Daisy Meadow - Thermofax Screens for Fusible Applique

Last month Sue completed a piece for the Backyard Escape exhibit being curated by Sacred Threads.  There will be several groups of traveling exhibits that will be shown at hospitals and quilt shows beginning in May 2020, and then will come together at Sacred Threads in July 2021.  The "backyard escape" theme was to showcase something that brings you peace and tranquility in your backyard, that could do the same for patients and families in a hospital setting.  All the works are to be for sale, so there is also a fund raising aspect for the hospitals involved.

Sue's "Daisy Meadow" combines a background technique by Terry Kramzar which she also used last year in a piece called Balloon Flowers, along with fusible applique created from screen prints. This is the finished quilt, but we also want to share the technique for the Thermofax printed flowers.

But first, the background. The 4" finished background squares are made from an assortment of batiks and are layered with fusible batting, then quilted prior to assembly.

After quilting, they are trimmed and then ready for the center squares which are also from a variety of batiks.  Terry's special ruler makes trimming and placement of the squares easy.

Then the squares were arranged with darker values at the bottom and lighter values at the top.

After the squares were sewn together, it was time to create the flowers and stems.  Sue chose our "lazy daisy" screen in 3 sizes to print with black acrylic paint on yellow fabric.

These need to be backed with a fusible product before cutting out.  Sue used MistyFuse, but you could also use Wonder Under or Steam-a-Seam2 Lite, or another favorite fusible, as long as it is fairly thin.  You don't want to add stiffness or something that might gum up on your needle when stitching. After fusing, cut them out, then you are ready to create your arrangement on the background.

Play with the arrangement until you are satisfied.  Consideration was also given to where the stems would go and what needed to go underneath what.

Here's the arrangement with stems and leaves added.  The stems & leaves were fused and stitched before the flowers were fused in place. To maintain your arrangement, take a picture for reference and you can also lay them out on another surface the same way you want them on the quilt.

The flowers were all edge stitched in black along the printing lines, and then the petals have some accent stitching in yellow.

And finally, a close up detail shot.  We have a number of screens in the shop that work well for this fusible applique technique, including various flowers, leaves, a bird, butterflies. If you have a photo of an item, you can turn it into a screen - all of those items mentioned started out as photos we took. And like the flowers, when they are digital, you can create various sizes.  What photos do you have that would make great appliques?