Fusing

I have been getting a lot of questions lately from people concerning using  fusing web in their quilts. So I am going to do a whole series about using fusible web correctly and  successfully. My hope is that this will help people to understand fusing better and to achieve better results with their fusing efforts.
FUSING 101
The first thing you need to keep in mind is that fusible web is a heat activated product. When you place it on your fabric, usually the back side, you use your iron to apply it to the fabric.
1. You want your iron set to the cotton setting. It should be HOT and the steam is turned off. You don’t want to use steam when applying fusible web – EVER.  I do use steam to set my fusible at the very end of a project when ALL of the quilting is done and the binding is in place.
2. You should apply it to fabric that has been prewashed if possible. Cotton, silk, rayon should all have any sizing removed this will allow  the fusible to adhere to the fabric well.
3. Don’t over fuse the product. Read the directions on the package and do what it says to do. This is one of those cases where it pays to do what they tell you. You can’t get away with just looking at the pictures.
When ever possible I try to fuse my fabrics ahead of time and let them sit and cool down. If I am well organized I fuse them the day before. If not I try to fuse everything and then let them sit for a bit. Remember when you heat up the fusible web it gets sticky and melts and then when it cools down it solidifies again and sticks to the fabric.
I will go down in the studio in the morning  and pick out my colors. I then fuse my fabrics and then I go eat breakfast or run an errand or do my exercises. When I am done they have completely cooled off and the release paper peels away very easily. DON’T over fuse them by using too much heat.
Do a few tests to see how it all works.

WonderUnder #805 on half of a yard of fabric. You can see the white “release” paper. It is sitting waiting to cool down before I remove the paper.

Using my hand to anchor one end of the fused fabric while I peel back the “release” paper. Notice how the fusible web on the fabric looks opaque. If is looks glassy you have fused it too long and will have to put another piece of fusible over it in order for it to still work.

The process

I thought you would enjoy seeing my process for creating a new piece.
I went through my sketchbook and found a very old sketch of trees. Probably done one day after our daily walk in the woods. I fooled around with it a bit and updated it and then redrew a cleaned up copy on release paper. It measures about 15” x 18”.


I then used another piece of parchment paper or release paper from the fused fabric and traced around base elements for a pattern. I used this pattern to cut out the green for the field and used my pinking blade rotary cutter to cut out strips for the fields. I assembled this on a different piece of release paper and built my fields and sky before adding in the trees and leaves. I used my wavy blade rotary cutter to cut long strips and then cut those strips apart to create the leaves.

All of the fabric for this little landscape was pulled from my scrap drawers. I am on a big cleaning up and out kick this summer. Trying to rid myself of excess scraps and fabric. On that note my summer special on my website is to get a free fat quarter of fabric with any order over $20

Not quilted yet so I will post again when it is.

Wisconsin Quilt Expo

I will be teaching this year at Wisconsin Quilt Expo. This is a great regional show and if you live close it is well worth the drive. Registration for classes has just opened today. You can go to the website and register on line.

I will also be teaching one of my favorite classes Blooming Fun.

Using just two different pieces of fabric every student will make their own version of this garden flower. We will be using my favorite decorative blade the “deckle blade” to create the leaves in this quilt.

If you ever wanted to take a Machine Quilting class I will be teaching it there. I have a whole new set of designs for you to learn in this fast fun really free motion machine quilting class. You can learn all the stitches I used to quilt Blooming Fun and many, many more.

Leaves and swirls

Continuous flowers and leaves

Swirly Curly and the ever popular

Free Form Feathers.

I hope I see you there.

Baby Boy

Today is my baby boy’s Birthday. Erik Charles is 25 years young. It seems impossible that this has happened. I am so proud of him. I am proud of all my men.

 

Erik                                                            Erik, Lars and Zachary

We just found out we are going to be grandparents!!! Baby Anderson is on it’s way. Lars and Megan are pregnant. How exciting. I will be grandma FeFe. I hope they don’t think I am a dog. Life is always changing and we are merrily dancing in the web of life.

We are in the web of life
Where our lifelines
Divide into thousands of parts
We are in the web of life
We can’t be quiet
Waiting for something more

Clearance

I am in a cleaning frenzy. On this 4th of July holiday I am cleaning my shelves and purging. Now until they are gone two of my favorite patterns are on SALE.

Petite Sunflower and Pumpkin are two of my very first patterns. My supply is dwindling and now is your chance to get a real bargain. While supplies last get these two patterns at a much reduced rate. These patterns would make excellent gifts for your quilting buddies are great first time projects for new quilters.

Petite Sunflower and Pumpkin are the perfect projects to work on your fusing skills. I know you will have fun making them and using them to decorate your home.

Raw edge fusing

Jackie asked:Okay, when you put fabric on your background, do you do hand appliqué, because I can't see any bare threads hanging out as you might in fusing.

Dear Jackie,

98% of my work is all RAW edged fused. The rest is machine appliquéd or machine pieced. ALL of my small work is raw edged fused using wonder under #805 pellon fusible. It is my preferred fusible. I believe there are several reasons why there are no visible bare threads hanging on my art pieces.

1. I use only my own hand dyed fabrics or batiks, therefore there are no white edges showing on my work.
2. I use only fabric that has been washed multiple times to remove all starches or sizing from the fabric. By doing this my fusible sticks very well to the fabric. This is KEY.
3. I only cut out my designs after the “release paper” has been removed. This eliminates the need to pull the paper off the cut design which would cause the edge to fray.
4. I almost always do outline stitch in the ditch around my design elements. Although when I am using a decorative blade to cut out my design element I usually can not do stitch in the ditch. And in the case of the grass or weeds in “Prairie Grass” I cut all the long grass pieces on the bias again eliminating fraying on the edges.

Jack in the Pulpit 5 and Prairie Grass

I thought you would like to see these two quilts finished.

Jack in the Pulpit 5 

Prairie Grass