World Wide Quilting Page
Question of the Week
Question for the week of March 15, 1999:
Our question this week comes from Trimble Hon
What is shadow applique and how is it done?
Nancy Evans :
A neat twist on shadow applique is shadow trapunto.
I did several pieces of this back in the mid-'80's, and
what you do with this process is to "quilt" through the
base fabric and the sheer in your design, then use a large-eye
needle to pull brightly colored yard from the back of the piece
into the interior of the design, clipping the tails off
flush with the backing. Just keep adding yarn until your
spaces are filled and you get a great textured design.
However, there are still the little yarn "nubbies" on the back,
so you'd want to add a backing and maybe batting and finish
the piece properly. (Depending on ultimate use desired, of course.)
Joan Kniffen :
Sheer fabric such as organdy appliqued over
cotton fabric allowing the color of the
background fabric to show through the organcy
layer..
Margie Dougherty :
Shadow applique is done somewhat like trapunto. A sheer top layer is laid over the applique shapes, which are placed in their proper places on the base fabric. The applique pieces are stitched into place using a running (quilting) stitch around their outlines.
I have also seen shadow applique done just like trapunto, with colored yarn (the big thick stuff you use to tie packages with) stuffed into the applique areas, which have been outlined with a quilting stitch.
Sammy "G" :
Vickie explained it very well but there is another facet to it. You can use fusible web to make your applique and since you'll be overlaying it with organdy or voile and stitching on the top, you don't have to worry about doing anything else to the applique layer to keep the edges from raveling. You can also use any type of thread to do the outlining. After all, you're the artist! Porter and Fons is my all time favorite answer book and I highly recommend it. The Quilters Complete Guide. Got mine at Wal-mart so it's universally available.
Marty in Ct. :
Vicki, you explained very well. This is fun to do
Vicki from SW PA :
Shadow quilting is a form of applique.
The design is usually bright colored
solid fabrics. These are placed on a background that is usually white. Then a sheer fabric such as voile is placed over the appligue. The design is quilted with a matching embroidery floss around each particular color. For instance, if you were doing a two color flower, say purple and blue, you would use a matching color to quilt on the edge of the petals. Sometimes some accent quilting is also done on the applique. Boy, I didn't think that this would be so hard to explain, till I started trying!
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