Supplies I Love to Use
Fabric Choices
Good quality, cotton fabric is easiest to
use for needleturn hand appliqué. I find that softer fabric is easier to
work with and gives me smoother curves, so wash and press all fabrics
before, if possible. I find that two color, low contrast, or tone-on-tone prints in a medium or small scale are the most successful types of fabrics for small appliqué motifs. However, larger scale prints add movement and visual excitement to any quilt. Make sure that the print isn’t so high contrast that it reads “busy” in your quilt. You will know if it does; you won’t be able to take your eyes off that piece. Include a wide range of values from very dark to medium light for each color you will use. Don’t forget to use some intense colors. |
Notions
The right notions make life much easier when you are doing handwork, so here are some of the notions I use and love. Most are available from your local quilt shop or on the web, if you do a Google search.
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Plastic Templates I
use I.P.P. sheet plastic (14" x 20" sheet)
available at many quilt shops. It is translucent and easily cut with
scissors.
I
trace with a Sharpie® or IdentiPen® Permanent Marker. I use large scissors to
cut templates - I get a smoother cut with large scissors, even if the
templates are very small! Fiskar Easy Action™ spring-loaded scissors are easy
on my hands. Of course, don't use your good fabric scissors to cut plastic! |
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Marking
Pencils A
mechanical pencil with a hard lead is great for
transferring the appliqué pattern onto the background fabric. It will
ensure that you draw a light, thin line. Sanford Prismacolor Verithin® pencils are my favorites for
tracing shapes onto the face side of the appliqué fabrics (make sure they
are identified as Verithin®, not just Prismacolor). They keep a
nice sharp point for accurate placement lines and are cheap. The
yellow
or silver seem
to show up on
most fabrics.
I also like and use the newer, more expensive 0.7mm or 0.9mm colored lead
mechanical pencils, although they make a bit thicker line than I like.
Clover, Sewline and Bohine all make versions of these. Again, I use the
color yellow the most. |
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Pins My favorite pins are Collins 1¼"
silk
pins. They are very long,
very fine pins with small heads. Clover Patchwork Pins Fine are also very good. |
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Needles I use #10 or #11
Betweens (quilting needles) for everything. I
like the control I
have over the
fabric and the smaller stitches I
take with short needles. I
am out of the needle business. I now recommend “S. Thomas and Sons
betweens”, (probably available from Colonial needle (google for source). |
Frixion® Erasable Gel Pens by Pilot There are a lot of opinions about these pens, so here is mine. I used these pens and did some testing with them, and I see some definite advantages to using them. The line is very visible (although a little thicker than I like) and it disappears completely with the heat of an iron. I think they are a good solution for those of you who have trouble seeing and need to mark with a dark line. |
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I did a test of these pens in March, 2011, under varying conditions. In my testing, I found that the line did return if the fabric got very cold (I put it in the freezer), but disappeared completely again if I ironed it. The re-appearing line also disappeared when I put the fabric test sample in a dryer on the “Delicate” setting for 20 minutes. I put a test piece on the front seat of a car in Wisconsin overnight when the temperature dipped below 20ºF and the line came back faintly; It disappeared completely again when I ironed it. I also put the test piece in the outside pocket of my checked luggage on a commuter airplane, and on a large commercial airplane, and the line did not re-appear after these trips. I washed a test piece in a home washing machine three times, and the lines disappeared after multiple machine washings. |
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My conclusion after all this testing is that, unless
you are shipping a quilt to someone who will use it camping in North
Dakota in January, you are fairly safe marking with this pen. How
will it affect the fabric over a number of years? Who knows? But
there are a lot of products being used in quiltmaking these days -
including sprays, fusible products, paints and markers – that have
not been around long enough to know how they will affect your quilt
over generations. So use at your own risk.
Recently I have noticed "ghost" lines reappearing on navy and grey fabric. Always test before using. |
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