Monster block - What am I doing wrong? Applique woes
 

My monster block looked so cute sitting on the ironing board after I fused it. It was nice and flat. After satin stitching around it, it has puckers in it. I used a tear away stabilizer on the back of it.

Do I need to change the machine's tension or make changes elsewhere? I'd love some advice.

Thanks a bunch.

:)

Love the block - great fun - it looks to me as if your tension may be a bit tight not sure how you can get out of this one apart from taking out the stitching which would be a horrible job but I'm no expert on applique using this method - someone else may have a better solution x

That is so cute! My guess would be that you needed a heavier stabilizer, but I don't really know, just guessing.

That would be my guess also. This is one of the reasons I don't like a tight satin stitch when appliqueing. It is really cute though!!!

WHERE did you use the stabilizer; just under the monster or on the whole piece of fabric? Yes, the tension could be a little tight but I never use a satin stitch when appliqueing. It might work better if there weren't so many curves and/or small areas to maneuver around.
Did you make the monster design yourself? It's very cute.

Keep in mind I know nothing about this process.
Wondering if you could carefully cut around the applique, then hand stitch it on a new piece of fabric. Wouldn't that get rid of the puckers?

I never use stablizer when I do applique. I starch the background fabric until it is just about cardstock and the use the satin stitch. It seems to work for me.

Turn it over and press it on the back. It'll be fine once it's quilted.

Your block is sooooooo cute. Maybe just loosen your satin stitch a bit and sometimes 2 layers of tear away stabilizer.

Thanks for all the help. I used a tear away stabilizer underneath the whole piece of fabric - figured that was easier than trying to keep a smaller piece in place.

There are 10 blocks in the quilt so I have time and space for learning. LOL. 5 of the monsters come from a great pattern I got from a QB member. Pattern is upstairs but the name is along the the line of "Planetary Monster Quilt". 4 of the blocks are drawings I made after googling monster and getting some ideas and the last monster was frawn by my 12 year old granddaughter. I'm making changes in several of the blocks so they don't look so much like space monsters.

I'm going to play around some and try adjusting the tension. Gonna try heavier stabilizer and I'll also try starching the background fabric. I may even go so far as to layer this one block and do some quilting on it to see if it will look ok after quilting. If not, I may take out some of the satin stitching and try to redo it.

Hope everyone has a great day. I have to go grocery shopping this morning :-( and then will sew after I get home.
:-)