Yesterday we had a wonderful time using decorative stitches to add depth and dimension to our machine applique.
Now it’s time to complete our quilted Welcome Spring banner.
I’m just loving the look of the Black & White with a Dash of Color from NORTHCOTT Studio with my GÜTERMANN Dekor rayon threads!
Finished Welcome Spring quilted banner
1 Tidying up
Remove the Tear Away stabilizer.
Brace the stitching with your fingers and gently tear the stabilizer away from the stitching.
Our UNIQUE Tear Away will tear easily in any direction making it easy to remove.
You can lightly score the stabilizer with a pair of scissors to open up a section to allow you to pull the stabilizer away. This works especially well on smaller sections such as the inside of your lettering.
Take care that the scissors do not have a sharp point that might damage the fabric behind the stabilizer.
Don’t try to remove the stabilizer from very small sections or from underneath the actual stitching.
Gently remove the Tear Away.
Use a rotary cutter and ruler to straighten and square up the edges of the banner. The finished size should be approximately 20½” x 30″.
2 Layering and Quilting
Tape or clamp your backing fabric to a table with the right side of the fabric facing down.
Gently smooth your FAIRFIELD Soft & Toasty cotton quilt batting over top of the backing fabric.
Now place the completed banner with the right side up on top of the quilt batting and smooth in place.
Be sure to have an extra inch or two batting and backing on all sides to allow the top to shift a bit when quilting.
Lightly pin baste with your HEIRLOOM safety pins.
Layer the backing, batting and top
Fill a bobbin withGÜTERMANN Dekor rayon thread to match your backing fabric.
We will continue to use our SCHMETZ 75/11 Embroidery needle for the quilting.
Use a darning foot if you’re comfortable with free motion quilting. A walking foot can be used if you prefer.
Thread your machine with rayon thread in a color of your choice and quilt around each of the applique pieces.
I used royal blue around the flower, leaves and around each letter then changed to my orange thread for around the center of the flower.
Add quilting details to the flower as desired. Follow the areas that had color added to increase the 3-dimensional illusion.
Flower with quilting detail added
3 The finish line
Re-thread your sewing machine with GÜTERMANN 50 weight cotton thread to match your background fabric.
Trim the excess batting and backing fabric from your quilted banner.
From your ⅓ yard bright green binding fabric cut 3 strips 2½ x the width of the fabric.
Fold each strip in half lengthwise with the wrong sides together and press.
Trim the selvedge edge from one strip and cut it into two 21½ pieces. Don’t worry if the size is not exact, you just need a little extra on each side to fold under.
Prepare the binding strips.
From any of your leftover fabrics cut a 5½ x 20″ strip for a hanging sleeve. You can sew leftover pieces together for this if you don’t have a large enough piece. I used my leftover backing fabric.
Fold in ½” on both short sides of the 5½” strip and press.
Press the strip in half lengthwise with the wrong sides together. With matching cotton thread topstitch the short sides.
Set aside for now.
Prepare the hanging sleeve.
Working from the front of your quilted banner line up the raw edges of one of your long binding strips with the raw edges of a long side. Stitch in place.
Sew the binding to the right sides with all raw edges even.
Trim the excess binding even with the top and bottom edges.
Trim off the excess binding
Turn the binding to the back and stitch in place by hand or machine.
Repeat for the other side.
Open up the two short binding pieces and fold in the short ends on each side to make the binding strips the same width as the banner.
Fold back as before, wrong sides together.
Sew the bottom binding in place, turn to the back and finish as for the sides.
Turn under the short sides and sew the bottom binding in place.
Center and pin the hanging sleeve to the back of the top edge before applying the binding.
Have the raw edges even as with your binding.
Pin your binding strip in place on the front and stitch both the binding and the hanging sleeve in place at the same time.
Turn the binding to the back and finish as before.
Hand stitch the bottom edge of the hanging sleeve to the back of your banner.
Pin both the hanging sleeve and binding to the top edge.
I hope you enjoyed our week together as we explored the basics of machine applique with decorative stitches.
You’re ready to hang your fun quilted Welcome Spring banner!
This is part 5 of 5 in this series.
Go back to part 4: Tear away stabilizer, batting and binding to finish Welcome Spring banner
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