QUILTsocial | Issue 03 Spring 2015

Sewing
the
applique shapes
After spending a couple days going through the different decorative
stitches on the PFAFF Creative 4.5 sewing machine and finally made a
decision on which stitch to use when sewing the applique shapes to
the What’s Good For the Gal is Good For the Guy quilt.
Certainly it hasn't been easy to choose from the extensive selection of
decorative stiches. Narrowing it down to a 'manly' stitch helped, but
nonetheless. "Please give a standing ovation and round of applause
to the winner: The Satin Stitch!" The satin stitch is elegant and neutral,
and used on the applique for this particular quilt, represents a clean
and logical personality. Of all the stitches I auditioned, this one will
stand up to daily wear and tear, when used daily in a university dorm.
Sewing around the shapes
The next decision was choosing a color of thread to use for stitching
around each applique shape. I decided on a taupe color, which blends
with some of the Eclectic Elements fabric and stands out on others.
All in all, I do believe it’s a good balance. The applique shapes can be
seen, but don’t jump off the quilt saying: “look at me, here I am!”
The stitch width was set at 3.0 and the length at 1.0 to create a fairly
dense stitch.
TIP When sewing a dense satin stitch do not try to push or pull
the fabric along as this causes gaps in the stitching. Just let the
machine feed the fabric along and the stitching will be nice and
even.
To help create a great looking stitch, I used an open toed foot with
the IDT system engaged. I also added a leave-in fusible fleece stabilizer
behind the applique shapes on the back of the quilt. These three
elements allow the stitches to look their best.
Once the sewing was complete on the shapes, the next step is to sew
the quilt top together. I sewed the sections together row-by-row. As
the rows were sewn together, other hexagons needed to be added.
But, with the large throat space on the PFAFF Creative 4.5, it was easy
to maneuver the quilt to stitch around those few shapes.
Just because I like to tease, I’m only going to show part of the quilt
sewn together.
The satin stitch
Satin stitch with taupe thread
Stabilizer applied to back of applique shapes
Mirroring stitches
I personally have never mirrored a stitch as I have had no reason to do
so because I don’t use many stitches that work well with the mirroring
tool. It’s so easy to use! All you have to do is click on the mirror icons
to mirror the stitch either side-to-side or end-to-end. The icon with
the stylus pointing at it and the arrows pointing side-to-side mirrors a
stitch-to-side. Whereas, the icon beside it with the arrows pointing up
and down mirrors the stitch from end-to-end.
Below is a photo of a stitch pattern that I mirrored side-to-side so that
the circles are on top instead of on the bottom of the stitch pattern.
Q
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spring 2015
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