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Design and Applique Sewflakes – A Review
Hi!
I hope it’s been a great week for you. This week I took another wonderful course from Creative Spark, and you too are going to love the designs possible when you’ve seen Kathy Wylie’s “Design and Applique Sewflakes” class!
So What are Sewflakes?
Remember folding paper as a child, and cutting it to make snowflakes or doileys or paper dolls? This is a fun technique further developed by Kathy Wylie and put firmly into the quilt-making arena.
Kathy calls them ‘sewflakes’, and demonstrates very well in her “Design and Applique Sewflakes” class, how to design, draft, prepare and sew your own, and I absolutely loved the possibilities for new applique designs that this class offers.
This is a very comprehensive class, and through a series of easy to understand videos, Kathy steps through her techniques for creating and making these fun sewflakes. Best of all – the downloadable version of her book is also included in this class, so you can download and save it (and check out the 5 quilt patterns included in her book as well!)
Kathy uses computer generated images and diagrams well, and this makes it really easy to understand the processes, and envision the design possibilities just from using a template slightly differently.
Talking computer assisted too – Kathy has a quick bonus video class included on using software to design your own. You can try the ‘wreathmaker’ function in EQ8, or Adobe Illustrator, or there’s even a free ‘paper snowflake maker’ online if you google it.
This class starts with how to fold your paper, and design your own sewflakes. I liked Kathy’s method for transferring the design to a Master Wedge for greater accuracy, and then using that master wedge to transfer the design as you like, in preparation for appliqueing it.
She covers symmetrical and non-symmetrical designs, and how to reverse them when needed, so you can easily create the wreath-like sewflake you want.
This course briefly covers how to use this technique to make frames for blocks too. It is only brief, and I would have loved a little more practical detail on this, but like everything else, it’s fun to play around and see just what you can come up with, and how those designs could be incorporated into new quilt blocks.
This hearts sewflake above is very effective when incorporated into the quilt below, and this idea of using this technique to create different frames or borders for blocks or quilts really has me thinking…
Kathy does extend well past the basics with other ideas though.
You can layer different sewflakes for stunning effect – For example in her Christmas holly and candle wreath. The leaves are one sewflake, and the candles a second one. Add a touch of applique, and it’s a beautiful design.
You can take these design elements further too. Try mixing different fabrics, and adding a touch of embroidery, as in her “Tools of the Trade” sewing machine block, with two different fabrics for contrast, and a hand embroidered thread at the top of the machines.
Or you may like to design a sewflake for use as a quilting motif template…
Watermelon anyone?
Kathy also shares a comprehensive guide to appliqueing your sewflakes too, ranging from using freezer paper through fusible webbing, and needle turn to cutwork, and she shows that there really is a style to suit everyone with this technique.
I couldn’t resist having a little play as soon as I finished Kathy’s “Design and Applique Sewflakes” class, and I think I’m a bit in love with making these little cutouts.
I scribbled a quick tulip design, and cut it out…
And when I opened it … (and that’s always the most fun part of this process anyway, right?!)
Ta dah!!!
Leave this one with me for now – I’ll make it into something pretty and share the full pattern with you in a future Online Quilt Magazine!
We have been fortunate enough to again have a FREE giveaway of Kathy Wylie’s “Design and Applique Sewflakes” Class to a lucky winner this week. To be in the running, please comment below with what you love about Sewflakes and why you’d like to take this class, and we’ll randomly choose one lucky winner on Tuesday 30th July.
Do check this out when you have a chance, at https://creativespark.ctpub.com/courses/sewflakes and remember to comment for your chance to win this class this week.
Enjoy your week!
