loving hand-quilting

The past couple of days I've been working on making a 50 cm x 50 cm (5x5 squares) quilted and appliqued pillowcase, using green and blue fabric scraps from my stash.

Here's the patchwork base for the pillowcase front, machine-sewn together:

And here it is again with the applique squares laid on it:

I think it looks much prettier with the applique squares

The reason I made the appliques square-shaped is because I wanted to machine-applique them using a straight stitch. The pillowcase that I had previously completed had circle-shaped appliques, and I failed at machine appliqueing them to my satisfaction (it's hard to stitch in a circle...), so I ended up stitching the appliques on by hand.

I basted the quilt sandwich together (fabric layer, batting, patchwork piece), and then basted the applique squares on top of that one-by-one:

lots and lots of basting

Then I headed over to my machine and started quilting using a (thick) top-stitching thread, happily thinking that I'll be done in no time (that's what machines are for, right?):

machine-applique

Wrong. Look at this sorry result! These machine appliqued squares look so drab and unattractive! I even tried two and they both look the same. Here's a closeup:

machine applique closeup

How can they compare with these hand stitched applique beauties? 

They look like delicious puffy pastries. I love the running stitch, so soft, creating little puffs in between each stitch, disappearing and reappearing... No machine can do that!

hand-stitched applique

hand-stitched applique - closeup

The conclusion was obvious. No machine appliqueing for me this time. I've got a few more hours to go in order to finish hand-stitching, and it's probably a good idea for me to get a proper hand quilting needle for future projects. This machine-applique attempt has been a total "fail".

I will give free-motion machine quilting a try, though, sometime soon. I'll write about that in a future post, because I found a good resource for beginners with great tips to start you off.

I also think that machine quilting using regular thread, without applique, is nice too. I used it to my satisfaction in two baby quilts that I made a while ago.

baby quilt (machine quilted)

But it's not what I was going for in the project I am currently working on - I wanted a pronounced stitch for my applique.

I learned another important lesson: use a very thin, soft fusible interfacing for the applique pieces (the little squares on top). Last time, I had used a batiste fusible interfacing, which made hand-appliqueing very painful due to the overall thickness. It also reduced the pretty "puffiness" of the result.

More on this topic soon!