PamelaQuilts: Adventurous Applique

Whew, another busy month, but I got my Island Batik Ambassador Challenge done this month! As usual, I used the fabrics supplied to me as an Ambassador, as well as a spool of Superior Threads that I received. In addition, I was provided a sample of Marti's Choice Fusible Tape by Marty Michell. I love trying new things, and I like sharing them with my readers as well - my opinions are my honest assessment of these products.

I don't do a lot of applique, so this challenge definitely was out of my box. It's not that applique is difficult or that I don't feel comfortable doing it, I just like piecing best. I had a hard time coming up with a plan, mostly because this month was so very busy, but once I got my fabric out and started playing, low and behold, the perfect idea came up! I felt very adventurous and it was really fun to do something different than the usual pieced project.

I thought I would make something with the Stamps (Dotalicious Wind), so started out by sewing them together to make the base of my table runner. After that, I thought about what I would like to applique. Flowers, of course came to mind, and I found this pretty floral in EQ7. At this point I decided that a word would be a fun touch, and what better word for this time of year than Bloom?

A little work in EQ7 and I had templates ready and started to get to work creating my table runner. I reversed my letters and traced them on the fusible web, then picked out the fabrics for the applique.
The blue was absolutely perfect - bright enough to stand out and my favorite sky blue color! This is from the Island Batik blender collection. The pinks were left from my Galentine's day project - just right for my flowers!

After getting the letters fused down, I added the flowers and finished getting my top ready. I decided to be even more adventurous and try out Marti's Fabulous Edge Finish. I did try this out first on a couple of smaller projects, and really liked it, so felt ready to try it on a larger project. I really do like how the Fusible tape holds the batting in place, and the idea of turning the project through a seam in the backing is super clever! It really makes for a crisp and even finish all the way around the edge of the quilt. I had to be very careful because this quilt is a bit bigger than my cutting table, so I could only do one section at a time, but with careful pinning and sewing I got the edges all sewn - then was ready to turn it right side out!

Finally ready for some quilting! I pulled some pink Sew Fine thread out of my stash (from my local quilt shop). I decided to use a size 11 needle and happily stitched until the next to last flower section. Suddenly my machine started making some really strange noises in the bobbin area! Somehow the thread caught up and snagged somewhere down there and caused a mess. I cleaned up the excess thread and started stitching again, but was having a horrible time with it skipping stitches.

I managed to finish up the flowers, and changed my thread to a pretty blue Masterpiece by Superior Threads - this one was part of my Ambassador Box goodies. My machine was not sewing right at all! I cleaned out the bobbin area, finding a long piece of black thread lurking in the bobbin, but still was having problems. I took off the throat plate and did some more cleaning out, and oiled everything. Still no help. It occurred to me that maybe there was a problem with the needle because I felt like the fabric was pulling to the right with every stitch. I took out the needle and compared it to a new one:

If you look at the shadow, you can see that the needle in the back is just ever so slightly bent! After putting in the new needle I was back in the groove and finished the quilting without a hitch - whew. This adventure was one I really didn't want to go on and I was so glad that the solution was so simple!

And look at the cute measuring cups I won at Bunco - don't they go perfectly with the runner? So cute!

I liked the runner so much that I decided to write it up into a pattern - it's available in my Etsy Shop:

Bloom Table Runner

Have you done anything out of your "box" lately? Maybe it's time to be a little adventurous! Here are the other Ambassador's blogs - see what they came up with as well!