Becky Crafts

Thank you all for the help & encouragement. I was pretty frustrated for a while there. I'll post a picture when I get the top done. I want to swap out the framing fabric on it, but my husband says I'm being too picky. I think at present it's too busy considering the edging will include blocks of each of the butterfly fabrics chosen for their brightness factor. Although sunflowers on a green back-ground are appropriate, I still think it's too busy & takes away from the quilt top. We'll see who wins in the end. :-)

Lucky Patsy's

For small or tight curves, I take a running stitch with needle and thread in the middle of the seam allowance, and then pull it like a gathering stitch while the template is still in side. Then iron the seam allowance down, remove the template and applique. Of course, you have to have a template that won't melt when you iron.

Becky Crafts

Thank you for the helpful tip. I was using a cardboard template cut from a cereal box. Then after steaming it to the butterfly shape, I'd pull it off & flatten it with steam again. My problem was with the rounded body areas. The final way was to make the 3 cuts, use a glue stick, stick it together as close to rounded as I could. Actually they're all done now & I'm about to start hand-tacking them down before I do the actual machine applique. I'll get some pictures taken of it after I finish the quilt top so I can get reactions to it.

Becky Crafts

As promised, here is the picture of what I've done so far. I'm hand-stitching the butterflies at present to get the best look, then will go over them with the machine.