An Alternative to Fusibles

The students in my Open Lab class at WCTC are always bringing in interesting projects to work on! This semester June Puls chose to create a winter quilt from the book: Snowfolk Friends by K.P. Kids (I did a web search and the book is out of print 🙁 ). The quilt contains rows of delightful snowpeople and winter designs that are meant to be created using fusible web appliqué. In brief: each little piece needed to be traced onto fusible web, fused to the correct fabric, cut out and put together on the background fabric “jigsaw puzzle” style. There were so many tiny parts to the snowpeople row June was a bit overwhelmed:

So I suggested using Repliqué. Repliqué is the technique from my first 2 books: “Repliqué Quilts” and “Snuggle & Learn Quilts For Kids”. I know that many of you own one of these books, but perhaps you hadn’t thought of using it for this type of project! In brief: the pattern is traced full size, each part of the design is stitched directly onto this tracing from the pattern side, turned to the fabric side, trimmed close to the stitching and then the raw edges are covered with with a satin stitch finish. June seemed skeptical at first, but is now a believer!

She’s a very talented quilter and she did an amazing job! Everyone in class was very impressed:

All of the other rows in the quilt are much simpler (she tackled the tough one first). Some are pieced, but June says the other appliqué rows will also be Repliquéd!

Just about any pattern written for fusible appliqué can be Repliquéd. Also, photographs and children’s drawings can also be recreated in fabric with this technique. And one of the best benefits is that the quilt keeps a soft “hand” because there is no added stiffness from the fusible web.

Have you used Repliqué in a unique way? I’d love to hear about it!