Trapunto and applique question
 

My understanding of Trapunto is that you add extra batting to give areas of increased loft on a quilt. I watched the Man Sewing video on using Trapunto on a panel. That bit I understand.

But if I want to use Trapunto and applique in the same quilt, and enhance the applique with the Trapunto, do I fuse the applique, then use the man sewing technique and sew the applique down when I do the quilting?

This has confused me. I see examples of blocks where the applique is stitched down before the top is quilted.

I bought a lovely applique wall hanging kit, and although it does not mention Trapunto, it would look great with it. But I can see that I would have a lot of thread in an area if I stitched the extra batting and stitched the applique, then did the final quilting.

Am I making any sense?

Which is the best order of stitching when doing both applique and Trapunto in a quilt?

I would do the applique first, not with fusible, then snip the back and stuff a little with poly-fill, before quilting normally. This would probably depend on how much applique there is and the size of pieces. Small bits like a leaf I"ll do this way, but a large panel like Rob from Man Sewing did is easier done his way. This is just my point of view, you may prefer another method.

Lazy girl way is faux trapunto--use double bat, bottom one like Hobb 80-20 and a wool or poly on top--quilt as you normally would with an outline around the applique and dense quilting in the background and those appliques will pop!

when I was a girl, my first knowledge of trapunto was with a kitchen towel of birds. it was sewn to a loose weave backing, the birds outlined with stitches, and then stuffed through that from the loose weave back. many years ago, i saw a quilter stitch around the trapunto areas directly on a puffy batting. then the non-trapunto areas were cut away. the whole thing was then placed on regular batting and quilted as usual. so many different ways to accomplish the look.

I use water soluble thread for the second stitching around the appliqué. The first being to secure the appliqué to the quilt. Either by hand or machine. The second to sew the trapunto batting to the applique. Trim away excess batting. Then make the sandwich and quilt as desired. Wash the quilt and the water soluble thread disolves. This eliminates the thread build up around the appliqué.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

SherB, I have water soluble thread and I think your way would work well in my application.

Jane your way is much like Rob did on Man Sewing, he did Trapunto on a panel, but I want to use it with applique. I like that idea and it will use up some of the various batting scraps I have saved.

I think I have a plan now.

M