Playing with Trapplique

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

10 Responses

  1. Anne-Marie says:

    Wow! This is great! Do you also use a backing for the individual pieces, or just top fabric with batting? I will try this for sure with some of the FMQ samples I make from your designs and from Patsy Thompson's CDs I have. You are so lucky to have attented some of Patsy Thompson's workshops!

  2. Leah Day says:

    Hi Anne-Marie – I just used batting on the backs of my trapplique, no backing fabric. I figure – why waste the fabric when it's not going to show once it's stitched onto the quilt?

    I use polyester felt – craft felt you can get really cheap – because it's cheaper and has a slightly stiffer feel which makes it great for this kind of work.

    Really any kind of batting will do so now you have something you can do with all those batting scraps!

    Cheers,

    Leah

  3. -amy says:

    This is wonderful. I have never tried trapunto but this seams like it would be a great effect for applique. When I am doing lots of dense satin stitching I use a thin fusible web under my batting (for stabilizing) and later add the backing and quilt around the motifs and sometimes in the motif… This way the satin stiches are enclosed inside the quilt and not showing up like a sore thumb on the back. I love this new trapplique technique and will have to try it out soon!

  4. a1angiem says:

    That is too funny! I JUST emailed Patsy – she is fantastic! And I was trying to arrange attending her class last week! My 2 favourite quilters in the same place….wow! An interesting technique – I will file that somewhere in the brain for the future when I know the the heck I'm doing! I am satin stitching at this very moment (a break to check the blog) and since it's my first time, I had some questions! Thanks again!

  5. KnightMare says:

    Hi, Im not a quilter (well not yet) but enjoy reading your posts as I am planning to get into it.

    The problems with the back of the quilt: Could you construct your trapplique pieces place them and then sow onto the top before you apply the batting then quilt the remaining areas as normal
    (or just keep the backing material off whilst attaching the trapplique piece if you want to go through the batting)

    Just a thought, hope it might help.

    Pippa

  6. Nina-Marie says:

    Interesting technique! I too am not a huge fan of turn under applique – although so of my designs do call for it. For my looser stuff I use raw edge applique (without fusing!). I love to put thread work into my pieces so once all the fabric is down I just put in the color thread work over it – it comes out great and I still get the nice puffs to add texture!

  7. Kerstin says:

    Hi, I like this!! But I just keep trying do your freemotion designs and take a LITTLE step forward every day! It's fun!
    Thanks for fine videos!

    Cheers,

    Kerstin

  8. Nina Paley says:

    Woohoo, thanks for the mention Leah!

    I use thin unbleached muslin for the backs of my trapplique pieces, because it helps hold everything together and keeps extra batting fuzz from getting sucked into the sewing machine. But it's true, those bits of fabric will never be seen by anyone, as they get sandwiched into the quilt.

    It's always fun to read your blog, even as I have completely stopped quilting for the Summer. It's just too darned hot in New York right now. Hopefully I'll get back into the groove once it cools down.

  9. Vickie says:

    Thank you for introducing me to Nina Paley site. Her work is imaginative and innovative. To reduce the messiness from the satin stitching, what if you applique your pieces before doing the sandwich for the entire quilt?

  10. Karen Mills says:

    You've helped expand my future quilting possibilities. Hooray for the creative mind! I'm a constant follower of your site, but don't know if any of my WordPress blogs are getting through.

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