The card stock stays in until I am ready to sew the circles on.
cleodaisy

Does anyone have a fool-proof way of doing "innies". My out points are good, but have trouble with the in-points/clevage.

I do needle-turn applique and enjoy it very much.

Not fool-proof by any means, but what I do is clip to the inside point JUST before stitching, stitch down one side of the V until about an eighth of an inch from the point, then use the side of the needle to sweep the point of the V under, going from one side about a quarter inch up to the other side where the stiching done so far stops. Then pinch it flat between thumb and finger to press it, and stitch. I go deeper into the applique fabric at the point and take three or four stitches there, going into the background fabric at the center of the V and then fanning out into the applique fabric.

If there are teeny threads sticking out I try to tuck them under before stitching, or if they fight that I take an extra stitch and maneuver the thread to catch the loose piece and draw it into the edge. I try not to manipulate the fabric more than the minimum needed to get the right shape so that things don't start to fray; that's also the reason for never clipping before I get there.

If you look at your hand and spread three fingers out wide apart, your fingers are the stitches; the tips of your fingers are the ends of stitches into the applique fabric and your center knuckle is the center of the V, if everything was expanded several thousand percent. I hope this makes sense; it's hard to describe in words!

I'm always looking for a better way to handle these; looking forward to everyone else's tips!

I'm new to applique and am doing a Dear Jane. I need to applique 4 heart shapes on a 5" block ... so ... any advice on what applique method to use? I'm totally intimidated by the points LOL. Sandpat shared the back basting technique which i tried for the first time on circles and loved it ... but ... the points (shudder). I don't want to take the easy way out and fuse them. I'm going to use my DJ's to make toppers for my kitchen and dining room windows so they will have to stand up to machine washing without falling apart (hopefully). thanks all

Suzy

Try using the smallest drop of fray check on those inside points.

Thank you. I will try this method.

As promised, here's a photo of the finished grapevine applique. There's a quarter in there for scale. There's still some embroidery to do before it gets transformed into a box, but everything except the last leaf that will go over the seam once it's sewn is done. Done, done, done!

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Wow that is a beautiful grapevine applique!
So tiny and fresh looking, and the leaves are spectacular!

Morelcabin, thanks for the kind words!

I am wrestling with whether to add tendrils in a soft green (not too many, just a few here and there) with embroidery or just leave it as is. It gets cut down to a bit over 2 inches wide (the points of the background squares are roughly at the edge of the finished size piece.) What do you guys think?

Also, if anyone's interested I could revise the tutorial I wrote on how to do the serrated leaves and put a link here.