My local quilt shop offers a 13 month class on this. It's a big deal since we are close to Baltimore. It is beautiful. If I was taking it, we could be buddies with me in instruction ~ Maybe I'll look at it closer. There is so much more for me to learn.

Kate, you made me reconsider taking this class - I'm saved ~ it started 2 days ago. The class is a huge commitment of time - Sunday afternoons (& money).

I am working on Baltimore Bliss this year
http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/baltimore_bliss.htm
I did Baltimore Blues Last year
http://www.fatcatpatterns.com/southern_gentleman.htm
This is another one

grace

MRG - I'm sorry you won't be taking that class! I need someone to suffer with me!

Grace, thanks for the links. Those are beautiful quilts and I've bookmarked the sites and downloaded the free patterns.

Kate

We had an applique class here on the forum a year or so ago that got me started. I'm currently working on Eleanor Burns Applique In A Day. It's a WIP that possibly you have helped spur me on. I have 4 completed and another almost done. I'm using muslin for the background on these and I've found longer needles work well for me. Here are the 4 I've done.

I really like this technique for applique....

Sharon

Here is a link that might be useful: applique tutorial

Sharon - those are beautiful - I would love a class on this forum. I mentioned in another post about a class I took this weekend that was PP & applique. Time was limited even thou it was a 4 1/2 hr class. I wanted more time for the applique part, others had not taken this instructor's PP so I lost how to spend the remaining time:( I really wanted the hands on applique instruction. I asked questions here, and I can read, so I'll be okay.

Kate, I had to stop at the library this afternoon. Our small library has a pitiful section on quilting, but they did have a book that looked great for you to do this Baltimore album - it is "Baltimore Elegance" by Elly Sienkiewicz. She included some smaller cool projects, one I really liked is an Album Block carrying case.
If yu are serious about doing this, look at this book.
And you are so right, it would be comforting to suffer together.

Sharon - those are great blocks. I especially like the sweat pea and the tulip with the bird. I've clipped that post to keep it and will check out the tutorial.

MRG - I have looked at that book and it is beautiful! Elly S. holds classes regularly and of course I would love to immerse myself in it like that but it doesn't fit in either the budget or my available time. Some day maybe.

I'm going to look at every applique book I can find at the quilt show this weekend, then decide what I want to buy. I've already checked prices on amazon and e bay so I'll know a good deal if I see one. I do check books out of the library but since this will be such a long project I think I need to find the right book and purchase it. I'll use the library selections to help me decide which one I want for my own library.

Thank you.....

At the time of the applique class, we also had one on landscape and using scraps. IVillage was supposed to allow us access to the FAQ section so we could save the threads and keep them all together but it never happened. I think you girls can find enough info on the web to get started and to get answers to any questions.

Sharon

Our applique class that Jennifer Elder taught in 2007 got me started, too. I love applique. I own almost every book ever made and I'd recommend any of the Piece O'Cake applique books for technique although the patterns are a more funky style than the traditional. I love their work. The book from Mimi Dietrix "Baltimore Basics" is good and has real easy patterns to start with, all traditional. Lots of resources out there and Elly S. is a champ so you'll enjoy that one, too.

I'm working on a homemade design and love to work with hand dyed fabrics as they are soft and easy to needle. Avoid things like batiks as they are a tight weave and harder to push the needle through.

We should start an online applique project monthly goals thing, Sharon. Hint, hint.

My advice was going to be take a class where you get some hands on, all-the-questions-you-can-think-of opportunity and direct feedback. But I was shocked at a 13 month class. Not that it wouldn't be nice to have someone to sew with for 13 months, but I just took a class from Rita Verroca who just won another in a series of prizes at the Houston show. She took four 3-hour classes to teach us the techniques for about all the situations you'll encounter: straight stems, very narrow stems, sharp points, interior angles, reverse appliqu circles, inward curving lines.

It takes practice, but it's really not that hard. The real work is doing enough so that you get nice even stitches.

Anyway, Rita recommends a #10 or a #11 sharp needle and 60wt thread. We work on cotton with cotton. Rita recommends fine glass-headed pins for pinning work down and she recommends that you use a lot of pins for graceful shapes. She doesn't use appliqué pins. I can't work without them -- they're shorter and don't get in my way as much. She does her turning with a heavier plastic-headed pin.

Rita works from templates that she copies onto her colored fabric with white (mostly) water-soluable colored pencils (art store not quilt store variety). She wets the pencils and traces with a bold line that washes out of the finished quilts. She makes all her quilts for use and washes them when she's completed them and as they get used.

Rita teaches a technique she calls 9-to-5. What that means is that you take the needle you're turning with and put it at 9 o'clock in reference to the fabric you're appiquéing and then you sweep it toward 5 o'clock taking the fabric with it. Everyone in my class is right handed; left handed people might have to work the opposite.

When it comes to the sharp points, she trims the excess fabric quite close at the point. Stitch right up to the point and put in an extra stitch. Then she runs her turning needle from that stitch into the side that's already appliquéed. She never forces the fabric in there; she wants flat and smooth. When the fabric is all settled she takes one more longer stitch right at the point with the matching thread to accentuate the length and sharpness of the point. A little trompe l'oeil, if you will. It's very effective.

For inward facing angles and curves, she clips right to the seam line. And she clips every 1/8" or so. As she turns these shapes, she runs her turning needle through a glue stick -- the same washable things you get school children -- the glue makes all the raw edges behave beautifully until they're stitched in place.

She runs her fingernail along each of the portions of fabric she's turned before she actually stitches it, working about 3/4" to 1" at a time.

That's what I can remember.

Rita doesn't have a book I could recommend although I can't imagine why she doesn't. She's Belgian/German and has studied American quilt history extensively and can quote long passages from original monographs by heart. She works entirely by hand and specializes in Baltimore style quilts.

Here is a link that might be useful: Here's one of her quilts from the 2007

Forgot to say that Rita doesn't use a hoop for anything. Not even quilting. She works with her work spread out on a table or over her lap.

She's also the only other person I've ever known who sews the binding on and then quilts like I do.

Linda, You can put your applique goal in the monthly to-do list if you want to...I'll add applique to it for October, will that work? *grin*

I like the applique pins, too, and the thumb pincushions Linda makes are a must have for me when I applique!

Sharon

Thank you all for the great advice and suggestions! I would like to take a class, but I work full time, travel for my job a little, have a huge garden to keep up, etc., etc. I can't even get to the monthly quilt guild meetings so I'm not likely to find time for a class. I will check though and see if there's a one or two session class that I can sign up for. Some direct instruction would help me get started right.

If we haven't already started a monthly show and tell for applique projects by January I'll start one then. I want to take lots of photos to document my progress and my (hopefully!!!) increasing applique skills.

9 to 5 - that's a good bit of information. I like having a technique to try. I also appreciate knowing about applique pins - I didn't know such a thing existed. I do have the very thin, glass headed pins and love those, but they are longer than regular pins.

So, if I'm reading this correctly, you don't use the needle you are sewing with to do the turning?!? I thought that you would. So much to learn! This is exciting.

Thanks again!

I turn with my needle and use applique pins, about 3/4" long. They are small and easy to use on tiny pieces. When they catch thread, you pin from the backside through the piece and they are out of the way.

Good luck. We'll love seeing your progress. I'll post a very large project of mine next week after our guild show is over.

A few years ago I took a beginner Hawaiian applique class on Quilt University taught by Nancy Chong. She is an excellent teacher, and her class had really exceptional photos of every step. I had never tried needle turn before, and since that class I have done 2 very large applique projects. I still think I'm not that great at it, but I sure enjoy doing it.

Donna

I took the Design your own Hawaiian quilt class from Nancy Chong at QU. She really does a fantastic job of teaching appliqué on-line. I just looked up the class schedule and she is teaching a class called Baltimore Basics and it starts February 26th. I found her to be a wonderful, encouraging teacher. I just used her techniques on a birthday block last week and I was very pleased with my results (if I do say so myself!) If you have never taken a class from QU, I think you should check it out. Im not associated in any way with the organization, I just have been very pleased with the classes that I have taken.

Lola

Thanks! I'll check out that class. The timing might be just right.

I find the idea of having a monthly applique challenge interesting. Not as competition but a sharing process.
I have Elly S's book but find it a bit more difficult then I am up to. I would like to try some simpler ideas and January sounds like a good time to start. Jayne

I forgot about the blog linked below. She does absolutely beautiful appliqué including some Baltimore album style.

There's an entry right now about one of her techniques. If you page back through her older entries she has many more on other techniques as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: quiltsalott

I just glanced at her blog~WOW~gorgeous!Bookmarked it for later reading. This is not your grandmother's applique!

imrainey~ did you do the flowers & vase applique quilt a short while back? I remember the beauty & it was a class, can't recall if if it was yours-sorry & I can't find it in a search. I would like to see it again. All this talk of applique is causing me to want to learn! It's Kate's fault:)

I did a B&W appliqué with a vase of flowers, magothyrivergirl, Is that what you mean? I haven't quilted it yet.

I've moved onto this "Kim McLean stunner" but I only have the basket completed and I'm now working on the stems in the central medallion.

I can tell you it will be years before there will be a pic of that one. ;>

Forgot to add that Janet Treen is the author of the quiltsalott blog. She's very talented, incredibly productive and very versatile.

Wow, imrainey, that is a fantastic quilt! I remember seeing your b&w with flowers - it is gorgeous. And the Kim McLean quilt is really amazing.

It is funny, when I first started quilting I thought I didn't care for applique. Now I really like it! I also like the quiltsalot blog - thanks for sharing that link.

You guys are getting me excited to do more applique!

I felt the same way, lola. I didn't want to do anything by hand -- I hated when I got my quilts all done and had nothing left but the binding. But there are some seductive patterns out there and it's a peaceful thing to do to sit and sew quietly. I mean, you can do it anywhere with a few things you can carry in your purse. I've really enjoyed the classes where women get together and talk and sew. And learning from Rita is just soooo inspirational.

Now I'm working on sewing with a thimble on. That's the hardest thing so far for me. And, so far, I've been able to avoid learning for some 40 years. ;>

I've always been thimble-challenged. I recently found the leather goat skin one and it is like a glove on your finger. You still feel everything but there's enough leather that the finger doesn't get sore. It came too big and I sewed it to fit better and then you wet it well on your finger and it kind of forms to the finger when it dries. Works for me and my applique.

imrainey~ that's the one!!I forgot about the B&W part ~ at the time, I showed it to DH who is ~ shall we say "creatively challenged"~ and he even appreciated the beauty!! That work is inspiring ~ thanks for posting the pic again.
I would like to see your pics as you progress on the stunner, if you are comfortable sharing. For those of us beginning to look at applique differently, seeing the progression is so insightful. I admire all the beautiful applique work posted, but seeing the completed projects look so intimating.

toolgranny ~ please share the leather goat skin thimble. I am a thimble user, but would definitely like a leather one.
My thimbles are old, bent, and nasty looking:) I also use a heavy leather one and palm type for sewing on sails and heavy canvas, never thought there was something soft and pliable for fine sewing. As I recall, you have posted a beautiful, tedious applique quilt in blue or purple. (I think it was yours)

>>Someone wrote: I'm working on a homemade design and love to work with hand dyed fabrics as they are soft and easy to needle. Avoid things like batiks as they are a tight weave and harder to push the needle through.

~~While I agree that batiksa are harder to push the needle through, I wouldn't avoid them for this reason. I find that I take such a tiny 'bite' in the edge that the tighter weave isn't a problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: Celina Dreams batik applique

WOW!!!

Your quilts are always a wow but that one is super fantastic. I love the vibrancy (which is so contrary to my concept of the fluidity of batiks). I love the black that makes it all pop. And I love the asymmetry that balances out so well.

magothyrivergirl- What is a palm thimble? I can get that for canvas you'd want to push with your whole hand but I've never seen such a thing as a palm thimble.

Meanwhile, quiltsalott and WillWorkforFabric show a lot of their impressive appliqué work in stages. They're much more productive than I am and much farther ahead on a number of projects.

solstice- I hope most of this is still helpful to getting you started on appliqué and Baltimore album type quilts. I didn't mean to initiate a thread jack.

Not a problem! I'm enjoying where this thread is going. Keep talking and keep adding links. These are great!

Kate

Here's where I bought it but it's too big so I turned it inside out and ran another seam for a better fit. If you ever see old leather dress gloves for ladies at a garage sale, buy a pair and just cut the tips off the fingers. They'd fit better and you'd get five per glove. I'm going to do that next time I see a pair. They work best if they fit snugly. Mine fits so well now I forget I have it on and start cooking dinner with it still there. Best thimble for applique I've tried so far.

Here is a link that might be useful: goatskin thimble

imrainey - this is the "palm thimble". Thanks for the email~
I am traveling, what a delight to have this waiting for me when I got online!

They also have a leather thimble - who knew?

Kate - I too started to apologize for the OT from Baltimore Album, but took advantage because you also include Applique in the title ~LOL~ this thread has been so informative ~ thanks for starting it and letting it go on into the general subject.

Here is a link that might be useful: Palm thimble

I guess I might as well give up! Who can possible do this sort of thing? Check out a friend's quilt at the local guild show this weekend. Amazing! I feel so inadequate!

A slightly different technique:

On Friday I had the opportunity to speak with some quilters about their applique. I heard about one technique that I have not seen in any book. This quilter irons freezer paper pattern pieces to the right side of the fabric. Then she cuts around the piece, 1/4 larger than the paper. As she sews, she says it's very easy to turn under the 1/4" edge, the piece won't stretch and distort, and the paper helps her keep her stitches right on the fold too. Then when she's done it's easy to peel the paper off. She likes it much better than trying to pry the paper from inside, especially on small pieces.

Has anyone used this method?

Kate

Boy, toolgranny, that's a breathtaking quilt!

Kate, what an interesting technique. I do most of my appliqué by starch turning from the right side, over freezer paper (or a plastic template) to the wrong side and then pulling off the paper (template). I'll give this new technique a try as soon as I get my stems stitched down. Thanks for the inspiration.

magothyrivergirl, thanks for linking to that interesting object. Not the least what I had imagined but more elegant and, I can see, effective.

Isn't the internet a wonder!? Anyone, anywhere can find such an interesting and unusual object.

And just maybe this sheds some light on your equally interesting screen name. ;>

I do mine that way with the freezer paper on the right side. But, I cut only about 1/8" around it to turn under. Then I finger press all the edge first so there is a crease and work my way around it. If design is simple, I take the paper pattern off before I get it all down as the crease shows me the edge and I can pin it in place.

Linda, Awesome applique!!!! I feel less than inadequate looking at that. But I'm not giving up!

Kate, Yes, I heard of ironing the freezer paper pattern on the fabric. I've gotten to the point where I like to have the applique fabric on the background and not guess to where it's supposed to be when I decide I want to work on my applique. I do a lot of pre-construction, but nothing moves around and everything is where I want it to be when it's time to sew and I don't have to keep checking the layout. You'll probably try many techniques before deciding on your fav, and even then, you might use more than one on the same block.

Sharon

I never in a million yrs thought I'd do applique, but now
I just love it.
I've taken classes with Nancy Chong & Elly . Elly is one
of the best speakers I've ever heard. She knows more about
the history of Baltimore quilts than anyone & she's just a joy to be around. I adore Nancy too, she's a gem.
There are a million ways to applique & you just need to experiment & find what works best for you. One thing that's consistent is that we all think we need to improve & we probably do but don't let it hold you back! It's probably a good idea to start with bigger curvier pieces, primitives are great for that.
I love all the links, thanks everyone! Jill

You wanna talk 'primitive' you should see the homespun stars I did last year after seeing one that Linda did. They still need to put them together though....another thing on the UFO list.....

Sharon