Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Free motion zigzag -- my favorite. . .

My Quilted Symphony 2 project is coming along.  You may notice that my fabric choices have changed a bit.  I decided to replace the original red with green to make my leaves blend with the butterfly applique I will add.
Now the fun begins with adding applique and thread embellishment.  I began with the two leaves that have appliqued stems.  To trace the shapes, I first had to reverse them from the original pattern.  I then traced them onto fusible web, rough cut the fusible web, pressed it to the fabric of choice, and cut the shape out on the line.
The stem was pressed onto the leaf.  I choose to embellish the stem with yellow thread using the free motion zigzag stitch, my new personal favorite.  I like the rhythm I can get into when sewing this stitch.  Free motion zigzag stitch is done by dropping the feed dogs and selecting the zigzag stitch on the sewing machine.  I chose my stitch width for the stems to be 2.0.
I then needed to add the mosaic tiles to the larger leaves.  Again the pattern needed to be reversed to trace to fusible web.  The rough cut traced fusible web was pressed to the tile fabric.
  
The tile pieces were not labeled so as I cut them out I left the stem section intact.  Although not using it on the final product, I was able to use it for the layout of the tiles.
I again chose the free motion zigzag stitch at a 2.5 width with yellow thread.
With the embellishment done it is now time to put the pieces together.
Until next time,


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