Have you ever wanted to create a one-of-a-kind
appliqué quilt, but didn't know where to start?
When the standard patterns just don't excite you, create
your own. It's as easy as flipping through a child's
coloring book or searching through clip art.
Custom appliqué quilts are perfect gifts (and prized
heirloom treasures) for celebrating the birth of a new
baby. When the mom-to-be picks a less popular nursery
theme, it can be hard to find a coordinating gift. That
will make your custom appliqué quilt extra special!
One woman chose a "Cat in the Hat" theme for her newborn's
room. She wanted something different and knew she'd have to
custom sew and accessorize just about everything in the
room.
She turned to an old coloring book for inspiration. The
lines in children's coloring books are generally simple,
especially in coloring books for younger aged children.
For the crib quilt, she enlarged a coloring book page of
the cat's hat. Using the enlargement for a pattern, she
appliquéd red stripes onto the hat which she had cut
from white fabric.
Using iron-on adhesive, she put the large, bright red and
white striped hat in the center of her pale teal-colored
crib quilt top and stitched around it using a tight satin
stitch. She added coordinating prints around the sides for
the border and without much effort at all, had a custom
appliqué quilt. She used the same techniques to add
characters from the famous Dr. Seuss story to bumper pads
and to create a wall hanging for the nursery, too.
It's easy to use the same procedure for creating a custom
appliqué from clip art. Pick your theme, then start
looking for appropriate art. The important thing is to look
for simple lines.
Don't forget that you can manipulate some clip art. Once
you open a clip art file, see if you can select the image
then choose "ungroup" from the edit command. If it will
allow you to ungroup, you can make simple changes.
For instance, if you're looking for a Santa riding a
reindeer, but the one you've found has ornaments hanging
from the reindeer's antlers, ungrouping will probably allow
you to actually delete those ornaments from the art design.
Don't forget to save your art once you've completed your
editing!
Many people like to assemble the custom appliqué
separately, then finish by stitching it to their quilt top
or quilt block. Others, however, like to assemble piece by
piece onto the quilt top or block by basting, then
finishing the stitches with either an appliqué
stitch, zig-zag or satin stitch.
You may also use fonts in the same way. It's really easy
to create a custom appliqué quilt with a name or
favorite hobby ("Cheer!" and "Play Ball!" are two that come
to mind). Simply type the words and make the letters the
size you want. You may have to print the letters
individually rather than on one sheet if you want them to
be substantially large.
You can even make custom appliqués with Greek
letters for your favorite fraternity or sorority member by
using a font like Symbols for the pattern.
Once you've printed the letters, they are your pattern for
your custom appliqué design. Play around with the
positioning once you get them cut out. It's fun to overlap
them in some places and to have them uneven to create more
interest.
You must observe copyright laws when using other media to
help you design custom appliqué patterns. Most art
is under law in which if used for personal use only, there
is no copyright infringement. If you try to sell your
custom appliqué projects using the already published
art, you are likely in violation of copyright law.
The same goes for fonts. There are many websites that allow
viewers to download and use free fonts, but most of those
include stipulations that the use of the fonts must be for
personal - not commercial - use only.
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Penny Halgren http://www.TheQuiltingCoach.com Penny has
been a quilter for more than 26 years and enjoys exploring
all aspects of quilting sharing her knowledge with all
quilters.
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