I love fabrics like these that are pure color.  I always have this urge to roll around in them and then fondle them without apology.  Whenever I open a newly arrived package of fabric delivered to my door, a “yummy” always escapes my mouth along with a big grin. 

Applique fabric needs are far different than those for piecers.  There are only a few professional appliquers who do fabulous work with prints and complex layered applique.  Two of the world’s top elite are my friends and peers Zena Thorpe and Margarete Heinisch.  Margaret explained to me how she does it one time on a fabric shopping excursion, but I will leave it to her as she does it so much better than I ever could.  I have a different style that  uses mostly fabrics that are tone on tone, batiks, and small read-as-solid prints.

I don’t use a lot of print fabrics because of the type of embroidery detail I do.  My detail style embroidery on top of a busy print is less than effective, hard to see and a general waste of time.  Trying to find these pseudo-solid types of fabrics in any great value variety is not always easy.  Especially lately where fabric companies are creating more and more 70′s colored busy large prints for the bulk of the market which is understandably the piecing technique.  

This would not look nearly as good with a busy print. This is hand appliqued not fused or painted (many people think this when they look at my work). The white marks are my chalk pencil for the embroidery work.

Decent backgrounds are hard to find too.  So I designed my own!  I was invited to join Spoonflower the day I signed up and had not taken advantage of it for several months.  I was afraid they would un-invite me, so I took the opportunity to create my own custom fabric.  I love it.  It really fits the vintage theme I am working with right now and it is in colors I need, and not what the market trends dictate to me.  I am such a rebel disguised in a sweater twinset and a soccer mom exterior. 

The daisy flower fabric is my design. The red dot is by Lakehouse.

 I have to say that it is really nice to have control over what choices I have in materials to work with.  My favorite color is red.  Bright vintage tomato red.  So here is a closer look at my background fabric I designed that arrived from Spoonflower: 

My fabric I designed

 I can now actually create exactly what I see in my head in terms of design, color and fabrics.  It makes me absolutely giddy when I think of what I can do now with my applique projects.

When it comes to fabric, say it with me now, “YUMMY!”

©2009 Sandra Leichner http://www.sandraleichner.com