Hey, things are really heating up here at Man Sewing. So I had to come up with a super
cool project for today. We’re doing snowflake applique.
That’s right. Walk yourselves right back to your kindergarten days. This is going to
be one of the funnest projects ever. I guarantee it. And super simple. I want you to grab 2
½ yards of your favorite solid and about two yards of a great batik to match. And you
can go low contrast, high contrast, any way you like. And you’re also going to need
about a yard and a quarter of batting because you’re going to build yourself up a sandwich.
So come down here with me to the table. Here’s those favorite fabrics that I’ve got. And
I’ve already got my sandwich ready. It’s 45 inches square. And I’ve got my top which
is my solid. I’ve got my batting. And then I’m using the same as my back there, another
bit of the solid. So this has been prepped out. I haven’t pinned or thread basted it
yet. I’m going to wait until the design of the applique is finished. How are we going
to get the applique done, right? I’m serious. It’s just like kindergarten.
So I want you to take your batik fabric. The one that’s got all the print and texture
to it visually, right? And now for mine we’re going to put fusible web on the backside.
But some batiks don’t really have a true backside. This one certainly did. It’s really
cool. And it actually has a silver imprint of the snowflake itself on it. So when I was
getting ready to put the fusible web on I made sure that I was working on the backside
because I am going to laminate it all with my Heat N Bond Featherlite that I love so
much. And then what happens is the paper is going to be adhered. And when I start to fold
this up like we do for a regular snowflake style projects, we’re going to fold it with
the paper side out. And I’m going to pay attention to make sure I’m nice and square
so I have great symmet, oh that was going to be tough to say. I slowing it down right
there, symmetrical layout in the background, right? The coffee is kicking in. So I’m
going to do one fold square. A second fold square. Let’s take the time to get that
crease out there, nice. Ok, and then I want to do one diagonal fold as well. I’m going
to remind you the paper is on here for stability. And also if we were folding it with the glue
already exposed it could be sticking to itself. So we don’t want that either.
Now what I have is just like our piece of paper in grade school, right? I’m going
to encourage you to use a really good, heavy duty pair of scissors for this. And very easy
geometric cuts as well. I like to start of that spine or the center part here. And what
I mean by geometric cuts is literally I’m going to go in and do a straight line in.
And a straight line. Of course you could do curves if you wanted. But on your first one
why don’t you try to do it straight. And then also remember we are going to be stitching
around these when we’re all done. Take the time to get those little corners out if you
need. . Ok let’s do another one. Maybe a little bit less for character. Well heck while
we’re on it, let’s do a third. Now the fun part about this is every snowflake is
going to be different. So I’m looking forward to seeing all your designs out there as well.
And I’m going to keep cutting here for a second and get a bunch of this whittled down.
Now as you’re cutting through your pieces, a couple things we should point out. Again
this is a great project for you to work on with the young quilters in your life. But
do notice I’m being a little bit hazardous. You can’t see my low fingers. And I”m
making some pretty big and aggressive cuts. So if you’re working with youngsters make
sure that this other hand is well out of the way with these cuts. And then one of the things
we all are laughing at while making our snowflake samples and stuff is that we all have a tendency
to overdo it. So when I get to a point where I’ve got some of my cutting done already
I often have the tendency to want to start to open it up and see. I don’t want you
to open it up too far because it’s hard to put back together. But as I start to look
through there what I’m personally visualizing in this is I want to make sure that I’m
able to still see my batik against the background fabric. So I don’t want to cut away too
much. Let’s make a few more slices if we can. Here make sure you get it back together
as it was. This could be the end of my snowflake. And then after we get a few of those details
and cuts in I”m going to go back and pull all of that paper off at one point. And I’ll
just talk you through some other little tricks while I’m doing this. And I don’t know
if I mentioned earlier but I was actually using some of little scrap pieces of my Heat
N Bond Featherlite to splice in here. This is a giant piece of applique. So if a little
bit of the glue isn’t in all of the spots, it’s not going to affect the entire bond
as we’re getting ready to process it for the machine quilting. Ok now I think I’ve
got it just the way I like. Let’s open it up one last time and double check. Oh, this
is going to be awesome. Now what I’m going to do is lay it out. Oh this is great. Ok.
Oh I love the center. It’s such a surprise every time. It’s so fun, ok? So then I’m
looking. I love it. And now at this point I’m just going to roll this back here. Find
one of those places where I’ve actually had a splice and grab at it and just start
peeling the paper. And I’ll be right back to show you that finished up.
Now as I’m grabbing this last piece of paper off the back of the applique piece, the batik.
I do want to remind you that some fusibles can get a little tacky. So this isn’t going
to act like duct tape in the wind. But I don’t want to let the layers stick together too
much as I’m getting ready to flip it over. You can see all that shininess. That is the
glue on there, right? So we’re just going to quickly try to flip it and drop it. And
then I’m going to start to manipulate it into place. Just kind of looking for the edge
pieces first. Now I will be ironing this down in a second. So also as I’m looking around,
if I end up with any scrap pieces while I was trimming because I was working on top
of my background area. Make sure you pick up those scrap pieces too. We don’t want
to accidentally iron those down in a spot we don’t want them. And I’m just going
to work this for a second. And then we’re going to start our pressing from the center
out. So I’m making sure that my iron is getting nice and hot down here. And it’s
going to be a dry iron. And one of the other things that happens when you’re pressing
this large of an applique piece, either if it’s when you’re putting the fusible web
on the backside or if it’s when we’re getting ready to iron it down. Your iron is
going to have to re-charge its temperature several times. You’re not going to be able
to press this effectively down with one iron. You’re going to have to let it heat up over
and over again. And that’s whether it’s corded or uncorded. A corded iron still has
to heat up as well. Ok, I have a funny story while I’m working through this. My old studio
the electrical wasn’t very safe and so I always knew when the dryer and washer was
finished or when my iron was heating up because the lights would get dim in my studio. So
I always knew when my iron was running a little bit cool. Now the laundry was finished and
I think I stalled just long enough.
Now you can see how nice and crisp this is, right? And like I said, I’m going to take
this hot iron. And I’m going to take it and I’m going to drop it. Making sure I’m
perfect. Right in the center. And I’m giving it just a couple of seconds because it is
the Heat N Bond Featherlite. But if you’re using a different brand just follow your manufacturer's
instructions, right? I don’t want to be giving you bad numbers if you’re using a
different style. And I’m just tacking it down as I go. It takes a couple seconds. And
then I’m going to let the iron heat back up on the base. Come back to it and keep working
all the way out. Once it’s all pressed down we’re going to treat this as it’s a regular
quilt. You do remember you have the batting already underneath that helped us iron in
place, right? And the backing. But we’re going to still take our safety pins. I like
to pin baste into the background area so that I’m not pinning into the batik. We’re
going to free motion machine quilt down along the edges. Join me here at the quilt. I want
to show you what I’m talking about.
Now what I ended up doing is I started in the middle here and I went ahead and I did
free motion machine quilting as I went around the edges of all of my shapes. Just working
my way out of the center. But the reason I did the free motion machine quilting instead
of feed dogs up, it’s a lot to manipulate. And I don’t want any of the glue parts to
start to release while I’m kind of wadding it. So by going free motion, I can go a square
like this instead of having to turn all four corners. That was my motion. That was the
way I tried it because I love free motion. I can also go back into the quilt and add
in all kinds of extra detail. I can fill in all of these spaces with neutral color threads,
new kinds of threads to add more impact to the quilt. And again if you’re comfortable
with your feed dogs up and in standard motion and that’s the way you like to do it, well
then do it that way. Because that’s what we’re all about here at Man Sewing is the
creative process and doing things maybe sometimes just a little bit different. Remember we have
a wonderful Facebook and Instagram community out there as well under Man Sewing. So I’d
love to see photos of you and your fantastic new snowflake applique quilts. And I’ve
got to get back in the studio and make something new for you, right here at Man Sewing.
Thanks for being a Man Sewing fan. It’s great to have you out there encouraging me
to create fantastic new content. If you’ve missed any of the videos we’ve got links
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