Finishing Up Our Free Motion Quilting Sample Book

Bordering on amazing!

Let's add a couple more quilting designs before finishing up our free motion quilting sample book.

Almost every quilt has borders - wide ones, skinny ones and everything in between. Sometimes it's a challenge to find the right design for the borders on your quilt, so today I'm going to show you some of my favourite free motion border designs and try out some new ones. The "Loop de Loop" is my "go-to" border design as it can work for most thin borders (1" - 3" in width). When stitching this design you alternate the direction of the loops as you go along the border. If you use a 12 wt thread such as Spagetti by WonderFil the design will really "pop"!

Loop de loop machine quilted border design

Spirals in a line

Yesterday I showed you how to use spirals for all over designs and to make flowers, but you can also use them in borders like in the first picture. Spirals can also be made in a square shape. Same as before, you have to make sure to leave room to come back out from the middle as shown in the second picture. The third picture is a border made with square spirals.

Spirals border design with Spagetti thread from WonderFil

First step in the square spiral border design

Square spiral border design - machine quilted with Spagetti thread from WonderFil

Stepping out of my comfort zone

I have to admit, I often get into a quilting rut and as a result I use my "go-to" loop de loop design A LOT!! So I decided this week I should try out some new border designs. I have many books with free motion quilting designs so I hauled some of them out and tried out some of the ones that I thought I would use the most. As you can see, I probably need to practice more in order for them to be uniform in shape, but I think I could get the hang of them eventually!!

Trying out some new border designs #1

Trying out some new border designs #2

Free motion sampler is DONE

Well, by the end of today I had used up all of the space on my quilt sandwich, so it was time to take it off the frame and cut all of the "pages" apart. 

All ready to cut apart and finish

First I trimmed the rectangles with a rotary cutter and ruler and then I finished the edges with my Spagetti and Fruitti threads and a zig zag stitch on my home machine. Using my eyelet setter, I put one hole in the corner of each page so that I could put a ring through it. Just for fun I tied some colourful ribbons to the ring. Here is my finished "book".

The finished machine quilting sample book

That's a wrap

Now that it's Friday, it's time for me to say goodbye for another month. I hope you found this week to be informative and hope that you'll be inspired to spend some time practicing your own free motion quilting!

Free Motion Quilting Fun with Flowers

For the love of flowers

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE free motion quilting fun with flowers!! As a result, I have quite a few different flower designs that I use and I try to learn new ones whenever I can. But before I show you my favorite flowers designs, I'm going to show you some of the “building blocks” that you need to master before you move onto free motion quilting flower designs.

Spirals, spirals, spirals

Spiral designs are so much fun to quilt but you have to make sure that you are paying attention or you might get stuck in the middle with no way to exit! To start a spiral, you start as though you a quilting a big circle, but instead of closing it off, you keep heading in towards the middle using concentric circles. When you are stitching in to the middle, make sure that you leave enough room to follow the same pattern back out. 

First step in the machine quilting spiral

Once you are in the middle of the spiral you STOP moving. This will give you a nice crisp point. Then you start going backwards until you reach the outside again. 

The finished spiral

You can use this as an overall design as shown in the following photo, or you can use them in a line for a border as I will show you tomorrow. 

Spiral overall machine quilting design

Changing a spiral into a flower

Once you get the hang of spirals, you can add petals to the outside to make flowers. Rounded petals make one type of flower and pointy petals make another. Put loops or swirls in between the flowers to make the design more interesting. Here is a closeup of one of the spiral flowers.

Rounded flower with spiral centre machine quilting design

Pointed flower with small spiral centre machine quilting design

My favorite free motion flower

I really love the following flower design as you can use it alone, with swirls and loops or echo around it to make a more complex design. Here is a video showing how I execute this design.

Free motion machine quilting a flower design - YouTube

Christine Baker of Fairfield Road Designs (www.fairfieldroaddesigns.com) shows how to machine quilt her favourite flower using Spagetti thread from WonderFil.

via: www.youtube.com

A field of machine quilted flowers

Time to practice 

Now that I showed you all of these flowers, it's time for you to go practice on your own free motion quilting fun with flowers. Tomorrow we'll finish up our free motion quilting with some border designs and then we'll figure out how to put it all together into our sample book!

Free Motion Quilting: Landscape Elements & Modern Quilts

Landscape elements are great for modern quilts!

Sometimes it's a challenge to decide on the free motion quilting design to use for quilts such as landscapes, art quilts and modern quilts. In these cases, nature designs such as pebbles, water ripples and flames work so much better than hearts, stars or leaves. You can use a single element as an edge to edge, overall design, or use multiple elements together to get the look you want. Using a thicker thread such as Spagetti (12 wt 100% Egyptian cotton, from WonderFil) like I'm using today, makes these quilting designs really stand out!

Loops turn into pebbles, and pebbles turn into bricks

Once you master loops like I showed you yesterday, the next step is to squish them together to make pebbles. You travel from one loop, directly to the one beside and if needed, you can travel over top of stitches that you have already done in order to get where you need to go next. Here's an example of my pebbles done with Spagetti thread from WonderFil.

Peddles machine quilted with Fruitti thread from WonderFil

Pebbles that are squared off can easily turn into bricks. These can be overlapped regularly or irregularly to achieve the look you desire. As with the pebbles, you can travel over already stitched lines if you need to in order to make the next brick. Here's my sample of free motion machine quilted bricks.

Bricks machine quilted with Fruitti from WonderFil

Water ripples – everyone flows their own way

The key to quilting water ripples is to relax and let them flow either from side to side or from top to bottom. When I’m teaching my students, I always find it funny that people can usually quilt the ripples either one way or the other but not both. Personally I find it so much easier to go from side to side in a swaying motion. The trick is to make them random like they would appear in nature. Try it both ways to see which is your favorite way. Here is my water ripple sample:

Free motion water ripples quilted from side to side.

Free motion flames can make great tree bark

Being able to quilt flames is a great asset as you can integrate them into other designs so well, but even though they appear simple, sometimes they take a bit of practice to master. Basically the shape is an elongated “S” with pointed ends repeated over and over again. Here is a video of me quilting the flames on my longarm. As you can see, the flames can easily change into tree bark when a quilted knot is inserted randomly between the lines as shown in the photo below the video.

Free motion machine quilting a flame design - YouTube

Christine Baker of Fairfield Road Designs demonstrates how to free motion machine quilt a flame design using Spagetti thread from WonderFil.

via: www.youtube.com

Machine quilted "flames" turned into tree bark.

Stepping out of your free motion "box"

Boxes are great designs for quilting modern quilts or quilts for men and boys. I’m lucky that my longarm machine has a vertical and horizontal lock so I can make perfectly squared-off rectangles and boxes, but even slightly uneven overlapping boxes and rectangles look amazing when used for certain quilts. Here are samples of my freehand boxes and my longarm “assisted” boxes.

Machine quilted boxes and rectangles using Spagetti thread from WonderFil.

Getting that “Modern Look” with free motion quilting

Modern quilts are really taking the quilting world by storm and if you haven’t checked out The Modern Quilt Guildor other organizations like it online, you really should! If you check out my “Modern Quilts” board on Pinterest you’ll see lots of examples of how quilting designs like I’ve shown you today have been used. So whether you are a traditionalist, and art quilter or a modern quilt lover, now you have a few more free motion quilting designs to add to your repertoire.

Free Motion Quilting with Fruitti from WonderFil

Walking foot versus free motion – it’s all about the feed dogs!

There are different ways that you can quilt by machine. One way is to use your walking foot which has feet dogs that work with the sewing machine feed dogs to help keep the quilt layers from shifting apart as they move through the sewing machine. The feed dogs are metal teeth on the sewing machine that emerge from a hole in the throat plate. Feed dogs gently grip the underneath of the fabric and advance it under the needle. While most sewing is done with feed dogs up, darning and free motion quilting are performed with feed dogs down in order to give the person quilting control of fabric. Using a walking foot is great for times that you want to quilt straight lines or gentle curves but for more complex designs, free motion quilting works much better.

For free motion quilting, a darning foot is used with the feed dogs lowered on the sewing machine, allowing totally free movement of the fabric direction (there is a button on most machines that will lower the feed dogs – if your machine does not have this option you can get a cover to put over top of them). Obtaining even stitching requires lots of practice as the person quilting is in total control of the direction and speed of the fabric moving under the needle.

Free motion quilting is an art! You create your own design and use the sewing machine free hand to draw your design. The challenge is to keep your hands moving in unison with the sewing machine to create even stitches.

Some tips for success with free motion quilting

When I teach my machine quilting class, I ALWAYS give my students these tips BEFORE we start:

1. Relax and breathe! And don’t be too hard on yourself. Becoming proficient at machine quilting takes practice – LOTS OF PRACTICE.
2. Free motion quilting is like doodling with your threaded sewing machine needle - so practice with pen and paper first until you get the feel for the new design.
3. When you first start stitching a new design, first focus on the shape, and then as you get the hang of the shape start to try to get your stitches more uniform in length. If your stitches are really small then you need to move your hands faster. If your stitches are really big, you need to move your hands slower OR speed up your machine.
4. If you get frustrated, STOP and TAKE A BREAK.
5. There are no right or wrong ways to execute a particular free motion motif. No one but you knows what design you planned to stitch on your quilt, and therefore no one will know if it looks different than you intended. As you practice you'll find that you develop your own style of quilting - one that is comfortable for YOU.

Start with the basics – meander (stippling) and loops

The first stitch to learn when machine quilting is stippling or meandering. And then progress to loops. These are the basic building blocks for most other designs. And even if you don’t become comfortable with more complex designs, you CAN meander or stipple quilt any quilt! Here are samples of my meandering and loops and you can also view this YouTube video which goes over the basics of free motion machine quilting.

 

Meander machine quilting pattern with Fruitti

Loops machine quilting pattern with Fruitti

Swirls, swirls everywhere

Once you perfected your loops you can progress onto swirls and waves. These can be used on their own in borders and backgrounds or integrated into other designs with other motifs such as hearts or leaves. Here's a picture of a few different swirl and wave designs that I often use:

Swirls and waves free motion quilting design

Quilting to your heart's desire...

One of my favorite designs is hearts. Once you get the hang of them, you can modify them into all sorts of different designs. Here's a picture of my heart design stitching sample. I put arrows on the stitching lines so that you can see when I started and ended each part of the motif.

Closeup of machine quilted heart design

Once you mastered the heart, you can change it into different leaf designs. I usually add a little meander and/or loop in between each of the hearts or leaves. Here you can see how the heart shape can be changed into one type of leaf by adding veins and how the basic heart shape can be modified into a leaf shape.

Hearts and leaves free motion machine quilting designs

The stars of the show

My other go-to design is stars. Star designs are great for those quilts that you can’t use hearts on - for example little boy-quilts. And they are fun to do once you get the movement perfected. Since I was a kid I have always doodled stars, so learning to quilt them wasn’t hard for me, but if you have never doodled a star yourself, you will probably need to practice on paper first. Here's a diagram of how to draw a star using a continuous line. Following is a video that shows how I quilt my stars.

Star diagram - start at #1 and progress through to #6

Free motion machine quilting a star design - YouTube

Christine Baker from Fairfield Road Designs demostrates how to free motion quilt a star design.

via: www.youtube.com

Time for a little PRACTICE

I think I've shown you enough for today and I have the first five pages of my machine quilting sample book all done, so now it's time for you to go and practice on your own. Tomorrow I'll show you some more of my favorite designs, in the meantime have fun practicing your free motion quilting skills with Fruitti threads!

Machine Quilting with Spagetti

Using Spagetti for machine quilting

Yes, you heard that right – I’m going to try machine quilting with Spagetti – the THREAD that is!! I’ve already used the Spagetti and Fruitti threads on my home sewing machine (and they worked beautifully) but I do most of my machine quilting on my longarm, so I wanted to try the threads on it.

The problem was that the sample threads I had on hand were only 100m spools – and my longarm goes through thread FAST!!

So I waited “patiently” for the larger spools of thread to arrive from WonderFil – and here they are!!!

Spagetti and Fruitti thread from WonderFil

Making a machine quilting sample book

After I finish a quilt, I usually take pictures of the quilting motif I used, but I was thinking that it would be nice to have actual samples of my favorite quilting designs, AND it was be even nicer if they were made into a fabric BOOK!

So, that’s what I’m doing this week – I'll demonstrate how to do many of my most loved (and most used) designs and at the end of the week, I’ll show how to finish them off into a fabric quilting journal. Are you ready?...

First things first – the quilt sandwich

Since I’m going to be quilting on my longarm machine, it can accommodate large pieces of fabric, so I found a 1m piece of light coloured tone-on-tone fabric for the top and a similar sized fabric for the back. I divided the top up evenly and used a black marker to draw lines across the width and length of the fabric to make boxes about 8” x 10” in size.

Dividing the quilt top into sections

Going for a smaller sandwich

If you’ll be quilting your samples on a home machine, you may want to make smaller, individual sandwiches for each of your samples.

Cut pieces of fabric and batting approximately 8” x 10” in size. Use basting spray to baste the three layers together. For my sample, I don't need to use the basting spray as I can pin the backing to the leads on my longarm, lay on the batting and then baste the top along the top and sides using a basting stitch.

Basting the quilt top on my longarm

Selecting the machine quilting needle for Spagetti and Fruitti

For my longarm, the recommended needle size for Spagetti and Fruitti is 18, but for home machines, the WonderFil website recommends a 12/80 – 14/90 topstitch needle since the thread is heavier than most threads you would normally quilt with. Here's the link for the WonderFil product sheet that lists all of the product information for their threads.

Needle sizes can often be confusing but here's a website that explains the differences in sizes and types of needles.

Adjusting the tension

Since I normally use a finer thread for machine quilting on my longarm, I knew that I would have to adjust my machine tension to accommodate the heavier Spagetti and Fruitti threads. I used the first square on my quilt top to do some free motion stitching to check the tension. Since the top thread was being pulled through to the back, I knew that I needed to increase the tension on the top thread. After a few small adjustments, with practice stitches in between, I found the perfect balance between the top and bottom tensions. 

Testing the tension with the Fruitti thread

The top tension is too loose causing "eyelashes" to form on the back fabric.

Learning some new machine quilting motifs

Now that my machine is all set up, with a new needle and the tension adjusted, I'm all ready to go! Tomorrow I'll start to stitch out some of my machine quilting samples - I can’t wait to get started!!

WEEKLY GIVEAWAY...Fun and Colorful Thread Packs!

Enter now for your chance to win this fun and colorful weekly giveaway!

Two 5-pack bundles of joy from WonderFil Specialty Threads: one is Spagetti thread - a solid color, the other bundle is Fruitti thread - random dyed. 

Both are 12 wt - 3ply, Egyptian 100% cotton, double gassed and mercerized.

Contest ends Tuesday September 2nd at 9AM. Get your entries in now!

Spagetti and Fruitti thread packs from WonderFil Specialty Threads! LOVE it!!!!!

Decorative Stitches On The Pfaff Passport 2.0

I have actually never made a crazy patch block in all my years of quilting and thought this would be a good opportunity to do so and highlight some of the decorative stitches on the Pfaff Passport 2.0.  My sister asked me to make a chair cushion for one of my mother's antique chairs which my nephew has inherited. He likes grey and black which is fine but I decided that this cushion needed just a bit of colour as well. I hope he likes it.

The Crazy Patch Design

I was going to do one big rectangle of crazy patch but then decided that would be a bit crazy and divided the piece into 9 patches with sashing in-between. I drew the design out on graph paper first and of course had to make each patch a little bit different - talk about making work for myself. I wanted to use a paper piecing technique to make the blocks but not use paper. I chose plain white cotton fabric to trace the pattern onto and use as the sewing foundation for the block.

To trace the design onto the white cotton fabric I used my new light box which my brother-in-law made for me and is 4 times the size of my old one - perfect for this job. I used the Trace'n Mark Air Erasable fabric marker for the job from Clover.

Design drawn on white fabric

I cut apart the large piece into the 9 sections and to make sewing easier I numbered the pieces as to which would be first to fourth. Even though the pink lines are nice and bright I will have to get the pieces sewn together fairly quickly before the lines disappear. A marking pen that disappears with heat would not work for the job as each piece is ironed after sewing. A water soluble marking pen would work and since the lines will never be seen doesn't have to be removed. A regular ball point pen would even do the job.

One single crazy patch design

Sewing the pieces together onto the white fabric is just like paper piecing except for there is no paper to be removed and the fabric will stay in place. Here is one of the crazy patches sewn together.

Crazy Patch Block

And this is what the stitching looks like on the back. The stitching is straight, even and has great tension even on the two layers of fabric. I did have the IDT system engaged and I used the open toed embroidery foot so I can see the sewing lines easily. 

 

Stitching & seams on back of block

Decorative Stitches

Choosing the thread for the decorative stitches is always lots of fun. A heavier weight thread such as a 30 would stand out very nicely, a 12 weight which is really thick would definitely stand out and a 50 weight thread which is an average weight thread would show up but not stand out. I decided on a 50 weight cotton thread. To make threading the needle easier the Pfaff Passport 2.0 does come with a built in needle threader. One of my favourite features on a sewing machine seeing how my eyes are getting worse the older I get.

It's also very important to use the appropriate sized needle for the weight of thread being used. I'm using an 80/12 for the 50 weight thread. If I was using 30 weight thread I would choose a 90/14 needle and a 100/16 needle for the 12 weight thread.

Needle threader

Three different stitches per block is what I wanted and since the Passport 2.0 has a stitch library of 70 there were plenty to choose from. Remember the stitch menu is on the right hand side of the sewing machine on a slide out card. I did want the stitch to be equal on either side of the seam line so didn't have quite as much variety but still enough to have to make a decision or two. I could use the satin stitch as one of the stitches but since I used it yesterday I'll try out some new ones today.

 

Crazy Patch Block #1 

I used decorative stitches #31, #60 & #53 for this block. An elongated X shape (#30), a zigzag variation (#53) and a flower (#60).

Crazy patch block #1

Crazy Patch Block #2 

I used decorative stitches #48, #57 & #62 for this block. A star (#62), railroad tracks (#48) and leaves on a vine (#57).

Crazy patch block #2

Crazy Patch Block #3 

I used decorative stitches#47, #34 & #55. A half star (#47), varied straight lines (#34) and leaves (#55).

Crazy patch block #3

Even though I had the white fabric on the back of the crazy patch I still added a tear away stabilizer to the back of the blocks before I did the decorative stitching. This just makes for a much neater, even and smooth stitch. It also makes sure that the fabric doesn't bunch up or pucker as some of the stitches use a lot of thread in a small place and can cause bunching of the fabric.

I'm very pleased with the quality of the stitches and how they're standing out on the fabric. I was a bit worried that using a 50 weight thread would not be thick enough but it's looking really good so far. I think my nephew is going to be impressed.

Three down, 6 to go of these crazy patch blocks. I'll get the other six sewn together, add the decorative stitches with the Pfaff Passport 2.0 and be ready to quilt the chair cushion when I return for my week of blogging in September. Stay tuned...

Happy Quilting

Satin Stitch with the Pfaff Passport 2.0

Today I'll be stitching the satin stitch with the Pfaff Passport 2.0 which I'm sure will be just as successful as the blanket stitch was yesterday. Along with stitching down the cat pieces I'll finish off the agenda bag so that my niece will have it in time for her first day of school in September. 

Shush, don’t anyone tell her as it's a surprise.

The Satin Stitch

I love the satin stitch and how it creates a nice bold edging around the applique. Once again I chose a thread from Wonderfil - Tutti which is a 50 weight variegated thread. This time I used a yellow thread whereas yesterday I used orange.

The 0A foot which comes with the machines works well for a zigzag stitch but I do prefer the open toed applique foot. This foot is open at the front and makes it easier to see where the stitching needs to go and follow the edge of the shape. The open toed foot does need to be purchased separately as it doesn’t come with the machine.

Open toed applique foot

According to the Passport 2.0 stitch menu the satin stitch is #03. I changed the width of it to 3.5 from the default width of 6.0 and the length to 0.8 from 1.5. I want the stitching to be very close together with no space between the stitches. The stitch length does go even lower to 0.5 which is fabulous as a very tight satin stitch can be achieved. I'm impressed with how low the stitch length will go as some higher end machines don’t even go this low. 

With the stabilizer still in place I stitched around the outside edge of the cat applique. The IDT system was also engaged helping the fabric to feed under the presser foot more smoothly creating a nice even stitch.

The Passport 2.0 stitches a lovely satin stitch. 

Satin stitch

I secured the stitches at the start and finish using the tie on/off function. I was very happy with how this function performed as it didn’t leave a large knot or bump on the back. I tend to manually tie off all of my threads as I don’t like how some tie off modes leave those big knots or bumps but not this little machine - just so neat and tidy.

The tie on/of button

Adding In Some Detail

I wasn’t going to add any details to the cat but then I decided it looked rather plain so pulled out a fabric marking pen and drew in a nose, mouth and whiskers. 

Details line marked on face

With black thread I stitched over the lines 3 times using a straight stitch to create a bolder line.

If I had taken the time to look I probably could have found a stitch in the library of stitches - there are 70! I'm pretty sure one of them would have worked for sewing these details in and yes stitch #02 would have been perfect. It's a triple straight stitch mainly used for reinforcing seams and topstitching. Using this stitch would have saved me from going back and forth 3 times along the same line. It pays to look first rather than after the fact. And read the manual!

A couple of buttons for eyes and the cat has a face.

Details added to face and applique complete

Completing the Bag

With right sides together sew the bag together with a ⅜″ seam allowance starting just under the turned over edge on the accent fabric and stopping in the same place on the other side. When I came to the corner I reinforced the stitching with a reverse stitch along the side and bottom stitching line on each corner. The reverse button is easily accessible on the Passport 2.0 making reverse sewing hassle free. I also reversed sewed at the beginning of the stitching and end to secure the bag so it doesn’t fall apart the first time Abby uses it.

Reverse button

Since the edges of the seams have not been finished and the fabric can fray easily with use I used stitch #13 - the over locking stitch to finish off the edges inside the bag just as I did the duvet cover the other day. 

Over locking stitch on the edge

Turning the bag right side out I gave it a press and then slid a piece of yellow ric-rac into the casing to use as a drawstring. The ric-rac matches the fabric perfectly so it's the perfect choice as a drawstring but I found it doesn’t slide as smoothly as I would like along the fabric to open and close the bag.

I may see what else I can find before I put the bag in the post. But then again how often is a 5 year old going to actually remember to close the bag?

Rickrack drawstring

A quick little project for back to school. I had fun finishing the agenda bag, doing some satin stitch with the Pfaff Passport 2.0 and am now thinking of what other quick back to school projects I could do. 

Happy Quilting

Finished agenda bag

Applique Stitches On The Pfaff Passport 2.0

My little great-niece is going into kindergarten this fall and they need agenda bags so I thought I would make her one to carry all her important papers home from school and back again. She loves cats and so I thought why not put on some applique and check out the applique stitches on the Pfaff Passport 2.0. Thank goodness for sewing machines with the blanket stitch because I am afraid that my hand blanket stitch is a bit dismal. 

The bag needs to be large enough to hold a scribbler with a bit extra fabric at the top to pull tight so nothing falls out. The size of this little bag is approximately 11 x 14 inches. 

The great thing about these agenda bags is they can be customized - the child’s favorite color, design and so on. Adding their name makes it even more special.

Agenda Bag Fabric Requirements 

Main bag fabric - 2 pieces 11″ x 11 ½″

Top Accent Fabric - 2 pieces 4 ¾″ x 11″

Scraps for applique design

Drawstring 

The fabrics I chose are bright and fun. The zigzag or ric-rac looking fabric I purchased at the beginning of the summer and could only get a half meter so am using in special projects only. I matched the rest of my fabrics to this one using a bit subdued fabric for the main bag and bright cheery fabrics for the applique.

Bright and cheery fabric

Creating the Casing

Using the two accent pieces press over approximately an ⅛″ of fabric on each end - the short side. Stitch down the folded edge very close to the raw edge as if topstitching. I recommend using a thread that matches the outside of the fabric in both the top and bobbin as this stitching line will show. I didn't do that and when I noticed, it was too late to change it.

⅛″ fold over on short edge

Press over a ¼″ of fabric on one long edge of each piece. Fold over again about an inch and press flat. Topstitch about a ¼″ from the bottom fold to secure in place and create the casing. The ends of this section will be left open to thread the drawstring through.

Long edge of fabric folded over ready for stitching

Sew each of these pieces to the top edge of the 2 main bag pieces. A quarter inch seam is not a must for this as there is plenty of fabric to take a slightly larger seam for added strength. If using directional fabric make sure to have it going the right way.

The Applique Design

I tend to always work with fusible web when I am creating my appliqué designs and since I only do machine applique the fusible works perfectly for me. I chose my cat design and enlarged it on the photocopier then traced it onto the paper side of the fusible. I like to use a hard leaded pencil such as a 2H as the lead does not smudge and then there is no risk of getting lead on the fabric by accident. 

 

Designed traced onto fusible web

After tracing the design cut out the pieces about a quarter inch from the pencil line. Fuse the pieces to the wrong side of the fabric following the manufacturer’s instructions on the fusible web. It's always a good idea to cover the pieces being fused with an applique pressing sheet so that none of the fusible glue accidentally gets on your iron or ironing board as it's very hard to remove. These sheets are usually made of Teflon and nothing sticks to Teflon.

The best way to remove unwanted glue from the iron is to run your hot iron over a fabric softener sheet - and yes it really does work.

Once the fabric has cooled, cut out the pieces on the pencil line and remove the paper backing. Place the pieces on the fabric being used for the front of the bag.

Applique fused to main bag fabric

The Blanket Stitch

Checking on the pull out card with the stitch menu on it I found the blanket stitch I wanted and punched in #26 on the keypad. The default size is quite large so I changed the width and length to be 2.5. 

One of my favorite features of this machine is the needle down position which is a must have when doing applique. It's always nice to leave the needle in the fabric when pivoting and turning on the applique shape to go around a curve or corner. The letters definitely required a bit of pivoting. I used an orange variegated thread from Wonderfil called Tutti for the stitching.

Needle down button

The blanket stitch on the letters turned out beautifully. The stitches are even and regular all the way around. I did use a tear away stabiliser behind the fabric to ensure that the stitches had something to catch hold on rather than just the fabric. Using a stabiliser whether it's a leave in, tear away or wash away will create nicer looking stitches.

Blanket stitch around the letter B

I did find that I had to put the speed control down to the lowest speed in order to maintain control of my stitching around the little pieces. The speed control is a sliding button found on the left hand side of the machine body near the base. 

Having the ability to control the speed of the machine from turtle pace slow to speedy Gonzalez fast is great as we all like to sew at different speeds and sometimes slow is required while other times we can sew full out. 

Speed control slider

I decided to use a different stitch for the cat. Join me tomorrow to discover what other applique stitches are on the Pfaff Passport 2.0  I'll try as well as finish off the agenda bag.

Happy Quilting