Ever wondered how to remove the applique freezer paper templates, without cutting the background fabric ?

September 01, 2019 7 Comments

Hello Everyone

While working on a new quilt for my soon to be born granddaughter I decided to do a tutorial. On some quilts, especially those with pieced backgrounds, I like to remove the freezer paper as I invisibly machine stitch down the applique piece. Instead of cutting away the background afterward. This little tip is not in my book,(Autumn Bouquet) as there are only so many pages. I could go on forever about applique!

I am loving using the gorgeous bright and happy fabrics, mostly designed by Denise Schmidt. You can see them here and here on her website. Quite a change for me.

The border for this quilt has applique! Of course.......

Beautiful colorful bright flowers, and lots of leaves that remind me of licorice allsorts. 

You can find information on turning the edges of the applique in my new book Autumn Bouquet, Link for the book is above. Or under the tutorial tab on my website under applique videos here.

Ok, let's get started.....

Firstly I pin the leaves in place. I like to use these long flower headpins by clover or Bohin. The direction the pins are facing is also important, this means I can start stitching the leaf on the opposite side of the pins.

I start stitching on the bottom of the opposite side of the pins before the point, this way I can sew around the two points and stop on the top on the opposite side from the pins.

I stop stitching with a backstitch and leave a small gap as shown with the placement of the two pins in the picture below. The bottom pin is where I started and the top pin is where I finished. 

I then use a wooden cuticle stick to release the seam allowance from the freezer paper. Lifting the seam allowance just enough to allow me to get tweezers in to grab the freezer paper template and pull it out.

I then take the freezer paper out of the work. As I do not use glue or starch to hold the freezer paper in place, removing it is a breeze.

The removed template can be re-used many times as it is still intact. I then finger press the seam allowance back in place and continue the stitching on the leaf to finish it.

Here is what it looks like on the back.

As the Flowers are pre-stitched before placing onto the border, the only freezer paper templates to remove are the petals, this is done in the same manner as the leaves. Removing the freezer paper templates from the petals will be shown in a future blog post, so keep tuned. You can read more about how to do pre-stitch the flowers in my book Autumn Bouquet or in my e-book (Applique! Creating and Stitching Perfect Applique) 

I hope you join me for planned Sew Alongs in the future, starting with some of the quilts in my book Autumn Bouquet. It's going to be so much fun!

Don't forget the Nine Patch sew along too..... I have been working hard on my Nine Patch blocks and can't wait to show you what I am making. I have three patterns coming out soon to get you all fired up, to make loads of these timeless blocks with all your scraps. Read more about it here.

I hope you have enjoyed my ramblings and pictures

Happy Stitching

Sharon

You can find more of my Quilty Ramblings blog posts on all things quilting here

Take a look at some of the downloadable PDF patterns available

See more of my video tutorials here

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