I now know that I hate machine embroidery applique.
It makes me say bad words.
I have watched several videos on how to do it "in the hoop".
Easy peasy, I thought.
Well it ain't!!!
I can do all the steps well except trimming and that's the most important step!
I've switched scissors several times, even bought new ones, I've increased my lighting, etc but I've cut into the background fabric 4 times now!!
Luckily two of them are such small knicks that I can easily fix them but the other 2 are rather large holes where I've cut the background fabric away. There's nothing to do but throw it out and start over since I don't want a patch that large on the quilt.
I did everything just as the tutes said.
Hoop the material well, stitch the outline, place applique fabric, stitch the tack down, remove from machine and trim, replace and finish the stitching.
Road apples!
Whenever I tried to trim while the fabric was hooped, the remaining stitching didn't line up correctly. Obviously the material had shifted slightly while I was trimming, no matter how well I hooped it. (I've used hooping wraps, hooping tape, etc to keep the fabric tight and from shifting).
So then I thought I'll just stitch the whole thing and trim it after I remove the hoop. Yes the satin stitches won't totally hide the edges of the applique fabric but it'll be OK after a few washings.
That was working pretty good but I still knicked the fabric.
(I then went back to the old fashioned "needle turn" but that'll take me forever and this quilt has to be done 2 weeks from now, so that's not really an option for this quilt.)
I'm ready to give up and never allow "in-the-hoop" applique to enter my vocabulary or quilt plans again!
Can anyone tell me what the trick is to trimming while its "in the hoop" and not shifting the fabric?