It didn't take very long to put the Spoolin' Around Table Topper (a kit from Connecting Threads) together. Once I got my circles of fabric cut, basted, and quilted with a simple pie-shaped walking foot straight stitch, it was just a matter of using fusible web as a template to cut out and then adhere the 'spools' onto the background. I appliqued those down using a straight stitch and then added the coloured 2" squares as the 'thread'. Those were edge stitched as well and it went pretty quickly.
I haven't appliqued much and thought this project would be good practice for my DWR quilt. The pattern instructions suggest an edge stitch and I felt that a blanket stitch (which is what I will use on the quilt) was just too time consuming and fussy for this little table topper project. Still, I got the hang of watching the edge of the applique and testing the pivot and stitch length on my machine. I also re-watched some applique sewing in the Craftsy Inset and Applique Circles by Machine class and that helped a lot!
In that class, instructor Cheryl Arkison blanket stitches around circles using a very short stitch AND demonstrates on a Horizon. It was good to hear what settings she used and I got some tips and tricks from the lesson. Cheryl uses tiny applique pins as well so I gave those a try to keep my fabric 'spools' in place.
Tomorrow I'm going to talk more about the bias binding I made and used on the table topper. That's a post all its own! I'm very happy with the finished project and I think it was worth the $12 bucks. It's not exactly perfect but I think it's very cute and I learned quite a bit using it as an experimental tester project. It was also perfect to finish up in a day, practice my hand-stitched binding once again, and be done with it and cleaned up before some family time.
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