Three critical tips for fusing (ask me how I know!)

Welcome back! Yesterday, with the help of the OLFA Rotary Circle Cutter I cut all the half-circles needed for the construction of my take on a windmill quilt.

Today’s fun is all about fusing those red and yellow half-circles to the green background fabric to make windmill blocks.

OLFA Rotary Circle Cutter

First, mark the center point of one side of each of the (16) 10½” x 10½” green background fabric squares.

I’m using the OLFA 6″ x 12″ Frosted Acrylic Ruler to measure and mark 5¼” from one of the block’s edges. The white mark itself is less than ¼” in length, perpendicular to the edge of each square.

Mark the center point at 5¼” with a small line on one edge of each of the background fabric squares.

Before fusing the yellow and red half circles to the background fabric, preheat the Oliso PRO^TM TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron to the silk setting as recommended in the HeatnBond Non-Woven Light Weight Fusible Interfacing instructions.

Note: I can’t stress this enough! Read all the instructions included with the interfacing. Even within the same brand, fusing instructions can change depending on the individual product.

Here are three fusing tips and tricks I’ve learned through experience:

• only remove the interfacing paper at the point of fusing, and not before
• do not keep the pieces to be fused close to the hot iron
• when preparing to fuse another fabric piece, do not lay it on the warm ironing board where another piece was just fused

Now, on to the fusing!

On the edge of the background square where the mark was drawn, center the large red half-circle and fuse it to the background fabric. Repeat this step on all 16 background squares.

Center and fuse the red half-circle to the background fabric square.

Before fusing the smaller yellow half-circle, hold it up to a light or window to see the line of the X previously drawn on the interfacing’s paper backing. Using the X as a guide to find the center point, draw a small mark on the straight edge of the yellow half-circle.

Place a small mark in the center of the half-circle’s straight edge.

Remove the interfacing backing paper and line up the mark on the yellow half-circle with the mark on the edge of the background fabric.

Line up the markings of the small yellow half-circle and the background fabric square.

Slide the half-circle piece down to meet the edge of the background fabric and fuse it into place.

Fuse small half-circles over top of the large half-circles.

With the yellow and red half-circles fused to the green background fabric squares, today’s work is done. Remember the three tips I mentioned earlier about when and where to remove the HeatnBond interfacing backing paper as you’re working!

Today’s fusing and yesterday’s cutting were made easy with the OLFA Rotary Circle Cutter, the Oliso PRO^TM TG1600 Pro Plus Smart Iron and HeatnBond Non-Woven Lightweight Fusible Interfacing. Be sure to have these time-saving (and trouble-saving) tools and products in your sewing room to make completing your projects a breeze.

The Oliso Pro TG1600 iron and HeatnBond Fusible Interfacing.

Tomorrow, I’ll put the finishing touches on these circular windmill blocks before assembling the quilt top. See you then!

This is part 3 of 5 in this series

Go back to part 2: Cut perfect circles with OLFA circle cutter | how to use it

Go to part 4: Finish off those windmill blocks with beautiful machine applique stitching

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