I started a last minute project for Christmas.
A couple of times recently my husband mentioned that I had never made him a quilt. I guess I hadn’t thought to? I don’t recall ever seeing him reach for and use the throws that are in the family room…but they are certainly there for his use.
He’s very supportive of my quilting and if it makes him feel slighted that he doesn’t have a quilt of his own I need to set that right!
He enjoys fly fishing so I thought I’d look online to see what patterns were available out there. Well, he doesn’t like aquas and greens. I’ve made two quilts with those colors and he doesn’t like either one. Those colors seemed the most logical for a fishing themed quilt? AND I didn’t see any patterns that I loved.
I could just get some fishing themed fabric and do a pieced quilt…but that just didn’t seem right either? I wanted something a little more special.
As I lay awake Saturday night thinking about the things that needed to be done for the holidays…I remembered a pattern I ordered. It was from Willow Bend Creations. The designer, Mary Stenros has drawn up some wonderful designs. They are meant to be traced out onto fusible, pressed to a focus fabric and cut out, then fused to a background fabric.
When I saw her patterns, I wondered if they could be enlarged and needle turn appliqued? I thought the fused design might be a bit stiff..and you couldn’t really trim much of the fusible away because it’s needed to hold the interior details of the design. I ordered Bear Watching, which seemed like an easy one to try?
I pulled out the pattern and looked at it. It was now Sunday Dec. 13 and my husband was out shopping and running errands. I figured I’d have a couple of hours to work on this project? I wanted it to be a surprise.
I had some log cabin blocks I pieced a couple of years ago from browns and cream/tans. I never finished them into a quilt because they seemed kind of blah? They would be nice around the appliqued piece though…and make a bigger quilt.
I rifled through my stash and found a piece of brown with pine cones printed as texture. I had used some of this fabric in the log cabins..I found a spotted tan too.
I laid the brown over the pattern and placed pins in them to keep them from shifting.
I pulled out my Clover marking pen too. In my opinion there’s no better marking option than this? It makes a nice thin line that doesn’t rub off, yet is easy to remove when you want to.
I pulled the pattern and fabric up onto my light table and started tracing. A large window would have been good for the tracing but I didn’t know when my husband would come home and didn’t want to get caught!
Once everything was traced, I spread out my background fabric, and laid my brown on top. I smoothed them out and started to baste the two together as they lay flat on the table. My stitches were made just a tad over 1/4″ from the edge.
This is how Hawaiian applique is done.
I was able to get the basting done.
Then I trimmed off some of the extra brown to make the applique easier to handle. I left a wide edge, because the fabric would be trimmed and the curves clipped as I sewed. I just wanted to remove some of the bulk.
When doing needle turn you only do a bit at a time. You trim the piece 1/8-1/4″ away from your drawn line, use the tip of your needle to turn under the seam allowance and take a stitch or two. You just keep working your way around.
My husband had to go out of town on Tuesday and would be gone until Friday evening. Wonderful! That would give me more time to work without him seeing.
First I stitched all of the outer edges.
Then I stitched the interior edges.
I had to be very careful when trimming the excess brown fabric. One small slip..and disaster!
Once the interior edges were done, I did the slits and holes that gave the design it’s detail.
I love these little scissors for this part! They are nice and sharp right down to the tip…and the tip is sharp as well. I can poke the tip into the fabric and cut just a thread or two so that I can get in there and cut the narrow slits.
I keep a tassel on all of my scissors. I generally work in my recliner and without it..the scissors slip down into the cracks between the chair and cushion. With a project like this I was using and dropping my scissors quite a bit!
Sooo…did I meet my deadline? By Friday afternoon I had finished the applique. It took 43 hours. There was no way I’d get the log cabin blocks added in time though. 
I decided to just go ahead and wrap the appliqed panel and blocks with an IOU. I’m sure he’ll understand?
More to come later….
AND..she has a fly fishing design too. Maybe for another time…but I won’t give myself such a tight deadline? 
First, I have to trace the placement of my pieces onto my background fabric. I have a light table, but it’s smaller than this 30″ block and I wanted to see the whole thing as I traced…so I taped the pattern to a window..then taped the fabric, which I had folded and pressed into quarters..lining up the center mark on the pattern with the crease I had pressed in the fabric. I traced where everything went with a fine lined blue wash out marker by Clover.
I decided to stitch the stems down first, so I laid my bias tape on top of the line I traced onto my background. I pin the bias in place and will stitch along the inside curve first. In this pattern the curve is gentle so that isn’t quite as important, but if I’m stitching a tight curve it matters a lot! The bias will lay more smoothly if that inside curve is stitched first.
I scrunch my background up in my left hand and I place my needle so that I will be taking my first stitch into the bias from behind, catching just a thread or two at the very edge and pull, slipping my knot behind it. I then stab into the background fabric right next to that stitch. My needle then travels under the background fabric and will come up through the edge of the bias again a bit less than 1/8″ away from the first stitch.
I travel along the length of the stem until I get to the end, and take just a running stitch or two to get me to the other side of the stem. I stitch along that, knot off, then cut the thread. Pretty standard stuff. Now I’m ready to do a feather and this is where I stray away from the rest of the pack. 
I trace the feather shape onto freezer paper and carefully cut it out. I want to take my time and do this so that’s it’s exact. I iron this freezer paper shape to the RIGHT side of my fabric. I roughly cut it from the the rest of the fabric..and now I’m ready to do my fussy cutting. I use a pair of very sharp scissors and cut around the shape, adding a seam allowance as I go. I like it to be between 1/4″ and 1/8″. I don’t want it too scimpy. It’s closer to 1/4″.
Next, I’ll cut right down the center of the fabric between those “bumps” and stopping just a thread or two away from the freezer paper on that inside curve.
My next cut will be about 1/8″ away from the center of the inside curve..straight across from the edge of the freezer paper and to within a thread or two from the edge.
My next cut will be about 1/4″ away from the previous cut. I will be making cuts across from these on the other side of the inner curve too. These little cuts allow the seam allowance to turn under and lay nice and flat.
At this point I could applique this piece down, using my freezer paper as a guide, but this is where I stray away from how most other people do it. 
I will now go along and fold that seam allowance under, pinching it as I go..and basting that turned under seam allowance *right through the freezer paper*.
My main reason for prepping my applique this way is all of those outer curves. There are a lot of them and they’re pretty small. By doing it this way I can pinch and pleat and pinch and pleat as I go around that curve and not get a big bump of fabric. I’m able to distribute the bulk very easily, and the fabric doesn’t stretch out of shape as I stitch it down like it can with needleturn applique.
This is how the top side of my applique looks all basted. It’s ready to be lined up with those marks I made on my background and pinned in place ready to stitch. It’s the exact size it will be once sewn down so getting the placement right is easy.
This is how the back side looks. You can see the little pleats I made as I went around that outer curve, pinching and basting as I went.
Here my piece is pinned in place. The edges aren’t perfect. As I stitch along I will push or pull the fabric just a bit with the tip of my needle to get my edge perfectly smooth.
You can see here that the fabric at the very center of the inner curve needs to be tucked under a bit better.
I take the side of my needle tip and going from left to right, I sweep that edge under…and take a couple of stitches, and continue on around.
Here you can see I am working my way around the piece. You can see that I’ve been able to manipulate the edge of my piece with my needle and it’s smooth. Once I’ve gone around the whole piece, I remove the basting stitches and gently peel off the freezer paper. I will save this pattern piece..because I will be needing it for the other feathers.
I’m ready to do the next feather! 
I decided to chuck the brown fabric that was sent with my kit aside and changed it for this green fabric called Floret. I liked the variety of greens in it and thought it would look nice with the greens in my other fabrics. To make the bias for stems and vines first you make a cut at 45*. Once you have the correct angle established you just go along and cut slices from it, lining up your ruler with the edge. I need 1/4″ bias pieces so I cut my strips at 1/2″. This gives you a seam allowance to turn under. Why do we cut it on the bias? Because the fabric when cut on the bias will bend and curve and not pucker and wrinkle like a piece of fabric cut on the straight of grain. 
I like to give that strip a spritz of Best Press..which is a starch alternative..and smells nice too 
Sometimes it’s a bit difficult to get the fabric to feed through so you can press it, so take a threaded needle and catch the edge of the bias strip..and feed the needle through the tape maker. You can now gently pull the bias strip through. You will have your iron hot and ready to press the tape as it comes out of the maker. This will keep the edges turned under nicely, and you’ll get a nice even width strip of bias tape.
For this part of the project I need smaller lengths of the bias tape, but for the outer border I will need longer lengths. When I go to make that, I will join my strips with a seam sewn at that 45* angle..just like when we join pieces for binding..then feed my longer lengths through the maker. Once I have my tape made I like wrap it around a cardboard tube..yep..it’s from toilet paper. 
Once all of your strip pairs are sewn, press them with the seam towards the darker of your two strips. Then take your template/ruler and cut pieces along the strip set, laying the ruler one way then flipping the opposite for the next piece as you work your way along the strips until you have 6 of each color pairs.
Be sure to line up the registration mark from the paper template with the seam of your strip set as you go so your cutting is accurate. If you should slip..or get off in your cutting..realign the template and make a fresh cut to keep your angle true. You want nice true pieces so your hex is even and uniform once pieced. You will have plenty of fabric in your strip sets so don’t worry about running short. Sew three pieces of each of the strip set units to form a half hexagon. Feed these through your machine with the pressed seam allowance facing you.
Press these half hex units. I laid my unit on the ironing board and pressed each side piece away from the center. You will then go through your stack and trim away the little dog ear bits that are sticking out. You don’t want or need that extra bulk in your quilt.
Now for the fun part! It’s time to lay out your pieces to form rows. Be sure to match up your hexes with both of their halves next to each other. I have a design wall, but thought it would be easier to move pieces around so I liked the fabric/color placement if I didn’t have to deal with pins, so I laid my pieces out on the concrete driveway. You could lay it out on a floor or bed too? Once you have an arrangement that’s pleasing to you..decide if you’ll want a straight edge (which could have a border sewn on) or a zig zag like the original pattern. If you want a straight edge..count how many pieces you’ll need. This will vary with whatever size you’re making.
Yes, I know it’s fiddly stuff..but it’s worth the effort. Now you’ll press the seams in your rows. Press the seams in odd numbered rows to one side and even numbered rows to the other side. This will let your seams snug up against each other as you sew and everything will line up nice and neat.
This is how your edge will look if you opted for filling in the zig zag edge. You can now add a border if you’d like. At this point with 120 hexes my top measured at 80″x 71.5″. I decided to add borders cut at 6.5″ and ended up with a finished top that measured 92.5″x 83.5″. It fits my Queen sized bed just fine.
