Linda B Creative: The Love and Kisses Blog Tour and My Quilt, "Butterfly Love and Kisses"

Today is my day to share what I have created with Sherry Shish's signature fabric line, Love and Kisses, by Island Batiks. Sherry is the creative force behind Powered by Quilting, and she has some great quilt patterns available in her shop. Thanks so much Sherry for letting me be part of this great blog hop!

For more information about Sherry's signature fabric line check out this blog post.

I just want to take a minute and introduce myself, I am Linda Bratten, the owner and creator of Linda Bratten Creations.

I am a National Educator for Baby Lock and I am an instructor on Craftsy.

You can find out more about me and my work on my website: www.LindaBrattenCreations.com.

The Love and Kisses fabrics are a fun assortment of colors that include intense fuchsias, teals and wonderful pastels. I love that the collection included pieces that read like a solid, this inspired me to be creative with them.

I started out doodling on my iPad possible quilt designs. I seem to be creating lots of applique designs lately, and I created a drawing that I thought would really work with Sherry's Love and Kisses fabric.

To get started I enlarged my drawing and traced it onto fusible, tear-away stabilizer with a pencil. I had to piece the stabilizer together to create a piece that would cover the entire butterfly.

I decided that I would use reversible applique by machine to create the butterfly.

Reasons Why I Chose to Use Reverse Applique by Machine

1. It provides an easy way to ensure accurate placement of my applique pieces.

2. It provides the stability needed to create a smooth applique.

3. It would result in soft and flexible applique shapes that can showcase quilting, since no fusible or bonding agent is used.

4. It is all done with my sewing machine!!!

How to do Reverse Applique by Machine

Once the butterfly pattern was traced on the stabilizer, I fused it to the wrong side of the white background fabric.

Next, I placed the fabric for the upper wings on top of the white background fabric covering the perimeters of the upper wings applique shape. This fabric is placed right side facing up with the background fabric under it.

I used some temporary spray adhesive to hold the applique fabric in place. This temporary adhesive will disappear with time or when the project is ironed and is often used in machine embroidery. This is not quilt basting spray!

Pins can be used to hold the fabric in place. Make sure they are far away from the applique perimeter lines (these will be stitching lines) and I recommend using safety pins so you do not poke yourself.

Note for other projects: I would only use pins if you need to remove center portions of the fabric--it is difficult to lift the fabric to trim it away if you use a temporary spray.

You need to secure this fabric well so it will not curl under and frustrate you as you applique the butterfly.

Then I took it to my sewing machine. I had my machine threaded with black thread in the needle and the bobbin since I planned on securing the raw edges with a satin stitch in that color.

I set the machine up for a straight stitch, attached my free-motion foot, and dropped my feed dogs. With the stabilizer on top, I stitched on the outside drawn lines of the large butterfly wings, using a securing stitch when I started and stopped.

Once it was stitched, I flipped the quilt top over and using a sharp, curved tipped scissors I trimmed away the excess fabric from around the wings.

Sample of me trimming fabric away from a heart shape.

This is what the top looked like after I stitched the upper wings and the antennae.

I continued then appliquéing the lower wings, the body and then the hearts and paisleys to the background fabric using the same process.

While I loved the way this went together easily, due to the size of the butterfly, I would recommend that you practice this technique on a smaller project first. It can be a bit tricky to manipulate all that fabric in a small harp space on some sewing machines. Thankfully, I was able to use my Baby Lock Crescendo, with a larger harp space to accomplish this task!

Once all the applique pieces are sewn to the quilt top, I then finished the edges by using a 1/4" fusible bias tape in black and then using a tight and wide satin stitch in black thread to create bold outlines around the appliqued pieces and to enhance the shapes.

I added the borders and then treated myself to free-motion quilting the quilt on my Crescendo machine. I loved the way it turned out!

Finished size is 49" x 56"

What do you think?

As a special thank you to my blog readers, I am offering a 10% discount on all patterns and designs in my store. Use the coupon code: LoveandKisses to get the discount. The discount is good until December 31, 2020 and cannot be combined with other offers.

You can find my store by going to my website: www.LindaBrattenCreations.com and click on this box.

So let's have some more fun! I am giving away one pattern or design of your choice to one of my blog subscribers! How do you subscribe? Just go to the right side of this post and look for this:

Click on the subscribe to posts and fill in the information, and you will be entered into the drawing for the free pattern of choice. Those of you who already are subscribed will be included automatically! You must subscribe by 12 a.m. CST on December 20, 2020 to be eligible. The winner will be announced on Monday, December 21, 2020 on my blog.

Here are the terms of the giveaway:

This giveaway is in no way sponsored, administered or endorsed by Blogger/Google. By entering you are confirming that you are 18+ years of age that you release Blogger/Google of any/all responsibility and that you agree to Blogger/Google’s term of use. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. Open to all our friends around the world.

I am just one of several quilt pattern designers that have been sharing their projects created with the Love and Kisses fabrics. Be sure to stop and check the other inspiring pieces made with Sherry's signature fabric line!

December 1st

www.poweredbyquilting.com

December 2nd

Www.dizzyquilter.com

December 3rd

www.sliceofpiquilts.com

December 4th

https://www.desertbloomquilting.com/

December 5th

www.everydaystitches.com

December 6th

https://www.devotedquilter.com