I May be a Little Biased Here....

Sooner or later, if you applique, you're going to run into stems, because invariably, quilters love flowers...

And flowers have stems.

I've been appliqueing for over 20 years now, and I have run into my fair share of stems, vines, candy canes and other assorted items that require some long, narrow strip of fabric to create the desired illusion.  I've tried bias tape bars (and badly burned my fingers), sewing one side of the stem or vine down by machine (right side of stem/vine to right side of applique background) and then needle turning the opposite side down, and then biased tape makers.

I'm not partial to vines or stems or anything else that requires a narrow strip of fabric, but they are necessary.  And of the three methods listed above, the one I like best is the biased tape makers.

Biased tape makers are manufactured by Dritz and Clover.  They come in assorted sizes, and eventually if you keep appliqueing, you'll end up with a wide variety of sizes.  I have the 1/4-inch size all the way to the 2-inch tape makers.  I keep each one in a separate plastic bag with their directions inside.  When you take them out of the package, it's hard to get everything back in, so I just use the plastic bags to store the tape maker and the directions.  If you do lose the directions, you can find them on-line.

The biased tape maker that seems to be called for most frequently in stems and vines (and in At Piece With Time) is the 1/4-inch one.  While Diane and Kristin don't directly tell you in the instructions to use bias tape for the stems, the 1/4-inch bias tape works well -- you can produce quite a bit of it at one time and it allows for the curving nature of the stems.  And since we're starting on the Harvest Bouquet and the very first thing you have to applique is the stems (pieces 1-6), let me walk you through making the bias tape.

But first a disclaimer:  This works for me.  It may not work for you.  Feel free to try other methods.  The "quilt police" are not going to come knocking at your door and arrest you for not making bias tape stems.  Trust me on this.

This is the 1/4-inch bias tape maker:

And this is why I prefer Clover over Dritz:

The handle.  You don't burn your fingers when ironing.

According to the directions with the tape maker, if your fabric is lightweight, cut your strips 5/8-inch wide.  If it's medium weight, cut it 1/2-inch wide.  Honestly, I've found that right between the two (9/16 of an inch) is really the happy medium.  A half an inch doesn't seem to allow the folded edges produced enough fabric to meet squarely in the middle and 5/8 of an inch is too much fabric and you get wrinkles in your tape.

Also, the directions mention that you may want to cut on the bias of the fabric.  Unless you're producing some really tight curves in your applique, don't.  I find it's harder to feed through the tape maker and frays and makes waves on the edges.  Cut from selvage to selvage or the length of the fabric if you have to make long length of bias tape.  Joining strips at 45 degree angles produces a seam that can be difficult to feed through one of the smaller bias tape makers.
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So, you've got your strips cut and you're ready to make the bias tape.  There are two schools of thought on what to do next.  Some quilters use Best Press or sizing (not starch -- it may eventually attract bugs) as they are pulling the fabric strips through the tape maker and iron it dry as it comes out the end.  Others spray the fabric and iron it dry before pushing it through the tape maker.  I do this.  I find pushing wet fabric through the tape maker causes it to do all kinds of weird things -- pull to one side, fray, bunch up...to me it's easier to push it through dry.

Either way you choose, you need to make sure you've cut one of the ends of your strips into a point:

This makes it easier to feed through your biased tape maker.  You will feed it wrong side up through the tape maker.  When you begin pushing it in, you will notice there is a slot on the bottom of the tape maker,  You may need to use a straight pin in the slot to help get it out the other side.  Once it begins feeding through, you can begin to pull the tape maker back and iron the completed tape so that the folded sides stay down.  The folded sides should look like this:

You notice how the edges meet in the middle.  You want this.  You will also notice how it "bubbles" a little on the right.  That's still okay.  You can iron this down.  The right side should look like this:

There are no wrinkles on top.

If you're going to use a lot of the same green for your stems throughout the quilt, I suggest you go ahead and make the equivalent of a couple of yards of green bias tape.  I used about half of a fat quarter of the green material above and I think I have enough for most of the quilt.  Making bias tape is not my favorite thing to do, so I do tend to make it all at once and be done with it.  You can store it flat in an applique envelope or roll, wind it around an empty paper towel holder or part of a pool noodle, or clothes pin it to a hanger.

On my next blog that deals with At Piece with Time, I will show you how I begin to applique the stems down.

Love and Stitches,

Sherri