New Year's Resolution—Claim New Treasures
Posted by Karla Menaugh on Jan 18th 2022
One of my recurring dreams is that months after I move into a house, I discover an attic full of wonderful furniture, paintings, and rugs. All treasures that I love, but didn't know I owned!
With her book Machine Magic, Deborah Louie has shown me that I have treasures waiting for me at my sewing machine, even my older Bernina. It has 34 stitches, but I use only 3--straight, zigzag, and variable overlock.
I was blown away when I saw Deborah's richly textured appliqué, all accomplished with easy fusible shapes and all of the decorative machine stitches that I have been ignoring all these years.
There is so much beautiful detail going on in this appliqué, such a treat for the eye!
And Deborah makes it easy to tackle with her step-by-step approach. She unveils all of her secrets—her favorite stitches and where she uses them, which top and bobbin threads to select, how to play with stitch settings and threads to alter the look of the stitches, when to adjust tension, and how to practice to be sure the stitches are placed perfectly on your appliqué. The book includes 22 fun flower patterns that you can use for practice and incorporate into a variety of designs.
Deborah even tutors you through the machine-stitching process so that you know when to keep the needle down in the fabric and exactly where to pivot as you stitch fancy designs around corners or curves.
With some practice, you will know exactly how to set your machine to place each stitch perfectly around your appliqué. Even then, you are working on one fusible flower or leaf at a time, so you will have wasted only a few scraps of fabric if you have to start again.
Deborah also teaches her signature stitch for adding the appliqué to the background—a very forgiving sketch-edge technique perfect for free-motion beginners. A real plus—once you get comfortable with this free-motion technique, you will have the confidence and skills to try free-motion quilting as well.
Go take a look at your machine and see what treasures are waiting for you!
This post is written by C&T Publishing Editor Karla Menaugh.
