QUILTsocial | Issue 03 Spring 2015

Zigzag squares all in a row
16
4 variations of the blanket stitch
Manly-looking decorative stitches
Decorative stitches
on the
PFAFF Creative 4.5
Decorative stitches that look manly
Since this quilt is for a young man, I wouldn’t want to be adding
decorative stitches that looked girlie such as hearts, flowers and
leaves. I went searching for stitches that had a more manly look
to them and came up with a few that I think are interesting.
I found a few that looked interesting, however they won’t work
very well for securing the applique pieces because they are too
difficult to place along the edge of the applique shape.
I love the 'circle in a circle' motif, however, here too, it will be
difficult to use for the purpose of applique.
Adding the applique shapes
When I started with the applique shapes, I had visions of the
hexagons being connected with lines of fabric. As I placed and
re-placed the shapes on the quilt to get the optimal placement
of the hexagons within the design of the quilt, I changed my
mind about connecting them. I only wanted the shapes to be
placed on the background fabric but didn’t want to use up all of
the negative space. Otherwise, the quilt would be too busy and,
if I’d connected each shape, the background space would be
overwhelmingly busy. Instead, I did the opposite and went with
the more of the minimalist thing.
TIP Placing the quilt sections on the large design wall
made it easier to see what the whole piece is going to look
like. Standing back at least 10 feet and looking straight at
your work makes a huge difference when auditioning fabrics,
shapes, colors, blocks, etc. If you don’t have the space
to stand back and look at your work, then use a reducing
glass to achieve the same effect. Taking a picture and looking
at it on the camera or on a computer screen will give
the same perspective.
I’ve added the applique pieces to the sections I sewed together.
The corner sections each have three hexagon rings arranged
together in a straight line coming out from the snowball block.
Arranging the hexagons this way creates the look of a linked
chain.
The outer edge middle sections continue the hexagon line from
the snowball block, as well as, adding solid hexagons to the
points of the intertwined block.
Finally, the middle section has solid hexagons added around
the intertwined block and in the middle block of the quilt.
Keeping these pieces in sections rather than sewing the whole
quilt together will make it easier to stitch around the applique
pieces.
There’s so much the PFAFF Creative 4.5 has to offer in decorative
stitches; there are all kinds of options. I’ve only touched
on a small amount of what this machine can do. If I were to go
through it all, we would be here all year – well, not quite, but it’s
quite extensive. See the large variety of stitches in our March post.