Eddie,
Beautiful work! Just curious about what machine you use and the width and length settings you use for your blanket stitch when doing this type of applique. I bet that using these shorter stitches would make the corners turn out better. Ann in TN

i only do machine applique, or raw edge applique....my favorite is a satin stitch (tight zig zag) in a matching color, but have used other colors as well, and if the design allows, i have started doing a blanket stitch, and that is a bit easier, and faster to do......

I have used the blanket stitch, and also small zig zag with invisible thread. Eddie, your work is beautiful.
Sue

Oh, so many good ideas. Many thanks to all of you! The vines had uneven widths and 7 little branches that the hearts attached to which made using bias strips not feasible. Another handicap to using bias strips was the small amount of fabric I had to work with. I had already ran out of the chosen fabric and had to reorder. The replacement fabric was from a new shipment and it was very different in color. They no longer had any left in the original fabric that I had ordered. I'm trying to practice going around tiny sharp points that are on the bottom of the heart and on pointed branches of the vines. Thanks again. I wish I could super size Eddie's pictures so I could study how he went around points and corners. It looks like you used a thicker thread, Did you? Eddie.

Your work is beautiful!!

Question - Have you ever washed these quilts, and if so, how do they hold up? Do they frey?

Thanks!

oops, I was responding to Eddie. Sorry!

Your work is beautiful!!

Question - Have you ever washed these quilts, and if so, how do they hold up? Do they frey?

Thanks!

all of these are good. I like a small zig zag of matching thread or button hole stitch. according to how formal or folky the quilt is. make some test samples and see what you like.. a bit of advice, when you decide what to do make a note of your machine setting on a sticy note or index card incase you dont finish and have to cut machine off and lose the settings. that way you can reset without having to test again. sometimes I write it right on my test samples.

I set the stitch length and width to the smallest settings possible. For the small shapes, I go very slow and pivot often with the needle down. It takes some practice to get the needle at the right position in the stitch pattern when reaching a point so that the points stay sharp.

I use a Brother QC-1000. I set the stitch width and length to the lowest settings possible. I really like doing applique work with machine, it goes much faster than by hand in my case!

I used Connecting Threads thread on these, but I actually plan on using a thinner thread on the rest of the blocks. I like CT thread, but feel it looks a little too thick on these blocks. I have some CT poly thread that's intended for longarm quilting, so I'm going to try it out on doing machine applique and see how I like it.