Tiny doodles are not only fun to draw, they’re great for appliqué designs because when you’re drawing something very small, there’s not a lot of room for fussy details. That makes for easy appliqué. At left are several doodles I drew for appliqué blocks. You could fit all three of these drawings together on a Post-It note with room to spare.

When you’ve drawn a couple of doodles you like, just enlarge them to your desired size on the computer or a photocopy machine. I scan them at high resolution, then enlarge and clean them up in Photoshop, or sometimes use Illustrator and auto-trace them into vector artwork. Simple image-editing computer programs will do the trick as well. You don’t need the enlarged drawings to be picture perfect unless you are planning to publish the patterns.

After you’ve enlarged them to your desired size, you can print them out. If the lines are very pixelated or fuzzy from the enlarging process, use a lightbox or tape the paper to a sunny window and trace the design onto a new piece of paper.

If you are going to use paper-backed fusible web for your appliqués, remember to reverse the image in your computer program, photocopy machine, or flip it over and trace from the reverse side when you trace it onto a new sheet of paper after printing. That way the design won’t be backwards when you iron the fusible web onto your fabric.

Here are the results of the coffee cup doodles (I haven’t made any quilts from the cupcake doodle yet):

I Love You More Than … is based loosely on the small cup in the top left. I decided to simplify the cup even further by changing it to a straight-on perspective and added the stylized heart-shaped steam. The steam doodles are probably in a sketch pad or another computer someplace.

Latte is the pattern I made from the “large” coffee doodle on the right. I really like this cup and made quite a few variations of it. I seem to have forgotten about the swirly steam. I should make a block with the steaming cup. Maybe I could put the cupcake next to it.

The cup quilt on the left was probably supposed to be a cup of water. Come to think of it, that fabric reminds me of bubbles. It could be sparkling water.

The cup quilt on the right is A Cuppa Beads. Both of these cups are somewhere in my UFO hangar. I was using the cup of water as a demo piece for teaching bead embroidery so it’s not very far along, but A Cuppa Beads is probably ready for a border and quilting.

Below is a detail of the original Latte wallhanging. You will see more of this quilt in early 2010.
Happy doodling! =(^_^)=

Speaking of Fidget Quilts, Ann had a wonderful suggestion: “Small children might like something with lots of different textures too. I think lap quilts made from the variety of textures might be nice for children who may ‘fidget’ during worship.” Great idea, Ann!

Here’s a variation for those who like to do appliqué. Some of you may even remember this quilt from back about 2005 I believe (more about Emmeline’s Menagerie here).
All the baby animals on this quilt are made from different soft and furry fabrics. Here are some tips if you want to try making one of your own for a special child in your life.

1). Choose an appliqué pattern with simple shapes. Modify an existing pattern or draw up one of your own. This cute brown bear came from Kari Pearson’s book Playful Patchwork Projects. I added a flower and then drew up more animal friends to go with her. Avoid sharp points and tight curves. Having to worry about difficult or even just unfamiliar fabrics and a complex pattern is a surefire recipe for unnecessary stress.

2). Prewash all fabrics to preshrink and test for durability if you plan for the quilt to be washed in the future. You can find lots of great washable fashion fabrics at fabric stores, which is fantastic, since kids quilts can get dirty quite often.

3). Synthetic suede is really easy to work with. The back is clingy so you don’t even need to fuse or pin it down. You can if you want to though. If you’re going to fuse just set your iron to medium and use a press cloth to prevent scorching. Sometimes you can find faux suede with a dappled/tie dye pattern. A great product to try is Zwade Fusible Synthetic Suede. Zwade comes with the fusible already on the back and is convenient, fun and easy to use.

4). Polar fleece is another good choice. It is clingy like synthetic suede and comes in many different thicknesses and textures. Berber fleece is a bumpy fleece, kind of like lamb’s wool.

5). Other textured fabrics that are easy to appliqué include Warm & Natural batting (use it as an outer fabric!) and wool felt (prewash in hot water for a terrific bumpy texture). Velvet is also not too hard as long as you choose the non-lycra variety.

6). In between easy-peasy and challenging are chenille (sew slowly as you go over the bumps for a nicely finished stitch) and Minky dots (don’t fuse this one, you wouldn’t want to smash those cute bumpy polka dots).

7). Save the furriest, most challenging fabrics for last. Hands are very smart. Think of accomplished guitarists, pianists, or knitters, who don’t need to look at their fingers because of all their practice. After you’ve sewn a dozen or so blocks your fingers will start to “remember” the shape of the appliqués as you guide them under the sewing machine foot. This was very helpful when I worked on this black puppy dog. It was not only the thickest fur on the entire quilt, but it was black too. I felt like I was sewing blind, but my hands knew how to turn the block because I’d already made 19 blocks, including 3 dogs. (I’m definitely not suggesting you should close your eyes while you’re sewing, just that you should trust your hands to know what they’re doing.)

8). If your furry fabric is just too plush to handle you can give it a “haircut” by trimming it down with scissors on the edge where you will be stitching.

9). Another trick is to use a difficult fabric on only part of the block, like the fluffy ears on this little pooch.

10). Don’t limit yourself to just one machine appliqué stitch throughout the entire quilt. Do tests with your scraps and try out the zig zag, satin, and blanket stitch if you have it. (Check out the pink kitty block below where I used both satin stitch and machine blanket stitch.) Non-ravelly fabrics can even take a straight stitch if you wish.

11). For faces, satin stitch the eyes and mouth. A straight stitch can often get lost in fluffy fabric. You can appliqué a piece of fabric for the nose. For children over 3 buttons make fun eyes and noses.

12). Fabric collars and bows make great safe embellishments. Try lamé and other glittery fabrics, brocade, corduroy, and pleather.

13). Have fun embellishing with ribbons and other doo-dads. Be sure to attach them securely because children can and will pull them off. Better to be safe than sorry when embellishing for children 3 and under. Save the beads and buttons for older kids or wallhangings that will be displayed safely out of reach. (Below are some blocks that Annika and I are working on for a wall hanging for her room.)

14). Be bright! Why not make a blue bunny, a pink kitty, or a red puppy? Color your animals with all the colors of the rainbow.