How to Appliqué a Heart Using the Starch Method! Featuring Kimberly Jolly and Joanna Figueroa

abroad with Fat Quarter Shop and I'm here with Joanna from fig tree quilts thank you for joining me today so happy to be here and so in quilting

appliqu

e can be a word that no one wants to do, no one likes to

appliqu

e, but add A soft applique for your existing projects can really make it stand out, so one of the first things and one of the things that are found in many patterns are

heart

s, so Joanna will show us how to make a hard appliqué today in a very simple way, so my My favorite way to do it right, the only way I'm willing to do applique is with the

starch

method

and I'm not a big

heart

ed person but a heart is a perfect example to show you what to do with an inside stitch on an outside point.

So whether you're making a heart or want to make any other shape, this is a good place to start. Even if you just want to practice at home before doing a project, our heart is a good way to do it because it has some of those spots that people get stuck on, so what I use are some supplies that I can't do without in this

method

of

starch

application. I use the heavy starch and have tried several. different types, but actually heavy starch is the best for this. I use freezer paper and I use you can use the leaves.

I use double. Anything you can duplicate will work because I make two. I use a small iron or a large one, um, if it's something that you're going to love to do, you're definitely going to want to get a smaller iron so you can get into the points, but if it's something that I'm just literally going to only do from time to time, you can also get away with

using

your normal iron. I use a slim Sharpie. I use a craft brush, you can basically use any type of small brush and if you can't find anything with little.

Know the short bristles, you could literally get a bigger one and just cut them off, you just want them to be a little stiff so it's easy, you'll use this to apply and add the starch. I use my size 11 straw needles and my favorite for cotton applique is the Yli silk thread and it looks like this and I use it in neutral colors because it blends and disappears so completely into the fabric thread that some neutral colors such once a green, a red and a black. so you have a little bit and then basically two different tans, that's pretty much all you need for almost every type of fabric, so those are the, oh, and I'm sorry, they're based on Roxanne's glue.

I'll show you in a second how I use it. That, but for me it is a must for this method, my favorite scissors for any type of small projects these days are Karen K Buckley's favorites. There are two sizes. I love them. There is something about the way they are created. with the serrated blades that grip the fabric so wonderfully, the tip is so sharp at the end that you kind of know, I don't know, I think it's a very clean and nice cut so that when you do appliqué you don't have to have a lot of fabric shredded in the end and they don't, they don't slide on the fabric, which are all the different things that I love about it.

When I use it, I use this whenever I have any type of thread that is thicker than you probably already know why Eli is a very fine thread, but if I use any other type of thread, I need a needle cutter, a needle cutter , yeah, a needle threader, okay, so let's go ahead and she'll show you how to applique a heart. The first thing we're going to do is take a shape, in this case a heart, and I only cut one out here, so I basically laid it out and literally traced the line with my ultra thin.

Sharpie, which I love, is what I use for all applique, it's just a really simple Sharpie pencil. What I'm going to do then to make a stronger template is place another piece right on top of it and I'm going to press the two together now, the freezer paper is going to press against itself and it will also do that as you press against the board, but that's okay because look how easily it pops up so basically I'm going to cut my shape with paper scissors so you're just going to want to have a little set of scissors somewhere that you only use for paper because they'll dull your fabric scissors and one of the things What I always like to tell my students is that your final shape will only be as good as your cutting work, so sometimes it's easier to just do this and cut it bigger like that and then when you have to deal with a smaller piece to do the best job, but if you cut a shape that is irregular on the outside your final appliqué will be irregular, so there are actually all kinds of methods that people use to make sure that their shape doesn't have jagged edges, so don't I know if you can see that right there, but there's like a little piece that's not curved, so I'm going to go back and look at that and make sure and up here I'm going to go and correct that shape, especially if I'm going to use it many times over and over again, which is one of the things I love about freezer paper stencils is that you can use them over and over again, so one of the things I always have a nail file in the studio and if I end up with a little uneven piece, you can literally take the nail file and just do this on the edge and it will eliminate any kind of little mishaps that you had with the scissors, so basically once you have a shape you can Just remember , if your shape isn't perfect or you know it isn't, it's not about being perfect, but if it's not how you want it, your final shape will have exactly the same problem, so you'll take that template. that you just made and you're going to put it on a piece of cloth and you're going to press it there and yeah, you're just going to go ahead and put that there and with your starch you're going to prepare the starch as the next step, so when I say that I use this heavy starch and it's um it's spray that's right yeah it's spray so I put a little bit here on my cap and it'll be foamy.

At the beginning here, let me put this here on the side, so I don't know if you can see it's going to start foaming there and I usually do that right at the beginning of my process. When I'm ready to use it, all the foam has come out and it's just liquid at the bottom, okay, so I'm going to make sure this is pressed down here so it doesn't. I usually turn off the steam function when I'm doing this so it doesn't especially when I'm doing the applique part when I'm starching it so I don't burn the crapola off my fingers so make sure if you have a steam function that you get rid of it. from that so I have my foam is defoaming my starch is ready I have my shape so now I'm going to take my favorite scissors and I'm going to cut the shape For now, how you cut this is not that important, while the shape of the paper of the freezer it is, because that is what will determine its shape.

This is simply the seam allowance that will press back, as long as it is tight. a quarter of an inch all the way around, you're fine, you don't want it to be too much bigger because it's going to get bulky and you don't want it to be too much smaller because you're going to start having problems with it, so let me go. get rid of that now heart shaped piece, there are a couple of places where you will need to work a little with the fabric to be able to get to that point, you will need to take your scissors and you are going to need to go down and when you go down don't go all the way because then you will lose .

I get to a few threads from that center of that point there on this outside. curve if it's a very sharp curve you want to cut in some places one maybe two three at most you don't need to do anything on the straight you don't need to do anything at the outside point at this point come back to this and let's go one, two, three. I started pretty much at the end here, so I'm going to give it one more and that's all I'm going to do with this shape to prepare the fabric. Well, I'm going to put my scissors here. and this is where the little craft brush comes in and again you just want something with small short bristles so it's easy to paint the starch on so at this point my starch has defoamed more or less enough to use.

I'm going to put a little bit on my brush and I'm going to start painting it, literally, just painting it on the seam allowance and people always ask me what happens if a little bit gets on my fabric. I mean, on my paper, well, nothing will happen if you put too much in there, the paper will start to curl and such an ineffective template won't, so I try to stay away from it, but it does get in a little bit. nothing will happen, so once I've pressed it, sorry, once I've gotten the starch completely, I'm going to move the starch over to the path and I'm going to grab my iron and this, like I mentioned. first, if this is something you're going to do frequently, you'll want to get your favorite iron, which is a small one, there are a lot of good small irons on the market, this is a Rowenta, you can also see it's smoking right now, so I'm going to turn it off from steam to dry because otherwise I'm going to burn myself, so I'm going to start with what we call straight because it's the easiest place and I'm literally going to fold the fabric.

I put my finger on the template and because it's been starched it goes very easily where I want it and I pull every little piece you know with my finger as I go over and over again and then I just press it until I know it's down . Okay, and then I move it around and for this step, a lot of people use a tool like a punch, a stylus again, my favorite tool for all kinds of things, a toothpick, a skewer, I love

using

my finger and my nails. I, if I've been burned, I have um, but I find that I have the best idea of ​​what the fabric does with my finger.

Sorry, it's my head in the way, so as I go up, that curve was really easy because the fabric was/is all wet, so it becomes very simple depending on my shape. When I get to this internal point, I'm basically going to use the plank and do a sweeping motion to get the best shape I can get. so I'm literally going to grab that from there and I'm going to go to the corner or the edge and I'm going to sweep it and I'm going to hold it there and if you can see, it's gone. pretty good on that centerpiece, if that didn't work for me or if at any point during this process I didn't like the way I turned the fabric, I would just put a little starch on it and do it. again so don't worry if you turn something and you don't like it you can go back and fix it so here's a great example so while I was making that center this piece pushed me to the end. here and it's going to be bumpy, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go back with my brush and I'm just going to put a little bit of starch on it so that it's smooth again and it's It's easy for me to turn it over, so it's very forgiving.

I mean, you probably don't want to go back and apply the starch there like six times, but you know adding a little bit isn't going to do anything, so I'm just going to push it out with my finger and I'm going to continue. I'm going to pull it and push it, pull it and push it, pull it, pull it. I'm going to sit there for a second just to make sure it's ready. I'm going to twist it, pull it, the straight ones are always the easiest because they don't require much, okay, so now we're going to my outside point, so we've done the inside point where you saw me sweep the plank. around that point to put the fabric there on the outside point, you're going to press it right through to the second side, basically you're going to go ahead to see that you just passed it and then you're going to turn it over to the other side and basically you're going to fold it from the other piece now, if it's a really tight spot let me finish that and show you well, so if you can see that here, I went here to the open part, closed it on itself, if this was a really tight spot, something of that would stick out on the other side and you would just go back and trim it on this one, you don't even need to do that.

Do that, so let me grab my scissors and show you this part. If you turn this way, you can see that no part sticks out, it's completely hidden, but it's a little bit bulky, so I would go in before starting. to apply it by hand and I would literally just trim that big part off so there's not as much bulk, but not because it's sticking out, because there's just a lot of fabric underneath if it was a tighter curve and it had any part of it sticking out, I'd just trim that little bit off, just being careful not to get close to the end because then when you're raising your hand right, you won't have any problems with that part, so basically you have your heart perfect and Now you're going to take the paper out of the freezer again.

You want to open it somewhere in a straight line. You don't ever want to take it out at any point or even where you have a lot of curves while I'm going to open it up here and in. with a gesture I'll take it out and set it aside I'll put my shape down and press it lightly just to make sure it's flat and that's it, I'm done with this piece this The shape here, as you can see, is still in perfect condition. and I can use this over and over again. Sometimes I have used a shape up to 20 times before it starts to curl on the outside and then I just make another one, so if you have 40 sheets in a quilt, you don't need to make 40 shapes, you make one until it runs out and then make another , so here you have a heart.

I've made a couple more just to show you, so here I started and I wanted to show you. Basically, in this little yellow one there was a little piece here that I wanted to show you a bug and how I could fix it, so in this one I have a little piece here that doesn'tIt's a perfect curve, so I probably would have done it. I fixed it before I got the stencil out, but if I didn't notice it until later, I could literally put my finger back in there, put a little bit of starch on it and even without the stencil there I could get that out. back, oh, sorry, pull that back with my finger and press it into a better curve, you guys are going to see the top of my head too many times today.

I keep wanting to lean over my shape okay, so it was a solution of okay, um, one other thing, oh here, this is another example that I wanted to show you, so if you can see that it's hard to see, let me put something else in. dark underneath to make it easier, this is the background I'm going to use, can you see it there? how is it that from that tip there is the fabric that is sticking out when there is a little bit right there, so that would be the type of piece that if it was too much and if before applying applique, I'm going to go in and literally I'm going to trim that part.

I'll make sure that even if it's a little bit sticking out, I can leave a little bit in there like this because when I put that when I'm doing the stitch I can pull that down, but anything that's bigger and sticking out like that, you can get rid of it, so those are just a couple of the different little ones, here's another one that I already prepared ahead of time and Look, I'll find a time again to take it out, everything that's here will stay and stay for quite a while, so all the work in The starch application method is basically on the front, so you spend the time. preparing it, but then your shape is the perfect shape you want it to be, you can take it with you to travel.

I carry them in little bags with me and then I use them when I'm, you know, at my kids' soccer game or on a road trip. I don't have to spend a lot of energy and a lot of time worrying about what my shape is going to be like, how I'm going to turn it because it's all finished, so the next step I'm going to show you the actual sewing part, so we've prepared the heart and we're ready to do this, the gluing and the sewing, so the first thing you're going to do is turn it You shape it and you're going to use little dots of my favorite glue, which is Roxanne's based glue.

Sometimes it takes a little while to get started, but if you can see they're basically little dots, maybe every 3 8 of an inch. pretty much all the way around, make sure you have a dot right there on that tip because you want to secure it and just go all the way around it and that's it, it's a water soluble glue, so if you ever washed it off. it would come out um I've never had any problems with it I've been using it for years and then you're going to place your piece and you're just going to gently press it down with your fingers in preparation okay?

What you're going to do then is prepare your needle and your thread, so I use wildlife silk when I want my stitches to completely disappear and there are two tips, there are two things that I do with my thread, a yli silk thread. It's incredibly thin and very slippery, so if you don't do something to make sure it doesn't come off the needle, it will come off the needle, so given how thin it is, you're literally going to thread it and you're going to tie it to the needle. needle, yes you will take it with a standard knot that I can't seem to do right now and you will knot it once around the eye of the needle and tie a knot a second time around the eye of the needle so that the knot doesn't bother you at all , it will slide through the fabric, but now your thread isn't going anywhere, it's a blessing, it was a tip I learned from.

Someone about a decade ago, the other thing they're going to do is be able to create a knot at the end. Now I know that many of you know very special ways to tie knots if you haven't already discovered it. I'm not that picky about the quilter, so this is literally what I do: I take my finger, I roll it once and I slide it off my finger and I do this a couple of times until I make a knot at the end, I say Seriously, that's what I do, it's not pretty but it works. I always have a knot, it's usually the size I want and it almost never comes out, so there's one there.

I'm going to take it now and I'm going to start from the bottom under my fabric, so I'm going to start from the bottom so that that not very pretty knot is well hidden, it's a very fine thread, so it will never be a problem and I'm going to go up. right along the edge, so on this type of appliqué I want the stitches to be hidden, so I'm trying to have as little thread as possible showing on the front, so I'm literally getting right to the edge of that fabric . I'm going to pull it all the way out and I'm going to go to the background fabric in exactly the same position that I just came in, so I know this is probably going to be really hard for you to see, so I'm going to come out. more than a scant eighth of an inch in The Underneath and I'm going to lift it back up just barely into the fabric and then I'm going to go back out at the bottom in the same position where it was and I'm going to go under it, so basically I'm doing movement under as little as possible at the top, so all I see in the front is that little bite that is the little bite that is from here to the bottom in the same position. and then I go down where I make my move to the next Stitch.

I don't know if you can see it's all underneath and I'm basically a little whip. Stitch is all that is. I always hold it with my left hand. Go under Oops, I got stuck on something there and then the little bite on the outside there I'm on the inside, little bite on the outside and I keep doing this for a while until I get to the inside spot so I can show you. I use neutral thread, this is my favorite neutral while threading. I use it for most fabrics. If I'm going to have something very dark or something very light, I'll use black, red or cream on very light fabrics. but for most of what I'm doing, I'm going to work with one or two neutral shades and you'll never see the thread, it will literally disappear into your fabric, so I'm going to get to my point, my inner point, and I'm just going to want to handle one point. internal as little as possible because the threads there are less there because you've trimmed it closer and it's the place where it could fray the most, so you just want to handle it as little as possible. so I'm going to go into it, literally I'm going to go in once on one side and once on the other side and that's it and I'm going to continue to regret being stuck on the edge of my little board here, I'm going to go around the other side and I will go around the circle completely.

What I'm going to show you now, that's going to take too much time, but I'm going to show you now. is what I would do in the end, so if I was working here at the other end of my circle and I was coming this way, let's pretend I'm already there, you'll see a big piece of thread through the heart, just pretend it's not there, so I'm going to come across and if I had a piece sticking out at this point, this would be the point where I would take my needle and just poke that little piece underneath at this particular point.

There is nothing. I already cut out that piece, so I would just go there. Remember that there is a little more fabric there, so you will have to make sure the needle passes easily through it, but the yli thread will have no problems. there and do the same kind of thing at an outside point. I'll just enter from one side, try to handle it as little as possible and enter once from the other side and that's it, now I continue around my form until I'm done and let's pretend that this is where I would end up.

I would go back to the back of my shape and literally just secure it to the back by going in once and looping it. I threaded it once just to create a little knot and I would probably do it a second time just on that background fabric. Pull it through to secure it because that creates a little knot and you would be done. I would only trim it about half an inch. and if you can see, I'm not sure you can, but basically all the dots that are shown are here on the back, so if you can see dot, dot, dot, dot over there, I could show it with a pen, so there's your stitches, there's one, there's one, there's one, there's one, there's one, that's where there's a scant eighth of an inch, the stitches go around the back, that's where you progress into the appliqué and onto the front , all you have is a little bite from the end from the edge to the bottom, from the edge to the bottom, so when you're done with this and even when the fabric goes up a little bit, it's almost impossible to see. which is part of why I love these yli silk threads for this type of applique.

Now, if you don't have that and you don't have access or you just want to try it with something you have at home, you can use your favorite Oracle Thread, if you have it, I have a piece ready here with a green. I'm just going to show you the difference of one that disappears and this is just the color that matches. This is the normal weight of 50 that we have. Our fig and Orophil collections are coming out. They're prototyping this. It currently weighs 80 and will be available at some point in the future. I can't wait to try it.

It's specifically for applique and it's thinner, so we'll do that. I have to see how it works, it feels really good so it would be another option in the future as just a prototype right now but with my usual weight of 50 or a filler I'm not even going to stick this here just so when we can see the difference, but this is my usual 50 way aurafilo, I would go back up from the back and take my little bite and this is just the difference between while I something that you're trying to make sure goes away and in the case that maybe you have the perfect color and or maybe you want to make a decorative stitch that you really want to be seen or maybe you just don't worry if you can see the thread a little on the outside and just want to experiment with a small appliqué without worrying about 100 supplies yet up that you fall in love with it, so there are a couple of stitches if you can see the 50 peso orófilo because that color combines very well with that one. fabric right there, you can barely see that too, although it's not technically a special appliqué thread, so I'd love for them to try it this way.

I tried probably 10 different application methods before I found starch. 10 years ago I hated applique and once I was able to do this because all the work comes in the prep part when it comes time to do the applique part, I love it because I get the shape I want so one more thing. What I love about the starch applique method is that once you've done all the work and prepared your shape, you can use it for hand applique or you can just as easily use it for machine applique when I'm on a tight deadline for a project I will prepare everything with the starch method and apply everything by machine, especially if my shapes are larger.

I will almost always do this on all my projects that have stems or long thin strips of anything, handles for baskets, large circles for Dresden. I'll do almost all of that on my machine, since those types of pieces that don't have a lot of tight internal stitches are really easy to do on the machine, most machines have some type of overlock or appliqué. Sew a blanket stitch. that you can, so you can experiment with your machine, but even if you are stuck in a bind, you can do a little zigzag on your machine and use that orophil 50 weight, it would be perfect for machine applique and you already have the shape you want and still this way you will get wonderful results without having to do the manual work if that is not something you enjoy thank you for sharing all your application techniques yes it is my pleasure I hope so, at least if it is just one person out there who wants to do applique after that, so that's a success and for me, you know, that little knot in the needle, I'm going to do it.

I bet I'll try it in 58, that was cool and I'm always so scared of appliqués, but having a video like this where I'm at home and I can come back for free and watch it and try it myself, you know, it's really empowering, so which I will definitely refer to this video and I'm like you guys scared just like you but I know we can do it and you know, take it to the next level so make sure you do it. make sure to like, comment, subscribe and watch all other videos of Joanna at Fat Quarter Shop abroad.