Cricut and Electric Quilt Applique

 

Friend Jaye sends me interesting links about using the Cricut for quilting stuff. And this time it was about using Electric Quilt 8 appliqué images with the Cricut. I thought it would be worth the time to give it a try. I chose the fabrics, all prints, except the grey and very light grey and ironed on some lightweight fusible web on the back. I downloaded the file at the link and imported it into the Cricut design space software as an .svg file. I resized it in the program (didn't have to use Inkscape this time) and was ready to cut in moments.

I misread the instructions and chose as the material fusible fabric, so the tool recommended was the knife blade instead of the rotary cutter. That led to this lovely disaster. Luckily no cuts were actually made in the material before it got all bunched up. 

I smoothed it out, chose cotton fusible and with the rotary cutter all was well.

It's funny to me that after the cuts have been made, it's very hard to see that anything has happened right up until you peel back the background and see what's left behind on the mat. You will note that I removed the backing paper and stuck this fusible side down on the mat. Sticky meet sticky.

All the parts got cut out with no problems, I used the picture of the final project to arrange the pieces in the right order.

Pretty cute, huh? Now to fuse it down and stitch the edges. I really like the prints that I chose. 

And also now to install my copy of Electric Quilt 8 and see what other appliqué images are available.

Product Review: Shark Applicutter

 I finally had a chance to try out the Shark Applicutter on some fusible appliqué. I bought this at QuiltCon last year, pretty much on a whim because it was sort of cute and honestly I liked the colors.

This is a 14mm rotary blade on a well-designed (and as mentioned, cute) handle. The tool feels very good in my hand, the teal colored grip area is a little squishy, has just a little give and is a good size to grab onto. ie not too small for man-sized hands. I found that the shark fins worked really well to stabilize my fingers too. The fin made me feel safe that I wasn't going to push my finger down onto the blade which was honestly, my initial concern.

 I tried using it in both directions, and one definitely works better to see where you're going. I thought I'd try an exact-o blade just to compare, and this tool was so much more controllable and accurate, especially for the curvy bits.

The cap that comes with it is pretty secure and has stayed on while it's been jostling around in my rotary cutter/scissor drawer for months. Definitely a good thing because this thing is of course, very sharp!
As I was using it, I was wondering if they sold replacement blades, and yes, good news they do.

Too thumbs up on this tool, if you do appliqué, especially with curves, you will love this thing. And if you like sharks, then it's a no-brainer.

Solstice Fourteen

For an appliqué block, I quite like this one. I like the subtlety of the prints I used on the nine-patch in the center.

Solstice Eight

 Here's the eighth block for the Solstice Quilt. It's a big one compared to the others, so it was fun to choose fabrics tat work well on a larger scale. I like how the layered hearts look in the reds and greens that I chose. I noticed that the contrast of those complementary colors works differently in these more muddled batiks, it's a much softer look that still has a lot of contrast.

I'm starting to like how the blocks all look together, some of them being high-contrast is okay as long as there is more than one.

Fifth Solstice

The fifth block for the Solstice Quilt-a-long was a combination of piecing and appliqué. I liked how this one turned out and am happy with the placement of the batik pattern on the basket.

I used Soft Fuse (as recommended by friend Jaye) for the first time for the fusing step of the basket. It has a very nice hand and was undetectable as I zig-zagged the edges.

Maker's Hand

In the current SJMQT exhibit of vintage quilts along with Kaffe Fasett's companion pieces, there was this wonderful appliqué quilt. 

It was so quirky compared to all the other perfect appliqué quilts you usually see displayed. I don't always respond to those all that well, not being a big appliqué' fan myself. Nothing wrong with them, just not usually my thing. But I loved all the imperfect animal shapes like this carrot (or yam maybe?) beastie. Never did decide what animal it was actually "supposed" to be.

 Isn't this almost-a-Dresden plate flower great? I love the overlapping curvy shapes that makes the flower look more dimensional. This picture shows the fine edge embroidery stitch too.

The framing fabrics were really beautiful and complex East Indian prints that set off the simple appliqué shapes very well. I called this one "The Most Amazing Cow" block. The hovering diamonds just remind me of exclamation points somehow.a

Once I started thinking about it, seeing an imperfectly executed vintage quilt on display in the museum was rather extraordinary. I think we have gotten so used to the technical perfection and excellence, even of the vintage works that are normally chosen for exhibition. You could see "the maker's hand" in this exuberant quilt which is something that I feel is missing a lot of the time.

Happy Halloween and Samhain!

Happy Halloween and Samhain! Here is a final bit of holiday sewing that I accomplished during the month.
I wanted to add to my long-in-process Halloween Houses quilt with something different than the pieced and paper-pieced houses and log cabins that I have completed so far.
I had to play around with the shapes until they fit together well. Free-hand cutting with no pattern makes it challenging. Sometimes I'm better at eyeballing sizes when I use this method.

I fussy cut the stem so that the bat and notes were on there without getting cut off.

Here's how it looks next to some of the other blocks after appliqueing down the shapes with orange and brown rayon thread.