Adding appliqué to finished quilt?
 

Hi! I’m mostly a lurker, but I’ve got a bit of a dilemma/question.

An old church friend has asked me to make a banner for her church, ~30”x40”. I have the main quilt design figured out, and I’m going to quilt it in the QAYG method because of the layout. She wants to have the church’s name appliquéd on, as well as a cross (big, since this is a banner), but I REALLY don’t want to do it. I just don’t have the time. Is it reasonable to do the whole quilt/background, bind it, etc and have her find someone else to do the lettering on top? Would it be difficult to do that on a finished quilt? And has anyone ever put felt letters on, instead of fabric? Or could I do a heavy duty iron heat n bond to add cotton letters so I don’t have to stitch around? This doesn’t have to be washable, as it will be used as a wall hanging and for events.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

You can use the steam a seam or heavy heat n bond which are no- sew products. It will be stiff but sounds as if that won’t be an issue. I don’t know how well that works with felt. What kind of felt? The acrylic- craft felt i don’t think would be a good choice. It melts if ironed so the fusible would not work

If I did the heat and bond, I would use regular quilting cotton. I’m defjnitely no appliqué expert, so my initial thought was felt so that there was a little more margin for error with the stitching without making it fray excessively, but if the heat and bond route would work with cotton, even better!

That’s a good point, Tartan. If I spent all the time piecing it (she wants it to match one of their stained glass windows) I’d be a little sad if someone did a sloppy lettering job.

Check out misty fuse product to attach the cotton fabric letters. It is very thin and easy to work with. If you decide to use felt just use a glue for felt. No ironing needed. Is there someone else at church that could do lettering on a cutting/craft machine? Perhaps a local person could embroider the lettering for the banner.

Another option is to have the friend cut out lettering, etc and then you attach to the quilt and finish. Communicate with your friend exactly what you can help with on the project and your limited time.

Good luck on the banner.

I've made several banners for church. They are never washed and very seldom are they dry cleaned. We used felt applique on most of them and stitched instead of bonding. Usually the banners are used for years and need very little or no upkeep.

I have machine appliqued over a finished quilt. It worked fine. I used an allover quilting pattern for the background. Fusible to place the appliques then ran a stitch around the edges to hold them on. Of course, you can see the holding stitches on the back but since the pattern is all over it isn't as noticable. I would do the letters yourself avoiding felt.