MACHINE APPLIQUÉ AND QUILTING
USING FUSIBLES
CLASS PROJECTS FOR TEACHERS

For those of you well acquainted with your sewing machine, go for it.  While nothing will ever match the quality and look of a hand appliquéd, hand-quilted, Hawaiian-style quilt, machine appliqué and quilting has improved greatly since the days when the "real" quilters turned up their noses at it, considering it a poor relation.

You can simply machine appliqué (even use fabric glue or using a fusible technique - so no pinning or basting) your design and then use your decorative stitches to embellish it and not even need quilt it for some projects.

To make a real quickie simply use a lightweight fusible fabric to bond your appliqué design to your background following the manufacturer's directions. You'll need to trace the entire appliqué design first as the bonded appliqué will not fold into eighths well enough to cut precisely.

Cut out the 1/8th pattern without any turn under allowance. If the pattern you are using already includes a turn under allowance - see if the designer has indicated what that allowance is and then trace inside the cutting line to get a line that would be the appliquéd edge. Remember the two pencil banded together short cut in Enlarging Your Pattern (last paragraph) for a 1/4" allowance. Adjust as necessary, then cut out the pattern on the appliquéd edge line.

Fold a piece of paper, large enough to accommodate the full design, into eighths. Crease the lines. Open up the paper. Using your cut one-eighth pattern trace the design into each eighth, flipping the cut pattern until you have the complete design. Cut out the whole pattern and trace it onto your fused appliqué fabric. Cut out the appliqué design and then, following the manufacturer's instructions, fuse the appliqué to the background fabric. Finish the "quickie" quilt block as you wish.

I get a lot of requests from teachers about using my designs to teach fractions in their classrooms. The classroom is a wonderful place to introduce Hawaiian quilt designs and to teach a little about the Hawaiian culture, history and Hawaiian flowers and plants at the same time.

For the little ones you can use precut designs out of colored construction paper, for older children they can cut out their own simple designs - even bring in things to trace to create their own designs. You can use the same design or different designs.

In addition to fractions, you can teach about color. You can show how the different the same design looks using various colors on different color backgrounds. How the design in the same color will look larger or smaller on light or dark backgrounds. Your class can paint, embellish their designs using the 1/8th principle or just free design. They can cut out the design parts, learn the different parts of a flower or plant in doing so. The class can make their own class quilt from their construction paper "quilt squares", or quilt cards for Mother's Day.

Older children (with supervision) can learn fusible fabric techniques, stenciling, make sun catchers using see through colored plastic sheets. And I'm sure that creative teachers can come up with myriad ways to let Hawaiian quilt designs help them teach many things to inspire their students.

And, of course, these fun, quick, activities aren't just limited to children. Quilting groups can use similar techniques for invitations and fun, quilt projects and discussions during group meetings or quilting retreats.

So who can arrange the after meeting snacks in a Hawaiian quilt design?

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