Felicity Quilt

hi everyone welcome to At Home with Misty i am super excited to be joined by Emily Taylor the collage quilter thank you oh thank you for being here tell everyone what we're doing today all right today we are going to start on this super basic beginner collage quilt called Felicity oh wonderful i can't wait to show you guys how to make it [Music] okay Emily I am so excited about this i have wanted to learn collage quilting for a long time and you promised me that this is going to be doable so I can't wait to learn so this is the beautiful project that we're making today right yes this you are going to be surprised at how fun and easy this is i cannot wait and so what do we need to make this all right so to get started what we need is a great pair of scissors i prefer the Karen K buckley 6-in scissors okay and then essential is the pattern okay so the pattern looks like this the pattern contains along with the instructions it contains this preprinted foundation panel panel okay in shades of gray then you'll need um some adhesive so I prefer steam seam wonderful you can use any adhesive that you like but I prefer this um and then optional supplies like I really love these tweezers that's kind of helpful um you'll need some some pins okay and when we get to quilting we'll talk about that some more but I really love these non-stick needles okay to go through the adhesive that's super smart and then the thread that I like to quilt with is 100% polyester 40 weightight thread wonderful all right so let's get started okay let's do it all right so one of the things well the most important thing that you're going to need is fabric and we have worked together to curate a beautiful super generous fabric bundle um that you can use in this kit so the interesting thing about this is we've got I don't know 40 50 different fabrics that are cut in eighth of a yard cuts oh wonderful four and a half inches by the width of fabric okay and I really love that because then I can just cut off a small piece of fabric and prepare it with steam seam so I've done that with a couple i'm just going to show you real quick perfect so four and a half inches on the steam there's a grid so I can just go I can just count so I've got half one two three four and I'll just cut my fabric or my steam seam right on the line yep i don't like to use I don't like to prepare a ton of fabric with steam seam at one time so I do it in pieces i cut four to eight inches off of my off of the Just enough to get you going yep just to get going then I'm going to peel back one side of the steam it really doesn't matter if it's um which paper which side okay you peel back it's the same on both sides and I maximize my use of the steam seam and I always actually save these you know small pieces because you can use it eventually right it's expensive and we need to we need to maximize our use of it of course so let's just press that with the iron and so just a nice give it a nice hot iron yep okay okay that's it yep and that's all you need to do with the fabric pieces that you've selected to use in your collage okay so now you can kind of see all the fabric that I have prepared wonderful so let's get started with collage i can't wait all right Misty yes here we go i cannot wait i'm so excited now let's look at this kind of carefully okay and let's count we've got one shade of gray two shades of gray maybe you know maybe this is a little bit lighter right sure um but what we're doing is we're going to put fabric in this area that is lighter okay than the fabric that we see here okay so it's just kind of a guide for the the shade of the fabric or the tone of the fabric exactly okay now we're going to walk through this and let's start we're going to make this into a yellow flower i've kind of already started so I'm going to let you select the fabric from the bundle okay so we've got some yellows here so why don't you try and make two or three sets what I call value sets like light medium dark yep okay let's see how I do here that one's obviously the dark right yeah perfect just like that okay okay great so those are the beginnings of our value sets right just add to it just add to it okay maybe move that i would probably move that over there now look there's a value contrast there and that's okay that's okay so that would be more of the light definitely yeah okay and then a dark yep perfect okay very fun would that be a light how fun is this okay perfect okay so it doesn't even have to be perfect right just close but close enough that we can see that okay these are my lights these are my midtones and these are my darks got it and now we're ready to start collaging okay so I'm going to start let's take the lights and put them right here okay perfect this is the fun part you can see I've already dug into this i am simply going to take my scissors and make any cut that I want this is free form cutting so you're not you're not using the panel as a guide you're just I'm using it as a rough guide it's like a coloring book page okay okay i don't really have to stay in the lines um it's okay if it's not perfect okay uh I am going to show you a little tip though for areas where you might want a little more precision yeah but for now I'm just going to This has all been prepared with the steam i'm going to score the back paper peel makes it peas to peel off sometimes I'll pull a thread when I score it and now I'm just going to kind of start going like this okay um now the other thing that's really nice about the steam seam is it makes pieces repositionable okay so it'll stick temporarily before you fuse it before I fuse it right and so I'm just going to kind of fill that area in perfect so can you talk a little bit about what you're looking for when you're selecting fabrics absolutely because I that is one thing that I'm kind of particular about okay this like once I'm laying it down I'm not picky at all but I do like to work with fabrics that number one I can tell what the color is the overall color right so multiolor prints are hard to use but if you look at things like this I can easily tell that they are yellow they still fall in that yellow category yep the other thing is they have very tight a very tight print a tight motif and I love it when there's fabric that has a little pop of analogous colors um that makes the the overall collage just really really rich and gives it a lot of dimension so that it's not flat it gives it some life some interest and it kind of connects those different fabrics together too by having those colors right absolutely okay the other thing is I like to use boutiques as well as prints and the reason for using boutiques is prints are sometimes they fall in the midtone range of value and boutiques help us have reach the ends of the spectrum on you know round out the lights and dark okay that's great this is so fun and you really are you're just I'm just cutting and Yep i'm just playing i'm just going to put all these pieces down do you want to give it a try sure i guess do you want to start on maybe these pretty colors right here sure the more more mediums yeah all right i'm I'm a little afraid but I don't know why i want to see you do this okay like something like this yep now let me give you a little hint here too so we have this much space to cover yeah this piece might be a little bit too big okay yeah just try maybe cut it in half okay my rule of thumb is no bigger than the palm of your hand okay and no smaller than your thumbnail and that's pretty small yeah I was going to say those are some good guidelines you know somewhere in you know in about that range is great and then that enables you to put more variety in that section cuz variety is our friend then right it is more is more is more more is better okay so like that maybe is better perfect yes okay so now take the Right score have you ever used seamless seam i have but it's been a long time actually I have not used it for a long time so I'll So you've scored it it'll just peel off and you're right it does have kind of a a It has a temporary yeah that holds it in place for you that's great okay so we'll just keep going i want you to just do that section right there okay all right if you dare i dare i'm going to try it okay it's so fun and then score it score it your fingernails are so pretty oh thank you i had to redo them it's you know gardening season so they weren't looking so nice the other day nice to have fingernails to hide the dirt it's true it's true oh okay and so do you just try to keep mixing up the fabric as you go okay so that that's I'm doing it right then just keep pulling different prints it's really hard huh well it's not hard but funny i I do feel like I'm going to mess it up somehow you can't you can't okay that's good to know foolproof that is good to know and you're just having fun yeah well and playing with And I guess the thing to remember too is if I put it on there and for some reason I don't like it I just pull it off and switch it right like it's really not That's right not like a permanent thing and and as far as like overlapping things what are you what are you looking for i will generally overlap oh maybe up to a half inch okay you know I don't want to cover everything done but I want to cover my goal is to cover everything in the gray guide okay and and you So you want to layer those up and have all that variety okay cool i need like a little sliver there huh yeah just a Yeah exactly something like that so this is a little bit like doing a puzzle except that you can cheat because you can cut the pieces that's true you can make it work for what you need huh okay so we are just going to keep working to fill out this i am such a rule follower i'm like it has to fit perfectly but I'm hearing your voice in my head that it's just a guideline right it's a guideline yep okay and the goal with this is is really just to I think the goal is to get into flow okay right so it's just you're just having fun with fabric it's stimulating it's a little challenging but stimulating but not too difficult right and so this is the time where I turn on a good book and or a podcast and I just sit and enjoy playing with the color okay it's therapy it really is you're going to love it and so when you're layering this do you like So I'm I'm basically layering from this side up do you come back and tuck some things under like do you have a rule of thumb with that great question so for example the green leaf that's coming here that's what I'll do i'll take these handy dandy tweezers you'll just tuck the green underneath underneath the flower but as far as this piece right here it doesn't matter not really okay awesome i just wasn't sure here go back to this one maybe yeah good okay i keep losing my pen there it is you're making a beautiful yellow blossom well thank you well done yeah that's perfect something like that okay maybe I need to flip that around i don't know yeah it's kind of fun to just play right yeah see how it looks now you just have a few more pieces there and then we're ready to kind of move on all right well I will finish this what do you think i think it's super fun it's very um forgiving and just freeing it really is kind of just like just playing which is so awesome all right so we will finish up this little yellow blossom and then I'll let you show me what's next okay [Music] perfect perfect look at that oh so fun great job thank you so much oh this is so great Misty you killed it thank you this is really fun and I I think you're right you just have to kind of settle in and enjoy the process it's really just fun and forgiving it is yeah just let go and have fun okay i have a little tip for you awesome so do you see this section of the flower that has like what is it called you're a gardener a stamon is that a stamon that would be the center yes yeah so I don't want to have to cut and make all these little pieces around there so I'm going to teach you how to do what I call a sass tracing okay so I'm going to let's see peel back the paper part so the steam of seam is on the back of the fabric still and I'm going to lay it on here and I can kind of see through there right yeah absolutely so I'm now can help hold it down a thanks you bet so we are doing a sass tracing and it's going to be something like that right okay that looks really similar yes it does maybe okay now I have a tra a perfect tracing oh and I can just trace this out and and cut it and then that's what I'll use for that section to fill in that spot yep so anytime you're feeling a little intimidated by an a section of the quilt that might be a little scary you know maybe a little piece like that or anything you can use this little simple technique and take away all doubt about getting that done that's wonderful so now we've got the center of the quilt right there but there's also those little dots dots what are they i'm not sure what they would officially be called but those Anyway okay they're little dots so let's take something that might be kind of a fun let's take some dots okay right and just cut those out and they don't have to be Remember we don't have to It doesn't have to be the perfect size doesn't have to match exactly it's a guideline it's a suggestion that's right yeah so look at that now I've got the little flower centers easy peasy right well and it's so fun like with this particular fabric you're getting a lot of variety and it's all from the same print which is that's another reason I love K facet yes just great fabric interesting designs definitely okay so I think those are great yeah um now I'm going to just continue working on this design and you can just sit back relax and watch okay i can't wait [Music] [Music] all right so now we have finished this middle section it looks so good it does right yes i'm just so like I'm so pleasantly surprised at how relaxing and fun this was good i'm glad you enjoyed it so and super easy right so easy yes so the next step is we're just going to steam it okay once we're happy with with everything we can steam it if at this point I'm there's something that I don't like I can still peel it up and move it yep okay but I really like it so I think now it's the it's time to steam now steam is essential in this process we've got a really hot steamy iron and this will help to dissipate the temporary layer of of adhesive and activate the permanent layer of adhesive and I recommend steaming it on both sides okay of the panel so that just so it's really good and secure yep and the more you steam this the easier your quilting is going to be oh okay so I have steamed this section the the quilt top really really well and now we're going to talk about quilting okay so I have some tips for success with quilting through collage all right okay so and number one is the needle i think it's really important schmmetz makes this lovely non-stick needles i didn't even know this was a thing isn't that crazy and I'm really surprised because I do a lot of applique fusible applique and so it would be great for that as well that's amazing these needles are awesome such a good tip and then the other thing is I really highly recommend 40 weightight polyester thread because we're stitching through adhesive and sometimes a couple layers of fabric we need our thread to be really strong i don't want thread breakage no so polyester is stronger than cotton perfect the other thing is I um so this is the when this is finished this will be treated like a quilt top i will you know make my quilt sandwich and quilt it as I would any other quilt okay i normally will match my thread color because I don't consider myself an expert quilter okay and the highlight of the quilt is really the collage not my quilting so I will match my thread to the back yeah because you just want it to blend in with with this beautiful artwork that you've created exactly yeah exactly now the other thing is I quilt things densely i like dense quilting but it also serves a purpose with collage because we want to make sure that all of these raw edges are tacked down okay yep so those are the tips dense quilting polyester thread a great non-stick needle now let me tell you a little bit about the the way I quilt is what I call doodle stitching all right so I will in fact if we look at this quilt here absolutely yes um doodle stitching this is a really great example where I'll kind of uh pretend I'm working on a leaf and I'll mimic the veins of a leaf or the shape of a flower petal okay so that's what I mean by doodle stitching well and you can see here you've you really have you've tacked down every edge so everything's just nice and secure yeah it makes sense and not necessarily I haven't necessarily gone around each every single piece but you're just making sure it's caught that's right yes yeah so then then you're ready then you're That's how you quilt that's how you quilt a collage quilt and then you just trim it and bind it just as any other quilt that is amazing i cannot believe how truly simple and approachable this is with this panel as the starting place like this is just like a game changer for me i love to hear that i think you're gonna love it i am hooked i want to make another one i have so many ideas brewing in my head so thank you so much for coming and sharing this it's been my pleasure thank you so much for having me it has been a real treat so can you let everyone know where they can follow you if they want to learn more sure okay great so collagequilter.com and that's kind of my website you can follow me on social media too so Collage Quilter is the name of my business wonderful thank you Emily so much and hopefully I'll see you again soon yeah thanks Misty yep see you bye bye hey everyone thank you so much for watching at home we're so excited to be almost a million quilters strong here at Missouri Star and so if you haven't already joined our family be sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell so you can be notified of all of our future tutorials and we'll see you soon