Have Your Fusible Applique Quilts Held Up to Wear & Washing?
 

Hi--I have been stockpiling fusible applique quilt kits, mostly Edyta Sitar's beautiful patterns and Silhouette forms, for a while now.

I would like to start making one or more of her kits but I am concerned about how well the finished bed quilt (as opposed to a wallhanging) holds up to wear and tear and washing. I assume as long as I satin stitch all the Silhouette applique pieces, the applique will hold up, but IMHO it's not the prettiest of applique stitches and I would like to vary the stitching and use blanket and tiny zigzag stitches as well. Laundry Basket Quilts has recently come out with an alternative to the Silhouettes pieces called Snippets, which include a 1/4 inch seam allowance to turn under. I think I would much prefer them to fusible pieces, but they weren't an option when I was buying these kits. It's too expensive for me to consider rebuying applique pieces with a seam allowance and my hands aren't really up to making them from scratch even if I could find enough of the right fabrics.

How satisfied are you with fusible applique methods? How have you used any of those beautiful laser cut shapes of fabric and fusible out there? Some of the pieces are quite intricate and delicate. What do you think? TIA

I don't have a clue, but am interested as I would like to make a couple. I asked a friend and she said she doesn't wash hers very often.

I have used the buttonhole stitch on my appliques since they do look so much nicer but I give most of my quilts away so I assume that they have held up OK. Make sure you properly read the instruction on the fusible because they vary from one product to another. You want to have good adhesive.

I made a baltimore album quilt with fusible and buttonholed stitched with it. It has been washed a few times and still looks fantastic. My thoughts is as long as you make sure your edges are attached you should be just fine.

Had similar concerns but i do needle turn applique, during research i did find this http://theboredzombie.com/2014/02/bu...e-testing.html

I use the satin stitch for the bed quilts which I make and sell. They are just fine with washing and drying. Using matching colored thread works for me. I usually enlarge the patterns to make it easier to stitch.

I purchased a Christmas wall hanging at our yearly bazaar done with fusibles and not stitched down. After washing, the little mittens and parts of snowmen were loose or gone, so either don't wash them, or be sure to stitch them down in some fashion.

Nice link from kindleaddict63. The experiment was interesting and helpful. I wish she had done the same experiment with needle turn applique to see how it would hold up. I am nervous sometimes with my needle turn because on intricate shapes, I wonder how durable the points, both out and in will be. Sometimes there is very little turned under and the clipping comes close to the edge. The stitches catch only a couple of threads. Though my fusables with blanket stitch seem very durable to me, they haven't had years of washing and wear.

I just do fusible and then run a 2.2 straight stitch about 1/8 off an inch off the edge. I have seen quilts that I made and where washed and they look great. I thought they would fray but they had not.

Nice article. Right now I am working on an applique quilt for my grand son and I know his quilt will get a lot of washing. I was thinking about needle turning it but this article plus recently seeing some of my older quilts back after washing and use make me feel good about going ahead and using any of the fusible and stitching methods.