Appliqué question
 

Hi I am going to attempt my first appliqué quilt. "Whiskers in the Wind" by Ryan McKenna. I am doing the whole quilt it comes in different sections. After fusing a section on should I sew around the edge of the pieces then without being sandwiched or wait until the whole quilt is done and sandwiched and sew around each piece then?
Thanks for your advice.

After fusing sew the edges down. I googled the pattern and WOW! Amazing!

I just finished my first appliqué quilt. After fusing a section, I did a blanket stitch around each piece with a matching color thread. After making the quilt sandwich, I used an invisible thread in the needle to sew around each piece to make the piece stand out. This was my first appliqué quilt and I am no expert; but I was very pleased with the results. I am eager to read what others write so I will know what to do on my next quilt.

Franc I would love to see a picture. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks leatheflea I hope it doesn't prove to be too much.
Tartan that was one of my worries on how to get the whole thing in there and moving.
Any other tips would be great!

the quilt is cute cant wait to see yours

I have done it both ways. On a small wall hanging, it works well to wait to sew the edges until after you have sandwiched the quilt. Then you are quilting at the same time. On larger quilts, it would probably be too cumbersome as other people have said.

I love the pattern

It is easier to stitch the appliques as a block, Try to do your stitching in order of what will cover your previous applique stitching. Wish I could explain it better. It is the same concept as to the order that you layer your appliques in your block. Good Luck !!

If you go to McKenna Ryan's website, she has a section on Helps and How-To's that talks about how she makes her quilts. She does not sew around the edges first but instead, stitches around the edge of each piece after sandwiching it so that it acts as the quilting also. If it's a big quilt with numerous blocks involved, she starts in the middle block, sews/quilts around all the edges, then stitches in the ditch around that block before moving on to the next one. After all the blocks are finished, then she goes back to do some background stitching/quilting. By then the quilt is completely stabilized. Reading her technique might help you but of course, you can always do it however works best for you. I did it her way because I did not want to stitch around each piece twice, once before sandwiching and once after.