Gosh .... I am so amazed at the wonderful and nice things you all have written. Thank you for such a boost to my confidence!
Originally Posted by
rvsfan
OMG It is beautiful. How did you do those flowers?
Broderie perse applique has been around a long time and was traditionally done by hand with needle turn applique. I had never even heard of it until KrisB told me that is what I had done in a quilt I made for her in the Doll Quilt Swap. I prefer raw edge applique, although I hope to learn needle turn.
Here is a brief description of how I did them:
1. First you find a fabric that has design elements you would like to cut out and use.
2. Next, saturate the fabric in heavy starch and let it air dry. Then iron it nice and flat. It needs to be very stiff. The starch helps prevent fraying and makes it easy to cut out.
3. Cut out your design elements. With all that starch it's almost like cutting out construction paper.
4. Play around with the layout of these elements on your new background. Once you are happy, glue them on with a regular school glue stick. I like to photograph the layout and then work on one section at a time. Too much jostling makes the fowers fall off, as the glue stick hold is not permanent.
5. Lastly, using either smoke or clear invisible thread, machine stitch around the edges of each shape, adding definition to petals as you go. I found out the hard way on the bluebird that you need to use a smaller needle, or needle holes will be too apparent.
Hope that answers your question rvsfan.