Dutch Treat

Um diesen Text auf deutsch zu lesen, klicke bitte auf das DE oben auf der Seite.

Dutch Treat - I've never heard of this Quilt.

In the Yahoo-group for Farmer's Wife the members discussed fabrics and colour-options. One woman asked about using Jeans-fabric for FW. All of us said NO! The fabric is too thick and stiff for FW. But I said that a quilt made in different shades of Jeans-blue must be gorgeous.

Carol said than I would like Dutch Treat for sure.

I searched and found this book:

Oh dear. 196 blocks in finished size 4 inch - and all are done with Appliqué! and not only Appliqué, but Reverse Appliqué.

Hm - after the Aquarium and my class at Emer Fahy I was done with Appliqué. Not because of Emers class, but because of my not-ability to sew these tiny pieces neatly.

But this quilt is so beautiful...

There are three methods to do Appliqué: raw edge, prepared edge and needleturn.

Raw edge - no. These tile-blocks are so beautiful - I don't want a raw edge for them.

For Needleturn there is a very good youtube-video by Wendi Gratz: How to do needleturn appliqué.
Exactly like that Emer had showed us the method on the Nadelwelt Karlsruhe 2016.
Oh well. I tried it once again, a phantasy-pattern. This is the result:

That's pathetic, don't you agree?

Around this time The Quilt Show offered a weekend with almost all videos for free. Perfect - I spent that weekend in front of my computer, searching and watching Appliqué-videos.
And I found a lot - Laura Fraga showed in her video the prepared-edge-method so detailled, that even I understood it. And than I remembered - exactly like that Emer had showed us that method in the class. I had dismissed the method immediately - to much ado for my taste!

But now - I tried it once again. With a 'real block' of the book, page 64 - Gems. A simple block for the beginning, no curves. That's the result:

Sure, it's not perfect. But so much better than the needleturn-option!

Now I'm sure that I can do the blocks.

Ok - let's get started and get the fabric and the tools.

Fabric:
the author Judy Garden recommends indigo-fabrics from Cotton in the Cabin.
Sounds good. But when I asked them about prices and shipping, they said: 'oh, Germany?? Please order from a closer place' und gave me an address in England: The African fabric shop.

Wow - there is a category Shwe Shwe Indigos - and the quilters heart starts to sing!
So many different indigo-fabrics and as a special they offer a FQ-package with 25 FQs for 60 pounds. The price for shipping is absolutely ok and there is no tax (as of now UK is still a member of the EU) - I ordered!

Interesting: the fabric comes with a lot of - yes, what? It's not starch - but what else? wax? Oh well, the fabric comes with something. It's very thick and stiff and kind of sticky or greasy (but not really). It has to be washed first!! And not only once. I washed it 5 times - finally it stopped to bleed.

For the white fabric I bought 10 different whites in my local quilt-shop.
Since the indigo-fabrics have to be washed, I washed the white ones too.
I learned that Appliqué is easier on soft, washed fabrics anyway.

Needles:
Hm. Everybody recommends another brand and size. I tried several of them and for now I've settled on Tulip-needles size 10. They are thin but stable and the eye is huge.
In 4 weeks the next Nadelwelt Karlsruhe will take place, I want to try Roxanne Appliqué-needles there, my local quilt-shop doesn't have them. But Roxanne will have a hard job to compete with the Tulip-needles.

Yarn:
Even more difficult than needles! The professionals recommend a lot of different brands: Mettler Fine Embroidery No 60, Aurifil 50 weight cotton, DMC Machine Embroidery Thread, YLI 100 silk thread - and Superior Bottom Line.
That's the only thread that I have at home. I use Bottom Line to sew my bindings on the back of the quilts and I also use it for English Paper Piecing. I just like that thread.
The first blocks are made with Bottom Line, but I will check in Karlsruhe if I can find the other threads.

Iron:
For the first block I used my standard (and only) iron. It was ok - but not easy on the small corners. Therefore I bought the mini-iron from Clover - phantastic! Stiletto and mini-iron - best combination!

I made a tutorial for the prepared-edge-method - how do I prepare the block for sewing?

This quilt got its very own Bionic Gear Bag, you can see it here: