Broderie Perse (French for “Persian Embroidery”) is a style of applique embroidery which uses printed elements to create a scene on the background fabric. It was most popular in Europe in the 17th century, and probably traveled from India, as there are some earlier findings there. The technique could be considered an early form of puzzle piecing.
Broderie Perse can be done with any printed fabric on any ground, but it originally was worked with Chintz type fabrics. Chintz typically has clearly defined, separated motifs, which were cut out and invisibly applied onto the ground fabric. The typical intention was to create a scene from the motifs, but the decoration could also be random. The resulting fabric was often made into bedspreads, either unlined for summer or quilted for winter. They were typically saved for special occasions, such as guest beds.
When stitching down the applique use an invisible thread or match your thread to the piece of the applique. Don’t forget to add a stabilizer to the back of the piece. doing this will prevent the stitch from bunching up. Consider this technique for a jacket embellishment or to add pizazz to a border.
These quick and easy stockings make great last minute presents. Draw your stocking leaving the opening at 16″ wide. Use your favorite sports team fabrics to personalize them.
This pattern brought to you by a friend of a friend of a friend … not sure who to give credit to!
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When you cut bias binding, what you’re doing is cutting the fabric diagonally. It’s easy to do this if you know how to fold the fabric. Bias binding looks great when using fabrics with stripes. The binding will also wear better because of the give in the fabric.
When using bias binding remember to buy more fabric than what the pattern calls for, I usually will buy 5/8 to 1 yard of fabric per quilt.
When basting a quilt your backing and batting should be 6 to 8 inches bigger than your top. Center your top, leaving the extra fabric on the outer edges. This way if you have some slippage, the back and batting will still fit. I like to tape the backing down with painter’s tape or masking tape, this will keep your backing taunt. Pins, pins and more pins. Start with pinning down and across the center of your quilt, then pin diagonally, use your fist to ensure you have enough distance between each pin. Don’t skimp on pinning, this will keep your top, batting, and backing in place.
Chain piecing allows you to save thread and sew your units quickly. Start with a small piece of fabric and add the units one by one. You don’t want to overlap them, feed one unit at a time leaving two stitches in between each unit. Once your units are sewn, clip between the units and you are now ready to move to the next step in your block.
Stiletto: a pointy stick used to help feed fabric and helps keep seams in place.
And today’s video is on Chain Piecing. I’m going to show you how to do quick stitching of the pieces using the half-square triangles from last week’s video.
But first, a thank you to Elsie, Diane and Pebble for their donations this week.
We are going to be making a pinwheel clock, using our half-square triangles from last week’s video. To do a quick chain piecing of this, we are going to take one block, and flip it on top of the other. I have here two blocks, and I’m going to show you how to chain piece those. So let’s go to our sewing machine.
When you are chain piecing, you want to start with a little piece of fabric, and that’s called your started piece. And what this does, is prevents your fabric from going into the well of your sewing machine. So, it’s a good idea to always use the starter. I do not pin because it’s such a small distance. So, I’m just going to lay my two squares on top of each other, and start stitching on my starter, feeding the next piece right after. When you get to the end, use your stiletto to hold down any of the seams that might want to come up. Take your next piece and feed it right in. Between each unit, there’s about 1 to 2 stitches. Pull that out so you can see. From each unit, there’s about 1 to 2 stitches between each other.
And that is Chain Piecing. That will make it go quick and easy for you. I’ll see you next week.
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Working with triangles can be tricky. You have to be careful not to stretch the triangles or you’ll have a distorted square.
In this video, you’ll be making eight 3″ finished units. Using a Quick Quarter Ruler will ensure you have straight diagonal lines. Once both sides of the two diagonal lines are sewn, you are ready to cut across, up, down and diagonally separating the units.
Now use your 3 1/2″ square to trim down the unit, run the diagonal line of the ruler down the diagonal seam of the square. A finished unit starts out being 1/2″ larger. so when we say 3″ finished, we start with 3 1/2″ and once sewn into the block the seams take up the 1/2″.
I learned how to paper piece using Peggy Martin’s book “Quick Strip Paper Piecing”. This book is full of beautiful stars and is easy to follow. I’ve also learned that using the “Add-A-Quarter Ruler” really makes it easy to leave exactly 1/4″ seam, making it easy to lay the next fabric in place. Paper piecing allows you to have perfect points and meet those tricky seams by stitching exactly on the lines.
Follow the rule: Sew, Press, Cut and you will be on your way to beautiful blocks.