Spotlight on Wool Titles
Posted by Deirdre Quirk on Jul 13th 2018
We're introducing a new feature here on the blog! Each month we will highlight one of our favorite quilting and sewing trends, share tips and tricks from our books on that topic, and, drumroll please, offer 25% off all the featured books! This month we're featuring one of our favorite trends, wool appliqué. Recently it seems like everyone and their mother has discovered the joys of working with wool, whether they are sewing with it, embroidering it, appliquéing it, or dyeing it! Below are tips on all of these, taken from some of our popular wool title.
P.S. Find out the 25% off promo code at the bottom of this post!
Cozy Wool Appliqué; 11 Seasonal Folk Art Projects for Your Home
Tip: Build Up Beauty
Think of an embroidery piece as if it were a wedding cake. Start with the cake base: Place the large items, such as a house and expanse of grass, first. Embroider them. Then add the frosting—the doors, windows, trees, and flowers. Finally, add the final piping on the cake, which are the exquisite embroidery stitches.
Sweet & Simple Wool Appliqué: 15 Folk Art Projects to Stitch
Tip: To recreate the look of birds in nature, pick fabrics in similar hues for the bird and its wings. Because the wings are only partially stitched to the bird body, they create some definition while blending well with the rest of the piece.
A New Dimension in Wool Appliqué—Baltimore Album Style: Visual Guide • Unique Embroidery
Tip: When pinning thin strips, take a small bite of the base fabric with a pin on each side of the strip, rather than piercing the fabric. This allows the strip to remain straight.
Tip: Take care if purchasing off-the-bolt wool or repurposing wool from a garment. These fabrics must be properly felted before being used for appliqué work, and they may not be 100% wool.
Seasons of Wool Appliqué Folk Art: Celebrate Americana with 12 Projects to Stitch
Hint: To overdye wool with coffee, I use the cheapest instant coffee I can find. Simply heat up a pan of water (it’s not necessary for it to boil) and dissolve some instant coffee in it. It does not take many coffee crystals to get the color to the desired effect. Add the wool and let it simmer for about fifteen minutes. Allow it to cool completely before taking the wool out of the coffee bath. Rinse the wool a bit and hang it to drip dry, then fluff it in the dryer. I suggest dyeing a batch of different scraps first to see what you get.
Wool Appliqué Folk Art: Traditional Projects Inspired by 19th-Century American Life
Hint: Keep lavender or strong-smelling herbs such as sage with your wool to repel moths.
You can get 25% off all these amazing books with the promo code WFA25. Promotion ends 7/15 at 11:59 PM PST.
