Machine applique letters and flowers with HeatnBond: Great for quilting!

Yesterday, I showed you how to prepare the fusible letters and flowers to use in the Spring wall quilt. Now it’s time to get ready to start stitching everything with threads from the Gütermann Nostalgia Box of 50wt Cotton Thread

Arrange the flower pieces and flower centers as desired. Remove the backing paper from the HeatnBond EZ-Print Feather Lite Iron-On Adhesive sheets from the flower centers only. Press the centers in place.

Remove the backing paper from the flower shapes.

Place a small piece of HeatnBond Tear-Away Stabilizer under each flower shape.

Start by stitching the centers to the flowers. When using the Gütermann Nostalgia Box of 50wt Cotton Thread, you’ll have no problem finding all the thread colors you need! Here are the threads I’m using.

When stitching these small pieces in place, you want to reduce the sewing speed. It’s also a good idea to use an open toe foot so you can easily see where to stitch. I used a blanket stitch and some straight stitches around my flower centers, but you can use other decorative stitches if you wish.

When the flower centers are all stitched, carefully remove the excess HeatnBond Tear-Away Stabilizer.

Stitching the letters

I decided to use a straight stitch around the letters, but again, you can use a decorative stitch if you wish. For straight stitching, it’s best to use the straight stitch needle plate on your machine. This ensures that you get a more even and accurate stitch. Using a SCHMETZ Microtex (Sharp) needle with its slim point also helps to create perfectly straight stitches. I reduced the stitch length to 2.0 to help get around all the small curves more easily.

Stitching the flowers

Once the letters are all in place, it’s time to add the flowers and leaves.

Press the flowers and leaves in place on the background fabric using the Oliso Pro TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron on medium heat with no steam. Hold the iron in place for 6 seconds on the shapes. Complete directions for fusing the shapes on fabric are on the package of the HeatnBond Featherlite sheets.

I tried a variety of decorative stitches on a sample piece of fabric before stitching on my quilt top. It’s a good idea to keep a record of your sample stitches, with width and length used. Then you can use it as a reference for future projects. I decided to use a blanket stitch around all the edges.

Be sure to use a when doing decorative stitching.

Stitching the flowers

When using decorative stitching, it’s necessary to use a stabilizer on the back to ensure perfect stitching. I used HeatnBond Tear-Away Stabilizer. Place a piece of stabilizer on the back of the fabric, under the flower section. Pin or baste it in place.

Stitch around all the shapes using your desired stitches. Even though I was using several different thread colors from the Gütermann Nostalgia Box of 50wt Cotton Thread, I found I could use just one of the neutral-colored threads from the collection in the bobbin and it would blend with all of the other colors.

When the stitching is finished, carefully remove the excess stabilizer.

And here’s my finished quilt top! This quilt will be 19″ x 28″ when finished, but yours may be a different size, depending on your flower placement.

Finishing

Layer the finished quilt top, batting and backing and you’re ready to quilt. I’m using a variety of the blue threads that are included in the Gütermann Nostalgia Box of 50wt Cotton Thread. What a treat to have all these different colors in one thread collection!

I hope you come back tomorrow and see how to use a panel to showcase threads from the Gütermann Nostalgia Box of 50wt Cotton Thread.

This is part 3 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 2: A quilted spring wall quilt in the making: preparing applique shapes

Go to part 4: How to sew a quilt panel to enhance its image | Gütermann cotton threads