Level: Advanced

Jodie Dobbs, who works at Trevathan's Sewing in Hillsdale, MI, created this wonderful dimensional hummingbird wallhanging. The wallhanging covers a vast variety of techniques, from a freezer paper applique technique to dimensional creation of the flower petals, to a unique and amazing touch of knotted thread for the flower stamen. If you have any questions regarding Jodie's project, please feel free to email her at: hummer_fuchsia@yahoo.com.

Janome Supplies Required
Janome Horizon
F2 Open toe appliqué foot
¼” foot O
 

Fabric and batting *(see below for yardage using the same colors as Jodie)
Border, backing, and binding: 1 ¾ yards
Background: 2/3 yard
Fuchsia petals: 1/6 yard
Sepals, tube and large buds for fuchsia: 1/3 yard
Leaves: ¼ yard
Fabric pieces needed for hummingbird:
• Beak and tail fabric – black 3”x 3”
• Upper throat fabric – red 2”x 2”
• Lower throat fabric – white 2”x 2”
• Breast fabric & small buds – light green 4”x 10”
• Back and top of head fabric – dark green 3”x 3”
• Front large wing fabric – gray/green 5”x 2”
• Back wing fabric and top of front large wing– medium green 3”x 3”
Batting - 26 ½” x 27 ½”

 
Basic sewing supplies
Thread to match border fabric for machine or hand appliqué
Hand Quilting thread to match fuchsia and for stamens
Monofilament thread - clear
1/8” black button for eye
Freezer Paper
Mini Iron & pressing mat
Liquid Starch and Q – tip
Open toe appliqué foot – Janome F2
Applique Pressing Mat
Applique pins
Piecemakers Sharps – Fine sewing needles size 5/10 and Assorted 20 needles Item X 12- S 5/10
Heat and Bond Ultra Hold
Appli-bond needles
Fine point black marker for marking template plastic
Assorted fabric markers
Pencil
Small Clover Quick Yo-Yo Maker

Construction of Border and Background using Freezer Paper Applique
Background fabric: Cut 1 – 20” x 24 1/2”
Border: Cut 1 – 23 ½” x 24½”
Binding: Cut 3 strips @ 2 ½” or 2 ¼”
Freezer Paper: Cut 1 - 24 ½” x 18”

• Fold the background and border fabric into quarters. Iron the folds to mark the centers.
• Fold your 26 ½” x 18” freezer paper into quarters. Trace the background template onto the top of freezer paper with the longest edge along the vertical fold lines creating an
oval. Cut out the oval and set aside. You will be using the border of the freezer paper in your construction, not the oval.
• Open the border fabric. Place the freezer paper, wax side down, on the wrong side of the border fabric and press onto the border fabric.
• Cut away the center of the border fabric leaving a quarter inch turn under seam allowance from the freezer paper. Then clip around the inside of border fabric about every quarter to half inch.
• Wet the edge of the inside border with a Q-tip and liquid starch, about 3-4 inches at a time, using your mini iron, iron the edges over the freezer paper template. When cool, the freezer paper can be removed and the border is ready to be appliquéd. Refold the border fabric into quarters and repress the folds to mark the centers.
• Pin the border fabric to the background fabric, being careful to align the fold marks for the centers of the sides, top and bottom of the fabric.
• You are now ready to machine appliqué your border to the background. Using your open toe appliqué foot, machine appliqué your border to the background using a tiny zigzag with the width set at 0.5 -1.0 (so it takes only a couple of threads bite into your border fabric) and the length at 2.0. (I use clear monofilament thread and bobbin thread that matches the border or hand appliqué the border to the background.)

Marking the Background Fabric
Using a light box trace the pattern as needed onto the background using a pen that can be completely washed out for placement of branches, leaves, buds, flowers and your hummingbird.

Construction of Fuchsia

Fuchsia petals: Cut one 3 ½” strip, then cut these into twelve 2 1/2” wide pieces.
Fuchsia sepals: Cut one 3” strip, then cut in half
Heat and Bond Ultra Hold – Cut one 3” x 22” strip
Fuchsia tube – Cut one 3 ½” strip, then cut twelve 3 ½” squares

Fuchsia petals:
• Cut one 3 ½ inch strip. Then cut these into twelve 2 ½ inch wide pieces.
• Press a narrow hem, about a ¼ inch or less, to the wrong side along the 2 ½ inch ends of the strip.
• Fold the strip in half lengthwise, wrong sides together. Using quilting thread, stitch across the top edge and pull to gather.
• As you approach the opposite end of the strip, tuck one folded edge inside the other to form a circle.
• Finish gathering the top edge and then blind stitch along the seam to join the ends. 
 

Fuchsia sepals:
Fuchsia sepal fabric – cut one 3” strip, then cut in half
Heat and Bond Ultra Hold – Cut one 3” x 22” piece

(While bonding your fabric together to make the sepals for you fuchsia you will find it very useful to use an appliqué pressing mat to help keep your iron and ironing board free of the glue from the Heat and Bond. The fabric and Heat and Bond should be sandwiched between the appliqué pressing mat.)

• Lay your piece of Heat and Bond Ultra Hold on the wrong side of your fabric for the sepals. With this sandwiched between the appliqué pressing mat, press using an iron set on cotton for 8-10 seconds. Let cool, peal off paper and then apply the other piece to the back of your sandwich.
• Using a fine point black marking pen trace the sepal onto a small piece of template plastic and cut out. Then trace it onto your sepal fabric using a fabric marking pen. You will need to cut out 36 of them. I used a white marker that disappears with heat.
• Attach your 3 sepals to the raw edge of the petal portion of the fuchsia (two sides and front) using hand quilting thread, appli-bond needles, and two stab stitches for each sepal, 3 sepal per flower.
• You will not attach one to the back where the seam is.

Fuchsia tube:
Step 1: Cut two 3 ½” strips then cut twelve 3 1/2” squares of fabric for your tubes. Use the small Clover Quick Yo-Yo Maker directions to complete twelve yo-yos.

Step 2: Knot thread and come up near the edge of the hole in the center of the yo-yo. Bring the thread around the edge of the yo-yo and back into the center of the yo-yo and pull the thread tightly, gathering the fabric, so that the edge of the yo-yo indents towards the center. Wrap the thread around 2 more times to secure this indentation. Do this process three more times to get a four petal yo-yo flower, which will become your tube.

Step 3: Attaching the Tube
Using the hand quilting thread that you will also use for the stamens, you will now attach the tube. Tack the thread at the seam above your gathering of the petal portion of the fuchsia. Then take your needle and thread and enter center back above the gathering and come out between the center sepal and right sepal. Tack a yo-yo petal on one side of your outer center sepal. Then tack it on the other side of the center sepal. Continue with the petal to the left of the one you just attached. Then attach another yo-yo petal over the right sepal. Finally attach the yo-yo petal in the back. The yo-yo petals should now be tacked so no gathering stitches or outer sepal tacking show. The tube should now cover the top of your fuchsia like a cap with no gaps.

Fuchsia Stamens:
Thread a needle with a quilting thread in a color to match the sepals and tube pulling it through the eye to double it. Tie a knot at one end of thread. Take a stitch up into the flower, leaving long tails showing. Take 2 stitches to secure the thread in the center of the yo-yo tube and come out of the center the fuchsia. Tie a knot 1/2” -3/4” from the edge of the petals. Clip the thread below the knot. You now have 2 stamens. Repeat the process until you have 8 stamens. Repeat until all flowers have their stamens. You may also add a Pistil with the same process. See diagram of fuchsia.

Construction of Leaves
Cut one 5” strip of leaf fabric, then cut it in half.
Cut one 5” x 22” piece of Heat and Bond.

• While bonding your fabric together to make the leaves for you fuchsia you will find it very useful to use an appliqué pressing mat to help keep your iron and ironing board free of the glue from the Heat and Bond. The fabric and Heat and Bond should be sandwiched between the appliqué pressing mat.
• Lay your piece of Heat and Bond Ultra Hold on the wrong side of your fabric for the leaves. With this sandwiched between the appliqué pressing mat, press using an iron set on cotton for 8-10 seconds. Let cool, peal off paper and then apply the other piece to the back of your sandwich.
• Using a fine point black marking pen trace the leaves onto a small piece of template plastic and cut out. Then trace them onto your leaf fabric using a fabric marking pen. I used a white marker that disappears with heat. You will need to cut out 30 small, 30 medium, and 30 large leaves.

Preparation of Buds and Hummingbird
Fabric pieces needed:
Beak and tail fabric – black 3”x 3”
Upper throat fabric – red 2”x 2”
Lower throat fabric – white 2”x 2”
Breast fabric – light green 3”x 4”
Back and top of head fabric – dark green 3”x 3”
Front large wing fabric – gray/green 5”x 2”
Back wing fabric and top of front large wing– medium green 3”x 3”

• Trace shapes onto fusible webbing, Lite Steam-A-Seam, using a pencil. You will need to trace 11 small buds and 9 large buds, as well as the pieces for your humming bird.
• Be sure to trace the foundation piece for your hummingbird.
• Note stitching lines on pattern pieces too. Cut around them when you are ready to attach them to the fabric.
• Be sure to place an appliqué pressing over and under them when attaching the Lite Steam-A-Seam to the back of your fabric with your iron. You do not want the glue to get on your iron.

Hummingbird:
• Lay your foundation piece on your appliqué pressing mat with the paper from the Lite Steam-A-Seam still on it.
• Take your paper off from your other pieces as you place them on your hummingbird foundation.
• After you place your pieces in their appropriate places, press with your iron with an appliqué pressing mat under and over your pieces.
• When cooled, lift your hummingbird off from your appliqué pressing mat and then it can be placed and pressed onto your background when you are ready.
• Be sure to place your appliqué pressing mat over your hummingbird when you attach it to your background by pressing it with your iron.

Order of placement of pieces for your hummingbird.
1. Beak, tail, and back wing.
2. breast
3. back
4. lower throat
5. upper throat
6. top of head
7. outer large wing
8. top of front large wing

Buds, small (green fabric) and large (pink fabric):
Place traced Lite Steam-A- Seam buds on fabric and press, being sure you have your applique pressing mat under and over your pieces. It is now ready to be cut out for placement on your background fabric.

Quilting
• Cut your back and batting to size (26 ½” x 27 ½”), then sandwich your top, batting and backing together preparing it for quilting. Be sure it is basted together in your favorite way. I used 505 Spray and Fix.

• Stitch in the ditch between the border and the background to anchor your quilt.

Now check the placement of your branches, leaves, buds, flowers, and humming bird by laying everything out onto your quilt. Make adjustments as needed.

• After placing your buds and hummingbird in the appropriate places, machine appliqué each of them, using your open toe appliqué foot (Janome foot – F2). I used a straight stitch 2.0 length. for lines on the inside of the buds and a small zigzag stitch 1.5 width and 1.5 length for the edge of the buds and the outside edge of each of the parts of the hummingbird and a straight stitch for lines of the wings on the hummingbird.

• Using your triple stitch setting on your machine ( I used a of length 2.5 and a foot pressure of 7) and your open toe appliqué foot (Janome foot –F2), stitch your branches with your preferred color of thread one stitch into each bud and then lock your stitching.

• Your background is now ready to be quilted. (I stippled it.) You may quilt it as desired.

• Your next steps are to quilt the border, add a sleeve and the binding.

• Finally you are ready to attach your leaves and fuchsia. You may hand tack each of the leaves in place and appliqué the flowers in place or use fabric glue, such as Fabric Fusion. (I used Fabric Fusion.)

*Fabrics Jodie used:

• Beak/tail - Black Kona Cotton (1/8 yard)
• Breast/small buds – Light green – Moda 9880 34 (1/8 yard)
• Lower throat/Foundation of hummer - White Kona Cotton (1/4 yard)
• Upper throat – Ruby red (1/8 yard)
• Head/back – Dark green – Moda 9880 16 (1/8 yard)
• Front large wing – Gray/green – Moda 9807 (1/8 yard)
• Top of large wing/back wing – Medium green – 9820 (1/8 yard)
• Fuchsia sepals, tube, large buds – Light or medium pink (1/4 yard)
• Fuchsia petals– Dark pink (1/6 yard)
• Fuchsia leaves – Dark green (1/4 yard)
• Background fabric – light green – Once Upon a Garden by Lynnea Wasnbum for In The Beginning fabrics 2006 (2/3 yard)
• Border fabric – Green batik (1 ¾ yards)