Amy's Applique - i-stitch.com - Original Applique Quilt Patterns, Laser Cut Kits and More!

Helpful Tips

Click on the names above to download the PDF.
Print the pages you'll need for your design from the above numbering guide to help you organize the pattern pieces in assembly order.
Cut the Large Piece guide into strips to layout on your table.
The Small Piece numbering guide is for pieces that are 1/2" or smaller. This comes in handy for the Whisper Under The Moon owls wing highlights.

Wall Art or Day to Day Quilt?
Building your Applique Design On a Base or Not?

First you have to decide is what is your final use for your quilt. Did you want wall art or a day to day quilt? I design these as a wall art, my way of painting with fabric. Many of the fabric pieces are quite small, and the detail cutting would be lost in heavy edge stitching. A few of my designs are created with more day to day use in mind where the pieces are larger and fewer. It all comes down to what you want your final project to be.

Wall Art - Just like a painting, would you wash it? No. Cleaning involves dusting a few times a year. Or it's a decorative sofa topper or accent pillow.

Use Pellon 830 Pattern Ease as your base to fuse your pieces to. This acts as a stabilizer. I like Pellon 830 as you can see through it easily. This makes the finished design a little stiffer, which is great for a wall hanging. I don't do any decorative quilting on top.

Let the fabric do all the talking.

Washable - Build the applique design on an applique pressing sheet. If you don't have one large enough, you can build it on baking parchment. You'll only have just a little extra body from the adhesive, but not the extra stiffness from a base fabric or stabilizer.

Once the piece is complete and cool, remove from applique pressing sheet or baking parchment, do your final edge trim to square up. Place directly onto your batting and backing, heat set.

Quilt, thread paint or handstitch to your hearts desire.

Preferred Fusible - I use HotFix Adhesive, the regular, NOT the lightweight. Once you do your full heat set (20 seconds over whole surface, use a piece of baking parchment between your iron and the finished design) the pieces will have finished fusing together, and you'll have a nice bond to the batting so you don't have to pin as crazy for your quilting or thread painting.

Creating a Heat Safe Applique Surface

You don't need expensive items to create a heat safe working surface anywhere! Some of my desings are much larger than the products out there so you'll need...

2 Yards of Insulbright Batting
1 Yard of Bleached Muslin
Roll of Blue Painters Tape
Table large enough for your project

1) Fold the Insulbright in half, you want a double layer. If you're working on a small design, you only need the Insulbright 4" larger than your placement pattern.

2) Using the blue painters tape, tape the insulbright down to your table.

3) Cut your bleached muslin a couple of inches larger than the insulbright you taped down. Iron out any creases, spread over the top of the insulbright and tape down.

You now have a heat safe surface to fuse on. You only need to hold the iron down a a second or less seconds to fuse the pieces. This is just a light tack.

Once you're done fusing all the pieces, move to your ironing board.

Use a piece of baking parchment or an applique pressing sheet between your finished design and the iron. This will both protect your iron from excess glue AND keep you from accidentally catching any raw edges and rolling them under or moving tiny pieces.

Heat set for at least 20 seconds over the whole surface.

Click here for a free PDF of how to create your heat safe surface.

OPPSIES!

As a one person business, it's impossible to catch everything myself. I will always make it right. Just give me a call or drop me an email.

BONUS for anyone who finds an error in a pattern or laser cut kit and is the first one to let me know, receives a FREE pattern or discount of the pattern price on their next purchase.

+++ UPDATED . . . July 14, 2026 +++

Southwest - Cactus I-III - 15 E in Carmel should be 15 C Pale Sand for the Prickly Pear Cactus, C-II. There is enough extra fabric to trace it and cut out in the correct color. Plus a duplicate piece C-II 22 L, just ignore.

Laser cut kits purchased at the Paducah AQS Quilt Show or H+H:
Click on the design name below that you have to get the corrections mailed to you. Make sure to include your mailing address!

Winter Joy - Piece #1 Color "C" in the laser cut kit may be missing the extra 1/4" on it's right side for the seam allowance. The piece has enough overlap to nudge it an additional 1/8" to the right so it will still be underneath the pieces on either side and just enough in the seam allowance area to stitch your border to. You also have enough extra fabricin the kit to cut another piece to fill that edge, making sure to overlap it just a smidge.

Whisper Under the Moon - The dark wing fabric is reversed. I'd edited the pattern for the dark wing colors, and recut, not realizing I hadn't flipped the file for right side up laser cutting. There are 4 of you out there!

Something Fishy - The medium green is flipped the wrong way. There are 7 out there.

Got Cookies - Tri Color - There were 2 sold at the AQS Paducah Quilt Show missing the Blue Black laser cut pieces.

Sugar Skull I - There is 1 left out there that have mixed up Marigold background fabric. Please check your kit against the Laser Cut Numbering guide to make sure you have all the pieces. If you don't have any small face highlight pieces, you have the wrong cut set. Text me a picture of the two marigold fabrics in the kit, paper side up along with your address and I'll send you the correct ones.

Mystery Horse - I had a part going bad in my laser cutter and did not realize it was singeing the white and pale gray fabric so badly on the edges as it cut. Please check your kits and if it looks too yellowed on the edges let me know and I'll send you those two light colors to replace the ones in the kit. They are the first colors you'll use! NOTE: You CAN remove the yellow toning see directions below.

Sugar Skull III - There are just a few of you out there missing the F-Plum color fabric.

SS3 - Pattern correction, piece L-100 needs to be reversed on the tracing guide, and pieces I-91a and I-104a are missing. Click here to print the corrected PDF pages to replace in your pattern.

Southwest - Cactus I-III - Gold Rush Color F is too small, somehow the cutting file got shrunk. There are 6 out there.

TIP: Removing Yellowed Edging on Laser Cut Fabrics

I had a part go bad in my laser cutter, and it did a little extra toning on the edges of light colored fabrics because it was not blowing the heat and fumes away fast enough. I've also heard this has been a problem with other laser cut kits out there from other companies. So I experimented until I figured out how to remove the majority of the toning.

You CAN remove the majority of the extra
yellow toning fairly easy:

1) Mix a drop of Dawn dish soap and 1/2 Cup water in a little dish.

2) Fold a paper towel into quarters and wet one corner.

3) BLOT the yellowed area lightly to dampen and loosen up the toning. DO NOT RUB! Or you may fray the edges or push the yellowing
into the fibers.

4) Take NEW DRY paper towl and press down firmly to draw up the moisture and yellowing. Always switch to an unused area of the
paper towel each time you press down.

5) Repeat as needed, takes maybe twice or three times at most.

6) Let dry completely before proceeding with assembly.

Best to do this before fusing down. You can do it after, just be careful if you have rich dark colors close by, blot quickly to keep the other colors from possibly bleeding over.

The whites and super pale tones will always have a hint of the laser cut, but it shouldn't be glaring.