I am very new to quilting. I am currently making a hand stitched paper pieced hexagon quilt. This is fairly easy, all you have to do is whip stitch, the paper pieces keep my hexagons even. I have been working on this quilt top for almost 2 years, taking breaks from time to time. I am looking for ideas for my next quilt and thought I would try a hand stitched applique Baltimore Album Quilt. I watched a tutorial on YouTube where someone used freezer paper to assist in cutting out the shapes and then she used the freezer paper as a guide to hand sew the pieces to the block fabric. Then she cut the back of the solid block piece of fabric that she stitched her design too in order to pop out the freezer paper pieces. My question is: Although, this technique looks like it would help make a nice looking design but does cutting the back out of your block piece of fabric hurt the overall effect of your quilt once it's quilted together with the batting and back fabric. If you are using a light color fabric, won't it show through. Is the quilt going to fall apart one day or start to fray as time goes by. Or does the way you actually quilt the layers together prevent that from happening? Geez, I thought quilting was going to be an easy thing for me to learn to do but each website I view or each book I read and every blog I go to, only causes me to have more questions. And, the bad thing is.....I don't know anyone who quilts that I can ask. I hope I'm not being a pest. But until I found your Quiltingboard today, I was getting a little frustrated. It seems that the people here are very generous with their thoughts and ideas. I've inquired about a quilting class, they are few and far in between in Baltimore, MD, and when I went to the shops, only 2 places, the people there weren't very friendly. Hmmm, should I take up some other hobby or craft like ceramics or sky diving? LOL YouTube is a wonderful source of information but they don't allow you to ask questions. Please help!

you ask a lot of good questions! Every quilter is different. Lost always cut the back out and have no trouble. Lots leave it on. It's up to personal preference. If your using the freezer paper method, it won't hurt to cut the back out. You batting and backing will be thick enough that you won't see any colors through the back. If your worried about fray you can always get fray check at your local quilting store and put it around the cut edges. I figure, if I had cut and pieced the quilt top with a bunch of squares, it would have alot more raw edges than that.
Hope this helps, an someone with a bit more experience than me can help more :)

Quilters have been cutting away the backing from behind hand appliqué for many years and I don't see any weakening in that particular area. It's usually done so that you don't have 3 or 4 layers of fabric in that one spot. When you trim you will be leaving at least a ¼" of the fabric your appliqué piece is made from so if it is light coloured the darker piece shouldn't show through, just make sure that when you trim you don't leave the darker one wider than the lighter one. If it's your first appliqué project maybe choose a nice rounded shape for your sample piece first.

Edited to add: if you prefer you can just cut a slit in the backing & pull the freezer paper off, you will need to use something like a tweezer to run between the paper & the appliqué shape to release the paper though. This is the method that I usually use.

Thank you so much.

when I did my Baltimore Album quilt I used freezer paper and after appliquing the piece almost all the way on I took a pair of tweezers and removed the paper just prior to putting the last few stitches in the piece. Then I did not have to cut the back away. Worked for me

I like this idea far better than cutting the back of the fabric, but like others have said this has been done for years by many .

I prefer the needle-turn method using freezerpaper on top. See if you can find some tutorials on this method, Its my preferred method but too hard for me to describe here.

If you use the starch method for using freezer paper, like I do, there's absolutely no need to put cuts in your fabric. Google applique starch method...

Wow, you ladies are great. Thanks so much for the tips. I like the idea of pulling the freezer out before the last few stitches are placed. I just signed up for a class on applique and I am told that the instructor uses the freezer paper method. I am making a paper pieced hexagon hand stitched quilt now and although the paper is only tacked into place, it's going to be a job taking them all out. I like the idea that I can take the freezer paper out as I go along. Great ideas! Thanks again.

Please feel free to ask any question here :D This is what this quilting board is all about, helping, sharing and friendship :D:D:D

There is another method, where the freezer paper is on top of the applique, and you pull it off the top, once it is all stitched down :D:D:D