Appliqué Is a method of creating a design by placing one fabric, usually cut into a shape or part of a shape, on top of another and stitching it down rather than stitching pieces of fabric together along their edges to make a design (piecing). Edges can turned under or left "raw" but the piece must be stitched down along the edges in some manner or elsewhere on the piece to keep it attached to the background.

     Appliqué allows the artist-maker to put any design anywhere in whatever order to create amazing curves and clusters of fabric pieces that traditional piecing cannot accomplish. In the past, early quilt makers created extremely detailed and complicated baskets of flowers, figures, text and other images –almost drawing on the surface of the quilt. This style of quilt making is still very popular. Baltimore Album quilts and Hawaiian quilts are two well-known styles of Appliqué.

     Raw-edged Appliqué is exactly that. The fabric appliqué is placed or fused to the background and the raw fabric edges are left unturned and tacked down using various types of stitching. Often a blanket, satin or other decorative stitching is used and sometimes only the body of the appliqué is stitched leaving the edges rough and raw. Appliqué is commonly used in creating landscapes, realistic and portrait fiber art. Appliqué has no limits for design, color and complexity, only the time and dedication the maker is willing to commit to the project. I have tried various techniques for different effects and will continue to experiment when the appliqué technique fits the project. (see Glossary for expanded technical details)


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 Nesting Swans was a piece I created to challenge myself to explore the more traditional appliqué technique for the first time. The swans are cutouts placed in a circle creating a strong design. They were situated on the background and stitched with a machine satin stitch around the edges. The beaks of the swans are also satin stitched in different colors. The nest was a mottled-brown fabric heavily stitched to resemble twigs and the background and swan bodies were free-motion machine stitched to create dimension and texture to the piece.

 

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Purple and Blue       16" X 20"
Cotton, thread. Mounted on Artist's Canvas
Techniques: Raw-edged Applique, fabric twisting and knotting, free-motion machine stitching, hand-stitched embroidery.

Purple and Blue is an exercise in texture with a limited palette of purples and blues. I found a wonderfully complex Batik fabric and had fun tearing it, twisting it, knotting it and stitching it. (Privately Owned)

 

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