I left off at the completion of the center applique for this quilt, and the finishing trim. The applique was stitched into place with a zigzag stitch. The trim was added using a 1/4″ seam.

All quilts are made with a 1/4″ seam. I purchased a presser foot for my Pfaff 2124 that was specifically designed for 1/4″ seams. It makes piecing a lot easier and the final quilt top looks beautiful. Consistency in the 1/4″ seam is very important! Just run the edge of the presser foot along the edge of your seams and you will have a perfect 1/4″ seam.

If you haven’t already, cut out the trim for the next border section of your quilt.

Add the outer border sections to your middle applique section.

Add the narrow green checkered border next.

Next step I will be piecing all the 2.5″ squares together to make the interesting and beautiful checkerboard border around the perimeter of the center section I have already completed. Using my 1/4″ presser foot, I begin piecing sections together.

As you piece your blocks together, make a train of blocks as shown above. This cuts down on thread waste and time.

After you get the border of 2.5″ blocks sewn together in one strip, you will have to join two checkerboard strips together.  When you join them, line up your seams!!  Then pin them together at every seam.

Okay, I’ll admit I am a bad girl here. When it comes to matching seams that have been pinned together, I stitch over the pin. For some reason, I get better results when I do.

Sew your blocks together as shown, making sure that they are a checkerboard when you open it up.

Next, after pressing open your checkerboard borders, add them to your center quilt section, making sure the checkerboards match up correctly on the sides as they meet the top section.

Press it all, and then add the narrow green border to the outside of the checkerboard border. It looks beautiful!

Now comes the fun part! Preparing the large upper and lower borders with the applique design. To do this, you will want to press your large border backing fabric in half – both ways. This will give you the “Middle” markings of your border fabric, making it easier to place the appliques. You will need these center markings from your iron to properly lay out the applique design.

Open up your large upper (or lower border – it doesn’t matter as it is the same on both ends). You can see the pressed center markings. Take a dry run with the design and lay it out with all the pieces you will need to complete just the center design.

To make your life easier, prepare the multiple layered pieces first, before adding them to your quilt top.

You do this by scoring the paper on the back of the top applique pieces (NOT THE ONE THAT WILL BE APPLIED TO THE QUILT), and adding them one-by-one to the bottom applique (which still has the paper on it).

Press them into place on your quilt border backing fabric.

Lay each piece out on your quilt top border fabric, as shown, and press into place.

Using an applique foot that I just purchased, I can see as the zigzag stitch is added to the applique pieces on my quilt top.

And, as you can see, the zigzag stitch looks great around the appliques!

Add the two side borders first, then, add the top appliqued border you just finished! The quilt is getting big!

And after the quilt top was complete, I shipped it off to a friend in Kentucky who is a Longarm Quilter. She did an extraordinary job with the quilting! I sewed on the binding, and the quilt was complete. Hope you gained some insight how to create an appliqued quilt!