Summer School 2013 - The Day 1 Report...

Summer School 2013 began today yesterday (thanks to Blogger and dodgy internet it's now tomorrow)...after the initial annual catch up with Summer School friends it was time to start.  I'm spending the first two days with Karen Cunningham in her quilt workshop but, I don't want to start any new large complicated quilts, I'm filing the pattern and brought along "Anna" (a previous Karen Summer School class project) to work on.  The first quilt Karen is teaching  this year focuses on the appliqué technique of broderie  perse.  After listening to Karen's description of the technique and how it was employed by stitchers of bygone days I decided that, rather than working on Anna for the morning, I'd pilfer some fabric from the project box and "have a go". A 5" charm square and some motifs cut from a toile scrap were pulled to sample stitch the three methodologies of this type of appliqué and see which, if any, I preferred or even liked doing...

For the rooster in the centre I used the usual blind (appliqué) stitch, for the little urn underneath the rooster (the detail is lost in the stitching), blanket stitch and for the bit of tree at the top (which looks suspiciously like a blob), running top stitch.  None of these methods are raw edge, in all three the seam allowance is neatly turned under. Immediately I started the urn I knew I wasn't enamoured with blanket stitch for the type of 18th Century reproduction quilt designs that Karen produces.  The blind (appliqué) stitch method is well, nothing new, and I didn't mind at all the running top stitch which is done in small even stitches using cream thread regardless of the fabric colour. I changed to a cream thread and the stitches blend right in even though they are on blue.   And when it all comes down to it, it's just applique, nothing mysterious at all.

So the votes were 50/50 for the blind (appliqué) stitch and running top stitch and a big fat 0 for the blanket stitch (prefer to use blanket stitch on raw edge appliqué projects).  The ladies of old would then highlight aspects of their motif with little bits of embroidery like french knots or feather stitching but I didn't go that far on the sample.

Before we knew it the day was over and I hadn't put a stitch into Anna, oh well there's still today for this class.

Happy Stitching...