Originally Posted by
Psychomomquilter
Dru,love my(Your) scotty! ok so you saten stitch your raw edges? no fancy smancy stitches? I love the doggie quilt!! I am trying to do a mug rug and a coffee cup and saucer applique, burt when I sew it, the pattern looks wrong! I did try a zigzag, .so advice please!!
Thanks, but she's a mini schnauzer and as rotten as she looks!
As for the applique'...if you don't have an applique' stitch on your machine, use the zigzag and narrow the stitch length to what ever length you desire. Don't make it too dense because that makes it more difficult to make curves and corners. You may also need to adjust your stitch width as to whether you wan't your satin stitch wider or narrower....practice a few times as to what you like best and then write down your stitch length and width so when you are ready to start, you don't have to do a "trial and error". I keep a small pad and pencil next to my machine and write down what my stitches are for a certain project. Then if I have to leave it before I finish, as with the quilts, I don't have to worry about what I did for what. I also may change width of stitching depending on if I am stitching a small item rather than a larger one....Like the Woodland Creatures, I used many different widths....the spiderweb was very narrow, the vines were and leaves and flowers were medium widths and the animals were sometimes a bit wider. The details on leaves or flowers or whatever may also be narrower than the outlines on some things. Remember that when making corners or turns...if it is an outside corner or turn...when you stop to adjust or turn, needle down and on the outside edge of whatever you are stitching...if it is an inside corner or curve, the the needle needs to be down and on the inside of whatever you are appliquing. I always had my students practice on scrap with contrasting thread....they drew a star, a circle, a square and a circle and an oval.... they practiced stitchingon these shapes over and over till they were comfortable and figured out the "formula". Once you get it, it's a "piece of cake"! It also hepls to use something like "stitch witchery" or "wonder Under"...they are 2 sided stabilizers, so they hold your applique' design in place.
The dog quilt is 'Hot Dogs" by Joni Pike...she has a number of them out including dogs, cats, bunnies (my next one) snowmen and more snowmen and etc. Cute and relatively simple....Good for beginners as well....
www.sewspecialdesigns.com
If you need any questions answered that I might help you with just PM me if you want to.