Superfantastic Quilts

My favorite and go to stitch when I am appliqueing is the blanket stitch.  I have always admired this stitch and think that it provides a lot more character to the piece of work than a straight stitch, satin stitch or zip zag stitch. When setting up your blanket stitch, I understand that you want to try and have the length of your stitch be the same as the depth of the stitch that goes into the fabric.  It is nice if you have a machine that allows you to adjust these two items on your stitch.  My machine will allow me to adjust both which will come in very handy.  In the picture below you can see the structure of the blanket stitch. Also on my machine, there are about 9 different options for the style of blanket stitch that you want to use.  The one that I use the most is what I call the double stitch, which puts a double line of thread at each point in the stitch with just the very slightest offset.  This version accentuates the stitch even more and...

If you are going to do applique you have to find a fusible backing that works well for your projects.  I have chosen to use Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 for my projects.  There are a number of reasons why I like the product for my applique.  The first reason I like it is it has a one-inch grid printed on it so that it is easy to cut pieces the right size for each piece of applique you are going to cut.  It comes in two different size rolls, one that is 12 inches wide and one that is 18 inches wide.  I like the 18" roll the best.  The box has 25 yards which will allow you to make quite a few quilts. The lite version of the product provides a less stiff finished product than some of the other fusible backings. The other great benefit of steam a seam 2 is that it has a sticky backing on both sides.  This is very helpful when you are trying to place the cut piece onto your project.  Some of the other fusible are slick and are always sliding a ...