mixing hand and machine appliqué on fusible raw edge?
 

Hi people, I am currently constructing a church banner that will be about 6 x 9 feet in size. The base fabric is an array of rays that converge under the center of a celtic cross. I have constructed two portions that will make up the right sided corners, and I have also applied letters and a celtic spiral braid that are on the interior of the rectangle of the banner. I am using a fusible-web raw edge technique as too many of the curves were too sharp to used a bias tape. My question is this: I have used a machine blanket stitch around the edges of the flowers and thistles that make up the larger corner pieces, but as I have stitched these separate pieces that will be appliqued to the banner, I am realizing that I will not be able to do a neat job on the lettering and spiral and other portions of the banner. I think I will need to hand stitch the raw edges down due to the large size and mass of the banner. Will this be ok to use both machine stitching and hand stitching that is visible to the viewer? I think I will be fighting the mass of the banner in turning tiny curves around and around, as in the letters, and I think it will look far messier than if I hand stitch them down. I would appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks! Carolyn

Hand stitching is ( often) quite difficult through fusible. Generally the two techniques are { fusible- raw edges, machine stitched} ; [hand stitched- needle turned; finished edges]
That doesn't mean you can't give it a try. Your hand stitching will need to be very close- to keep those raw edges from fraying, coming up. I would fuse a (sample,practice) block and try it out before committing/ trying it on the banner. If possible use the same background fabric, fusible & applique fabric on your practice piece. A good, sharp new needle will help. Also the type of fusible used will play into the success. You might need to clean goop from your needle often and change needles as they dull- depending on how much you plan to hand stitch. As for it being ( OK to do) sure, people mix techniques all the time, hand and machine applique, hand & machine quilting, hand and machine piecing.... Just do a practice piece First to work out the details.

Whether or not you can hand stitch through the fusible probably depends on the brand and type of fusible you have used. You may want to do a test swatch and see if you can hand stitch through it.