Lollypop Trees Rise Again

One advantage to being in a group like Leanne’s Finish-A-Long (FAL), is that you have a reason to pull those unfinished projects to the front of the line, rather than letting good solid work be upstaged consistently by the New! and the Fabulous! and the Have You Seen This Fabric Line! sort of business.  So the Lollies came out of hibernation.

Lollypop Tree Four.

Lollypop Tree block five.

Lollypop Tree block Six.

So I’ve appliqued six to their background fabric, using the freezer-paper, then invisible thread in top spool method.

I’ve discussed this in buckets of digitial bytes in other posts, but here’s a photo of me going at it.  Yes, those are teensy applique pins and when you have about 60 of them on a block (these are huge blocks), it helps that they are small so you are not stabbed to death by pins.  I also hang my sweater on the back of the chair, as they have affinity with knitted things–they get caught in the sleeves.  I use a 1.0 width zig-zag with a 2.0 length of stitch, with Mono-Poly invisible thread in the top spool (put a netting on it and you will be happier) and Bottom Line thread in the bobbin.  I also dial back the upper tension by half, down to 2.2 and use a very slender needle.  Both threads are made by Superior Threads.

My student papers don’t come in until Thursday evening, so maybe I can squeak out three more blocks?  It takes about an hour to stitch each block, and another 20 minutes to open up the back and take all the freezer paper pieces out. I know I won’t finish the quilt this first quarter of the FAL, but the very fact that I’m sewing on these trees is a benefit of signing up. I’ll be thrilled just to get the blocks done.

Now head back to Lee’s Freshly Pieced blog to see more Works in Progress!

Lollypop Tree–Block One

One down!  Who Knows How Many to go!

How I did the machine applique:

You saw the earlier post on preparing the pieces: freezer paper lightly glued to the back of the fabric with a regular glue stick, the edges pressed over onto the waxy side, tamping them into place.  I got out a stiletto to assist me wherever the going got tough: where there was a tuck, or a sharp corner that normally, with the edge of hand needle-turn applique, would be smoothed out.  I lined up my piece with the center notch of my presser foot, and with a narrow zig-zag (1.0) and smallish stitch length (1.5 on a Husqvarna), went sort of slowly.

Remember that I’m a beginner.

Then I cut out the back of the pieces with the freezer paper (mostly the large and interestingly shaped pieces), leaving a 1/4-inch seam allowance. The glossy surface you see is the waxy side of the freezer paper.  Kind of pull–a bit–the edge of the applique to “break” the seal of the bond between the fabric and freezer paper, then place your scissors (closed) or your finger under the freezer paper and snap it out.

I took the paper out, finished cutting, then pressed it all, face-down on the ironing board.

I’m still stewing about whether or not I want to do hand-applique.  We’re in the middle of watching Foyle’s War, a BBC-TV production, and there’s something so relaxing about hand work and television.  But I also know that while I really like this pattern, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life making it, and I’m not that fast of an appliquer.

Fret. Fret. Fret.  I hope I’m not the only one in  Quilt Land who stews about these kinds of decisions–should I do it this way, or that? Use this technique or that?