Stuffed Applique?
 

Is there such a thing as stuffed applique? I'm making Kathy McNeil 's cardinal block from her Audubon Christmas quilt after attending a workshop with Prairie Quilter's Guild in Wichita. Her birds are appliqued flat, as is normal, but now that I'm applying the birds to the background I feel I want to put a small amount of poly stuffing in them. I tried it on the first ones and like it, but I'm just wondering if this is a normal technique for applique. Is it crazy or cool?

I was taught to use a piece of cheap cheese cloth for the back, sew around the bird the way you want it, then take the Hallmark yarn, (triple cord like), separate the cords, use a large needle with a big eye, fold a small piece of paper with the yarn inside to thread your needle. Then take the needle and pull the yarn thru, side to side, cut the yarn and take the back of the needle to push the yarn in, then draw the second pull thru and continue until you have it stuffed the way you like it. If you have a red cardinal, you could use red yarn, etc.
There is another way where you have a fabric on the back, sew around it, then cut the a hole in the back and stuff it, then sewing the hole shut. I have done both methods and the Hallmark yarn is much easier and is nice and soft.

Yes, I've done that with fiber fill. I like it better with yarn, but lack the patience for all the times you have to feed the yarn though. I really love doing true trapunto better than the faux trapunto that has become so popular recently. You can get puffier results & don't need to quilt the living daylights out of the background to create the illusion that one extra layer of batting makes it really puffy. They are both beautiful options, but my clear preference is to actually stuff the applique.

So excited to see your final result! Hope you post pictures!!!

Instead of stuffing with filler you could put a piece of batting behind and the trim this to size.then put wholebattng across as normal.

This is what I do. Turns out beautifully. Just enough "puff" to make a difference, and won't shift like stuffing tends to do!

The technique is called trapunto which you use a layer or two of cotton batting. Read about it because there are certain techniques you should know about such as wash away thread.

I cut the 1" thick poly batting the same shape as the appliqué piece, position both on the background & sew all around with a satin stitch. I use that method on most of my baby quilts.
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