I was asked to do a tutorial on needle turn valleys and the deep V. So lets get started. As you can see from the photo I have drawn a thin pencil line where I will needle turn the fabric. I come up in the back of the piece that I will be appliqueing not the back of the background fabric. This way my knot will be hidden.
When doing needle turn applique do not turn more fabric than can fit under your thumb. After you turn the fabric just finger press it in place with your thumb.
When doing valleys do not make random clips in the curve. As you can see from the photo I am having a hard time turning the fabric. Where the tip of my needle is sitting...
is where I make the first cut.
I can now turn the fabric without any problems and continue appliqueing up the side.
Here is another curve. See where my needle is pointing? That will be my first clip.
I use my small scissors to make a clip to the line, not past the line.
I continue appliqueing.
In this photo you can see that I am having trouble turning the fabric again.
So this will be the place that I take another clip with my scissors.
I continue appliqueing. As you can see the first valley only needed one clip. The second valley needed two. The thing that I have learned is not to make random clips. You only clip where the fabric will not turn for you. You will find that if you use this technique you will get smoother inside curves.
Now for the deep Vs. As you can see I am using a pink thread. But normally I would use a matching thread that matches the piece I am appliqueing.
Okay, so I take three stitches. The one down the center is a little bit longer than the others.
Now if I have a fabric that is raveling badly I do not use glue or fray check. I will use matching thread and if you enlarge the picture you will see that I have taken lots of little stitches. I am actually sewing the fold to keep it from fraying any more. As I begin I will take one stitch into the background fabric, make 2-3 sewing stitches that don't catch the background, another one to catch the background and so on. Using matching thread definitely helps in times like these.
Now you know some new tricks to making your applique nicer looking. I give all the credit to those that I have learned from and books that I have read. These are not my ideas but I am glad to share them with you.
I would like to thank my daughter for taking the pictures and using some photo shop magic on the pictures.
I hope this helps. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask in your comment.
With Passion,
Carrie P.
41 comments:
Thanks Carrie. I would love to sit along side you and try this at the same time; maybe I'd catch on to needle turn.
Thank you for the great tutorial. Wish I could take lessons with you!
Very helpful and very clear--thanks so much for sharing this!
I just learnt how to do needle turn appliqué on inside curves and sharp inside points in my class on Monday, so thank you for reminding me of things my teacher told me - and especially for photos which I can refer to again in future. Thanks to your daughter too - the photos are clear and informative.
A very well written tutorial Carrie :0)
Crispy
Wonderful tutorial, Carrie - very clear.
Carrie, that is a great tutorial! You're awesome!
The main point you make that will help me is "Do not make random clips in the curve", your daughter did a wonderful job of taking the clear photos. Thank you.
Perfect and beautiful! Thanks Carrie!
You and your daughter did a wonderful job on this tutorial, Carrie! Thanks for reminding me of these little tricks that are so important to a crisply appliqued project!
Cheers!
Thanks for such a clear and informative tutorial.
What a fabulous tutorial, Carrie, and very timely for me as I want to do some of this during 2012. :-)
Hugs
Jenny
xx
Woo! Great tut! thanks I have a fear of applique but this makes it look easy! Ive never done needle turn and will have to try it!
Great tutorial and terrific tips. I learned to applique from an amazing teacher with great tips as well -- I think you've helped tons of people improve their applique skills or solve mysteries that may be preventing them from trying it.
I think this is a wonderful tutorial, concise and yet thorough. You have synthesized info i have read from various sources. Thanks so much! Btw photos are top notch in my book! B
Thank you, Carrie! I haven't tried needle turn applique yet, but it is something I'd like to try. So far, I've only done the fusible raw edge applique. Do you have a recommendation of a book or dvd that helps beginners to learn needle turn applique? I like the fusible. Can that still be used with needle turn?
Great tutorial, Carrie! Thanks so much for sharing! :)
Thanks Carrie - I've pinned this on one of my Pinterest boards so I can refer to it later. blessings, marlene
Carrie, thanks for the great tutorial and to your DD for the pics. I'm going to try inner curves your way; clipping ahead of time isn't working so well for me.
Great tutorial & pictures Carrie!
Thank you, Carrie, for such easy to follow instructions. I didn't request you do a tutorial but I sure am gonna benefit from it.
Thank you for the great tutorial. Lots of good ideas. Now all I need to do is practice, practice, practice!
Hi Carrie, it was great seeing how and where you clip--- I'm trying to get braver with clipping my curves! it was good to see how you did those extra tiny stitches at the valleys - I never thought of that. Great tutorial - thank you!
Thanks for the refresher on the deep valleys Carrie. I'm having trouble with piece #3 on the Magical Medallian. For some reason with the valley being turned somewhat, I'm feeling less confident. I did finish 2 #3 pieces last night. Unfortunately I didn't get any hand work done with all the appointments at Mayo last week. Glad to get home yesterday.
What an absolutely wonderful tutorial. I am going to forward this one to my quilt club!
Just perfect! Certainly clears up a lot of my questions!
Thanks for the great tutorial! I am bookmarking this page for future reference.
Thank you very much for this tutorial. It is the best I have seen for this part of applique. I really appreciate the photos and the clear instructions. Will you do one about points, or have you already? This tutorial will help me improve my needle turn applique quite a bit. Again, thank you.
This is really great Carrie...I soooo
appreciate you sharing! Since I am sort of new at applique I was like a sponge and just absorbed all the info and photos you generously shared in your tutorial!! I have earmarked this post....along with some other helpful posts you have provided!!!
What a great tutorial. I'm going to do this next time and not clip ahead. Your technique is so solid. I admire it so much.
Sometimes my e-mails back up...so I'm just reading this post. It is an excellent, excellent, excellent post and your photos and directions are wonderful! Thank you so very much!
Smiles,
Kelly
PS...the word verification for spam is very difficult to navigate...perhaps you can delete it? Just a thought :)
This is what I was going to ask you how to do! Thank you so much!!!!!!!!I want to try this right away. I'll blog about it when I do. Thanks again!!!
I am 'pinning' this!
muito boa essa explicação passo a passo muito obrigada por compartilhar...um abraço Edileny Gomes.
Fantastic post - I have been too afraid to try needle-turn, but now I think I might give it a go!
Carrie--I am doing a little flower and it has several deep valleys. It is fraying really badly. The more stitches I take the more it frays. It doesn't look real good. Suggestions?
Your photos were so helpful. I am intrigued with the little magnifier. I must learn how to do that. Maybe Ii could show close ups of antique textiles better. So much to learn technologically! I do make small quilts but not often. But when I do, it is almost always applique. History inspires so much of what I do. When I began studying quilt history in 1981 (as well as learning to do a little quilting), there was so little published in the way of quilt history. Today there are so many books I can't keep track of them anymore---over 500 alone relating to quilt history. But what fascinates me the most and brings the most excitement are the thousands and thousands of blogs that quilters today are writing. Not only have we entered a new era of quilt history. We have entered a whole new era of women's history!! Keep up the good work on both accounts!
thanx for the tute! it'll make my appliquing much easier.
I have been looking for a great tutorial on deep curves. Mine are coming along, at least I don't panic when they come along! LOL I also find in really difficult places a bit of clear nail polish in the seam allowance helps, but just a bit. Thanks again for the great tutorial.
Excellent post. Thank you!
Hi, Carrie. I found your blog on Erin Russek's One Piece At a Time blog roll. I'm new to applique and my first-ever project is the Jingle BOM project Erin is doing right now -- Uff da! If I had known what was in store for me in the beginning, I would have chickened out!
I started out with Erin's starch and press method, and now that I'm on the 6th applique block I'm able to do that method pretty successfully, but the prep work takes SO long for me because it's not portable enough. My free time is so scarce that I get most of my applique stitching done in the carpool line waiting to pick up my kids, or the waiting room of the doctor's office, or at their violin and piano lessons... where I can't bring my iron! I tried back basting applique (doing the basting part by machine with a 90/16 needle and heavy 40 wt thread to get big holes, like my book suggested) but the edges of my leaves came out all jaggedy awful and disappointing. I'm fascinated by needle turn applique, which seems to eliminate hours and hours of prep time. People like you who are really good at it get great results, but I'm nervous after my back-basting brouhaha. Can you recommend a good beginner book, DVD or other resource to learn to do really precise needle turn applique? I know those 18th century quilters were not using electric irons, liquid starch and paint brushes to do their applique, but I don't have as much sewing experience as they did, nor do I live in a community full of women who can teach me how to do it in person.
Thank you. This was a great tutorial. I am about to begin my first Hawaiian needle turned quilt and have been searching various tutorials.
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