Are you going to collect them?

You can’t have enough thread, and now there’s a new fine cotton Aurafil 80wt that just has to be added to the thread stash.

How do you now about it – just pop along to an ‘Applique-In’ run by ‘The Applique Guild of Australia’ of course! Belonging to a guild has many benefits – finding out about new ‘stuff’, and learning new ‘stuff’!

If you are like me and find using the 100wt silk threads a bit of a challenge, and have been using the Aurafil 50wt instead for hand applique, then this thread is a must have. A fine smooth cotton that disappears when sewn.

Aurafil 80wt thread

Four applique demonstrations, willingly shared by members, whet the appetite for having a go at different techniques.

• Jo Lawrence from Made Studio Textiles – turned edge applique using papers
• Veronique Diligent from Wattlebird Designs – appliquéing very small pieces
• Ros Devine – Reverse applique
• Margaret Mew from Quilt Station – Back basting applique

No I’m not starting anything new this year unless I’ve got something in the stash for it – and just as it happens – there’s a reverse applique pattern lurking in a box somewhere…

Plus sneak peek’s at WIPs (Works in Progress), and some Show and Tell.

Val Lewis’s hand applique laptop work table

Another gadget especially for fine hand work – even has a magnet to hold your scissors.

Boro applique stitching by Helen McQueen

From Japanese traditional stitching as a modern art form, to needleturn applique of the ‘c1835 Caswell Quilt’ as designed by Corliss Searcey of ‘Threadbear‘ in Castlemaine.

A ‘Caswell Quilt’ block by Maureen Jones

A ‘Caswell Quilt’ block by Maureen Jones

Last block in the ‘Caswell Quilt’ by Susanne

TAG caters for all applique technique enthusiasts, and Sue is our resident champion of ‘stick and sew’ machine buttonhole quilts.

Applique quilt by Sue Cheney