Day 9

Well, I received a phone call today from a soon-to-be new daddy, and it looks like tomorrow will be the big day! This is earlier than expected, so I have to bump up work on the quilt, but how exciting!!!! :-)

I took a trip back to The Quilt Shoppe this morning to pick out the thread. It was pretty uneventful as I had already spent some time figuring out what type of thread to use for the appliqué. I am using cotton thread with a silk finish – not polyester. Polyester cuts into cotton, and can rip and tear at the material over time. I brought a few of the cars that I cut out yesterday, so that I could match up the colors with the thread. For instance, the red car faded to an almost salmon color after being washed, so I did not buy “red” thread. The rose colored thread did not seem to match well either, so I went with a light red-orange. You can see that with the orange tone it is not a perfect match, but it is the closest of the 10 or so red tinted colors at the store. I also chose to buy 500 yards of white thread, because this is what I will use for the piecing later on, and it is less expensive than having to buy 2 smaller rolls. Here is a picture of the thread next to the cars, so you can see how the colors match up:

There are a lot of ways to appliqué. Before I explain what I decided to do, I thought I would fill you in on some of my research! :-) Here are a few common methods for appliquéing (attaching one piece of material on top of another) on a quilt:

1. I could tuck under a ¼” seam, baste the material (lightly hand-sew) or pin it so it stays in place, and then machine sew it together. I saw a few examples of this at the quilt store today and it looks GREAT! However, there are a few problems with it. The first is that my pieces have a lot of curves, and also very thin areas, such as the rear diffusers on the black GTs and the side mirrors. This would make it very difficult to tuck the seams in without causing bunching or having the material show through, even if I cut notches. The other problem is that the stitching is not very strong, so with pulling, tugging, and washing, the stitching could easily come loose - not ideal on a baby/toddler quilt.

2. I could use 1/8” or 1/4” fusable tape. These are good for large shapes that have straight lines (such as triangles and rectangles). However, they are not good for curvy shapes, so I will not be using them.

3. There is also fusible webbing. I had bought lightweight fusible webbing a few weeks ago in anticipation for this project. On the package, I had to make sure it was lightweight. Lightweight is better than heavyweight, because heavyweight is too tough to sew through. I also had to make sure it was washable. These work great on smaller pieces, and also on pieces that need to be very durable, like a baby quilt. The fusing is cut to the same shape as the pieces and ironed on. If I chose this, I could then sew around the edges to prevent fraying, accent the pieces, and add an extra layer of protection. The problem is that the cotton loses its softness/fluffiness since the entire piece is fused. Imagine feeling something that has been glued together – it’s not a feel that I want on the quilt - especially with so many pieces that need to be appliqued. ( I saw an example of this at the quilt store, and did not like the feel.)

So, which one did I decide to go with? I am going to be creative and do something a little bit different, taking the best of all three options… Hopefully this will work. :-) Being on a time crunch and having confidence that my idea would work, I decided that I would not spend additional time testing this out on a practice car made of scrap material.

The first thing I did was take out the sheet of "Heat n Bond" (fusible webbing). Next, I had to trace the GT graphics onto it. The tracing had to be on the paper side of the webbing. This picture shows both sides of the webbing. The shiny side with the honeycomb texture is NOT the paper side.

The other important thing to note, is that the webbing needs to be flipped over before attaching it to the back of the graphic. If I copy and cut it the wrong way (i.e., tracing the GT when it is right side up), it will end up backwards (as if looking at the mirror image) and I will have accomplished nothing other than to waste precious webbing. To do it correctly, make sure the graphic is flipped over, so the back side of the graphic is facing up when you trace onto the paper side of the fusible webbing.

I would recommend using a pencil rather than a pen. That way, you don't have to worry about the pen leaving marks on the graphic that you are tracing or poking through the paper and leaving a dark blue/black mark that might show through once fused.

Once the graphic was traced onto the paper side of the webbing, I cut it out, making sure they fit on top of each other well. If the webbing is larger than the graphic, you will end up fusing the part that overlaps onto the ironing board - not something you want to do!

Once the fusible webbing was cut out, I wanted to cut out the middle of the webbing, so that only 1/8" to 1/4" was actually being fused. This would offer protection from fraying, keep the piece in place when I sewed, and allow most of the fabric from the graphics to stay soft. The tricky part was to measure 1/8" to 1/4" up from the where the border of the car would be - not that extra white part. I could cut the white off now, but that would make the webbing way too flimsy, so I took a different approach. I printed a black and white copy of each graphic - the same ones that my sister had printed onto the fabric - and then cut out the graphic without leaving any white around the edges.

I noticed that the size was a little bit off as the fabric had stretched and shrunk with the cutting and washing. Normally, this would not be a big deal, but with 1/8", it can be a big problem if you are off!

I then turned over those black and white graphics (which were just printed on regular paper) and drew a line around it that was about 1/8" in.

Then I cut out that area, so the black and white graphics were 1/8" smaller than the actual graphic, and then I traced those paper graphics onto the fusible webbing. This was challenging, especially with the lighter graphics (such as the yellow and heritage GTs). I put the actual graphic face down on a table, lined up the fusible webbing cut out on top of that. Some of the color came through with the lighting. Then, I could line up the black and white cutouts (also face down).

Without being able to see the color through the paper, I would be guessing where the black and white cutout should be placed, and if it's even a little bit off, the result would be part of the webbing would not cover enough of the graphic to properly fuse it in place.

Because the graphics were all a little bit "off" in their size, I was careful to cut about 1/16" inside the line that I drew all the way around. The result is that the part of the fusing that covered the actual graphic would be somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4" all the way around.

Once these were all cut out, they had to be ironed. I placed the graphic face down, then lined up the flimsy webbing over the top, so that it was paper side up. (It would not line up with the car if it was the other way.)

It is important to keep the webbing in place as I ironed. Once you start ironing, you cannot rearrange the webbing as part of it will already be fused. So, I placed heavy objects on both sides of the graphic to keep it in place, and started ironing in the middle.

Note that I am not actually "ironing" the fusible webbing. I am simply pressing the iron on top of the material.

From here, I carefully cut off the white 1/4" border around around the cars.

Cutting around the corners can be tricky, and the backing started to come off in a few places (the paper - not the actual fusing). Here is what the yellow GT looked like before and after (from the backside). You can see that even after cutting, there is enough fusing around the piece (~ 1/8" to 1/4") to hold it in place.

And this is what the front side of the red GT looked like before and after it was cut. Instead of folding all of the edges under, I will be sewing around the edges in addition to the fusing.

The pieces are now ready to be fused to the white squares. I do not have the material for the border yet, and I do not even have all of the border cars yet - these should be arriving in the mail any day. So for now, I will finish the applique process to the white squares only, and I will put the border cars to the side and finish these when the other cars arrive.

I had to remove the back paper from the fusible webbing. The shiny part where the paper used to be is the glue that will fuse the GT pieces to the white fabric.

The pieces are already flat from being ironed, and it is pretty easy to "eyeball" the pieces when centering them. However, I did use a ruler on the sides just to make sure the pieces were centered.

Once the piece was centered, I used the iron without steam to press - not rub back and forth - the 2 pieces together. I held the iron on each spot for about 8-10 seconds. I tried only 4-5 seconds at first, but it didn't seem to stick. Once I did this to the front side, I flipped the piece over and pressed the back side as well.

A quick way to get the other 2 matching GTs in the same spot as the first one was to place a white square on top of the GT that I just ironed, and then since the color of that GT shows through the white fabric, I just had to place the other one directly on top of it.

The pieces are now all fused to the squares, and are ready to be sewn into place around the edges!