How can we avoid shadowing in our quilts?  When it comes to patchwork, the first suggestion is often taught right in the beginner quilting class.

Press Seam Allowances toward the Darker Fabric
Quarter-inch seams in quilting patchwork are most often pressed to one side, rather than pressed open as in garment construction.  Where there is a choice, pressing those seam allowances towards the darker fabric will prevent shadowing near the seam.

This isn’t always possible, especially with butted seams.  Butted seams occur where two seam allowances meet at the same spot.  By pressing one seam allowance to the left and the other to the right, the bulk is evenly distributed in the new seam helping the intersection to line up perfectly and the patchwork to lay flat.  Butting two seam allowances may mean pressing towards the lighter fabric.

Butted seams pressed towards light fabric

Grade or Trim Seam Allowances
If pressing towards the lighter fabric creates shadowing, try removing a bit of the darker fabric in the seam allowance.  Trim the darker fabric by carefully cutting away a sliver of the ¼-inch seam allowance – just enough that the darker seam allowance is narrower than the lighter.  Or, grade the seam allowances by cutting them on an angle such that the darker ends up slightly narrower than the lighter.

Trimmed seam allowances

Even though it was an appliquéd seam, I encountered this situation with the dark purple fabric framing the blocks in Instruments of Praise.  Carefully trimming the dark fabric away from the seam allowance ensured that it didn’t shadow through the paler background fabric.

Shadowing is even more likely to occur with appliqué, when a light-colored patch is stitched on a dark background or overlaps an adjoining dark patch.  To avoid shadowing in my appliqué, I employ a different strategy.

Line Appliqué Patches
A second layer of fabric beneath a light-colored patch – a lining– will successfully prevent darker fabrics from showing through.  Plain white fabric or muslin works well for the second layer.  This lining can be added a number of ways, depending on the method of appliqué.

For fusible appliqué, the lining can be fused to the light-colored appliqué fabric first to create a bonded two-layer sandwich.  Then, the individual appliqué patches can be prepared as usual – although the wrong side of the appliqué fabric is now the lining fabric. 

Lining Fusible Applique

I used this approach with Stormy Seas: The Puffin to prevent the black body of the bird showing through the white face.

For needle-turn appliqué, the lining patch is prepared without a seam allowance.  It is then secured to the wrong side of the appliqué patch with a water-soluble glue stick, so that the raw edges of the lining match the marked stitching lines on the appliqué.  As the patch is stitched, the seam allowance of the appliqué patch covers the raw edge of the lining.

Lining needle-turn applique

This is how the white sails were lined in Stormy Seas: The Sailboat.

Sometimes, in our appliqué, we are faced with the dilemma of determining the order in which each patch will be stitched.  These decisions are particularly critical in designs where the appliqué overlaps.  Which patch goes under and which patch goes over?  The implication of these choices is that any part of a patch that is underneath another patch doesn’t need to be stitched.  It also means that patches that are under must be sewn before patches that are over.

Let’s look at an example.  Here are two patches:  A and B.  Patch A appears to be on top of patch B because it extends over the left edge of B.  This would mean that we stitch patch B first and patch A second.  However, if we sew the patches in this order, we will have to manage an extremely skinny point at red circle #2.  If we reverse the order, we have a slightly more manageable point at red circle #1 but we might ruin the illusion that patch A is on top of patch B.

This is where partial seams come in.  A blue line marks the mid-point of the seam between patch A and patch B.  If we split the seam at this point, patch A can be stitched over patch B to the left of the blue line and patch B can be sewn over patch A to the right of the blue line.  Perfect!  As patch A covers patch B at red circle #1, the point on patch B is created.  But even more importantly, as patch B is stitched over patch A at red circle #2, that very skinny point in patch A becomes perfectly executed.

So how, exactly, do we appliqué this partial seam?  First, mark the split point on the freezer paper templates and transfer this marking to each appliqué fabric as it is traced (see article on preparing patches for needle-turn appliqué).  Next, cut out each patch with a seam allowance and clip through the seam allowance at the marking.

Begin stitching with the patch that appears to be under, in this case, patch B.  Appliqué the left edge of patch B, leaving the area that will be covered by patch A (to the left of the blue line) unstitched.  Appliqué the right edge of patch B but stop an inch or two before reaching red circle #2.  Don’t knot or clip the thread – leave it for completing the stitching later.

Position patch A and begin stitching the right edge, again leaving the area that will be covered by patch B unstitched.  Appliqué patch A, overlapping patch B, until the split point.  Knot and clip the thread for patch A.  Rethread the needle with the thread for patch B and complete the appliqué, overlapping patch A, until the split point.  Knot and clip the thread for patch B.  The split point will be virtually indetectable and both points will be perfect!

It works well.  After all, if a fabric designer – expert in her field – put those colors together, it’s a pretty safe bet that you can too.  But more importantly, if you like a piece of fabric enough to buy it, you probably like the colors that are in it.  And if you like the colors in the fabric, chances are you will like them in your quilt too.

This method of choosing fabric has served me well over the years.  Often, the focus fabric ends up as a border in the quilt – tying everything together perfectly.  In the quilt Comfort and Joy, the teddy bear print fabric set the palette for the bear paw blocks and the teddy bear sewflakes appliquéd on top.  In the same way, a fabric printed with spools of thread became the ideal border for Tools of the Trade.  An exquisite fabric covered with china teacups inspired not only the colour choices but the entire quilt Bridal Tea.

Other times, the focus fabric takes its place alongside the other fabrics in the quilt.  Such was the case in Fruitful, where the fruit-covered focus fabric ended up in the patchwork basket blocks.  And what better place to put a fabric with hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs than in a Card Trick block!  This focus fabric also appears in the pieced border of King of Hearts.

It is only fairly recently, however, that I have used a focus fabric to select the fabrics for a quilt without any intention of using the focus fabric in the quilt.  I had a gorgeous print fabric in golds, yellows, pinks and plums – a color combination that intrigued me.  I carried the fabric around with me on shopping expeditions as I collected a variety of fabrics in that color scheme.  The result was Instruments of Praise.  I originally had only one meter of this focus fabric, but later came across it again while browsing the internet.  How fun would it be to purchase enough yardage to use the focus fabric as the backing of the quilt?  Only we know that it came first!