I know, I know….I’m not good friends with that A word…. but I decided to give applique in my embroidery machine a try.

Did you know that Accuquilt has free embroidery files to go along with their applique dies? I didn’t! You can download them from their site. Of course, you don’t need them to applique, you can always use a regular satin or buttonhole stitch on your regular machine. But since I have an embroidery machine that sees too little action, I had to try it. This is what the die looks like. This one just has the dog and his little ear. I figured I should start simple.

Here is the machine hubby got me a few years ago. It intimidates me a bit. Okay, maybe more than a bit.

I won’t give any detailed embroidery info here. Every machine is different and I am a real rookie. But I downloaded the embroidery files, hooped my fabric with stabilizer, and loaded it up. The first step is having the machine stitch out this outline.

That gives me the placement for the dog body applique. I had already put fusible on the back of my fabric and used the die to cut the shapes. Put fusible on your fabric BEFORE cutting the shape with your die.

Then it goes back into the machine which stitches the applique down.

Now to stitch out the ear placement outline.

Put the ear in place and put it back in the machine to stitch the ear down.

Ta daaaa! How cute is that? I don’t yet know what this will become. But I can see making blocks for a baby quilt out of 30s fabrics. I might have to try a few more appliqué dies!

Have a great day!

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