Adventures in reverse applique

I've been pretty quiet around these parts for the last few months. Between teaching, making quilts for publication (and no that isn't code for a book!), working behind the scenes helping to get the Tasmanian MQG up and running and looking after a sick husband and three kids, I haven't had time or the head space for regularly posting on the blog - and I really miss it! I think part of it is that it's so quick and easy to share stuff on Instagram (as so many bloggers have mentioned recently) - but to me blogs are so much more and I miss sharing my process in this space. Now that life has settled back to something close to normal, I'm hoping I'll be blogging a bit more regularly :o)

I do have several projects I've been working on recently that I will share soon - but today I wanted to show you the name tag I made for a recent swap. Just as a bit of background, we had our first meeting of the Tasmanian MQG back at the beginning of October, and I announced our first swap at the meeting - a name tag swap. We kept it pretty simple - everyone listed a few likes and dislikes, and we had to aim for a 4" square name tag (not the easiest size to work with!!). 

My partner is a fellow Denyse Schmidt addict, so I knew I wanted to use lots of DS prints in her name tag. And from the very beginning I knew I wanted to try something new-to-me - reverse applique. I started by pulling a rainbow of DS prints, cutting 1" strips and piecing them together. 

Next I cut a 4" square of this lined fabric and wrote my partner's name in Frixion marker. I free motion quilted a couple of times around each of the letters and most of the lines on the fabric and then took a very deep breath.

I used a pair of very sharp, pointy embroidery scissors to cut out the inside part of the letters (and accidentally cut a little bit of the underneath fabric on the 'S' unfortunately - but because there is batting under that it stayed put thankfully!) I decided not to bind it - I quilted right on the edge of the white, and then trimmed just outside it, so the rainbow shows on the bottom and top edges.

It was SUCH a fun little project to make - and I'm definitely going to do more reverse applique. It's such a great technique and I'd love to make a 'wholecloth' quilt using reverse applique sometime soon!

We swapped the name tags at our meeting last week, and I managed to get a photo of them all together. Everyone was pretty delighted with their tags (understandably, they were all seriously fantastic!)

 

I was particularly delighted with mine - made by my friend Briony at Frangipani Fabrics (where I teach and work). It is just so me, and I can't wait to wear it at our meetings :o)

I'll be back in a few days with another recent finish (once it has reached it's new home!!)

xx Jess