Originally Posted by Quilter7x

When I use freezer paper for applique, I cut the freezer paper the shape it is supposed to be, then iron it onto the back of my fabric (just takes a second or two, no more to press it on). Cut the fabric about 1/4" away from the freezer paper. Then I take some spray starch and spray it into a small container to get it into a liquid state (the measuring thing from cold medicine or a camera film container is a great size). Dip a Q-Tip into the liquid starch and saturate the seam allowance of the fabric, then press it over the edge of the freezer paper with the iron. When you're done, you can remove the freezer paper and attach your applique to its backing. The starch will wash out and there's nothing left to make it stiff.

Clear as mud? :D

P.S. They now make freezer paper sheets that go in your printer, so you can print your designs on them. Pretty cool!

Originally Posted by weezie

Thanks, Lisa. It was in McCall's Quilting April 2002 issue. It's called "Embracing Sharon" done for Sharon ?? whose son had cancer.

I now have a friend in another state who is dying of cancer; when I first heard the diagnosis, I thought, "I'll sandwich and quilt my little applique lap quilt top and send it to her for when she gets out of the hospital and goes home." Initially, the guesstimate was that she had a year to live, but it's been only weeks since they found the cancer and her time left is now down to a matter of days or hours, I think; her powerful pain meds. have "taken her away" already. So, sadly, I never completed the quilt. I had forgotten until now that the original quilt was designed and made for a cancer victim.

So ... not a happy quilt.

Originally Posted by Calif Jane

The trick with freezer paper is to make it three sheets thick; then it is easy to use starch and press the seam over the paper. Remove the paper and attach the applique to your background fabric. Freezer paper is great because you can trace the pattern onto one thickness, then layer the three sheets and then cut it out on the line. Then iron the freezer paper template to the wrongside of the fabric. You will be ironing the freezer paper to your ironing board, but no problem. You can use your freezer paper template multiple times and it will still stick to your fabric. The template is easily removed from your applique before gluing it to the background.