Originally Posted by
ScrappyAZ
Not quite sure what you mean by making your background a little bigger. After I sandwich a quilt, I SID. Are you saying to leave extra backing fabric, applique and then SID? Maybe that's why some of my appliqued quilts get wonky too.
No. Usually, when doing hand applique, unless you are working on the border, you are appliqueing individual blocks. so if your Unfinished block is 12 1/2" you should cut the background square 13 1/2 to 14" square. Do your applique, then once the applique is completed, square up your block to the 12 1/2".
Often what happens with hand applique (and machine applique too) is that the background fabric we are appliqueing to, tends to draw up a bit so if you cut the exact 12 1/2" before appliqueing you could end up with a block that measures 12 3/8" or 12 1/4" by the time you are done appliqueing (same often holds true for embroidery as well). So if you cut the square bigger and trim down after the applique is complete then you are assured all your completed blocks are 12 1/2" unfinished (or whatever size you happen to be working on. I just used 12" as that is such a common block size)