern instructions, it is important ‘To Get Started’ by cutting fabrics for the large snowmen blocks FIRST. This assures that you will have the larger fabric cuts set aside when you need them. Follow the cover art for the fabric choices and make cuts according to the pattern instruction page(s) and directional fabrics. If you are new to the technique of reverse raw edge appliqué I highly suggest reading the pattern in it’s entirety before starting or cutting into your fabrics.
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Since some of our designs for this quilt were stencil-like with white as the main center image (see the snowflake and ornament rows), we selected this reverse appliqué technique. Often with appliqué we will use a second interfacing product to mask the background fabric from showing through our white however, we found this to be a better option for the ornament and snowflake blocks on this quilt. The photos below will offer a visual aid so-to-speak to support this explanation.
Once you’ve cut your fabric squares for blocks in Rows 1 and 5, you can begin tracing the designs onto your fusible web product according to manufacturers directions. We like Pellon Featherweight Fusible 805. Be sure to trace all of the pieces that make up the inside ornament designs before fusing. You will be using those to help your fabric remain as a continual image. Fuse to wrong side of fabric considering whether your fabric square will be using a directional print and align accordingly.
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When you go to cut out the ornament rounds, be careful not to cut through the outside square itself or those tiny pieces. You can see at the bottom of our ornament photo below where we began poking the scissors through to cut around the perimeter only. This way, when the traced ornament is removed, your background stays completely intact. Then cut your smaller (traced beforehand) pieces and set them aside somewhat in order, or you can number them if that helps.
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Once all of your ornament pieces are cut out you are ready to fuse. Sandwich the colored fabric silhouette squares on top of your Riley White squares that will show from underneath. You can place the pattern flipped upside down (since already in reverse) beneath your layered fabrics to use as your placement guide. Or, another method that we like to use, is a tracing paper door, as we call it. The photos below plus this link will explain. Simply put, we trace the block template image(s) onto ordinary tracing paper and pin down on one side of your block to help with accurate placement in the event the paper pattern does not show through your fabric. We also found that using tweezers was the easiest way to then nudge the tiny pieces into place. When you get them where you like, fuse!
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Here are our results. Now for the fun part, stitching them down. I will be using thread to match and a blanket style stitch. I find both are somewhat forgiving. You may choose to use any number of decorative stitching to add these details if you prefer over these tiny appliqué pieces. This is where your sewing skills will shine beyond my limited experience so please, send progress photos! And have fun of course 😉
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I hope you had fun sewing along with me! If you have any questions about this technique, leave a comment below! See you next week for the BIG snowmen blocks.
came through beautifully for us once again in her creation of this stunning applique piece using our ‘Press On’ pattern! The photos do not do it justice truly so, please if you’re in Portland for Quilt Market, come by and see her for yourself. She will not disappoint.
Riley Blake Designs – Booth #1437
Patterns are available at Checker Distributors #1801 and Brewer Sewing #852-53.
