If you started out sewing clothes, then you are familiar with interfacings to stiffen particular parts of garments. Quilters now have newer versions of interfacings, called fusibles, that have revolutionized quilting by allowing us more freedom to create designs, reposition and layer designs, and stabilize and adhere embroidery.

You have huge options with stabilizers. Do you want to thread paint, using only thread to create a wispy, original design that you can attach to your quilt? Do you want to stabilize an edge for an unusual treatment? Do you want to protect a delicate fabric from stretching as you embellish it? Stabilizers are temporary, permanent, heat activated, and tear-away, giving you all these possibilities. Permanent ones provide stretch resistance and stay with the fabric through laundering. Temporary ones are easy to tear away and prevent distortion of stitches. Wash-away stabilizers are easy to remove when you don't want anything to show on top, bottom, or through layers. Some will even disintegrate with heat, perfect when distortion would occur by wetting or tearing.

Fusibles allow you to place both large and small pieces temporarily on background fabric until you can sew them in place. You can add a fusible to the back of appliqué pieces and then iron them permanently in place on your backing fabric, or hold them temporarily. You can check various brands and determine which is best for your project.

Some fusible interfacings are too heavy for appliqué, either by machine or hand. They are permanent and thick, making it very difficult to get needles (machine or hand) through to anchor into place. Heavy fusibles will clog your needle, causing thread breakage. Light-weight interfacings may be a better choice. Keep in mind the options in fusibles include those developed just for quilting, so you have more choices. The wrong fusible can lead to thread breakage and problems with tension on your machine.

Fusibles with a sticky back have a couple of advantages. You can trace your appliqué pieces right on to the fusible web and cut out fairly intricate designs. You can use this for large pieces of fabrics, as well as thick fabrics like Ultrasuede. Perhaps most important, you can move your appliqué pieces around very easily, so you can design as you go.

A double stick fusible allows you to stick the entire appliqué piece in place. You can pin pieces to the design wall to check placement without worrying about gravity. You also can put your project aside and pieces won't move, which is great for transporting a project or taking a break.

With fusibles, your iron is critical, as is reading the directions for your particular fusible. If your fusible peels off, then you have not used enough heat. Read about your setting, and experiment with some sample pieces. A teflon plate on your iron (or added to an old one) helps with the potentially sticky mess caused by using fusibles.

Landscape quilts are an example of an innovative approach to appliqué using fusibles. Choose fabrics representative of a particular scene. You can iron a fusible to the backs of your fabrics, cut out bushes and other features, pin and then iron onto the background permanently. You could also use a temporary fusible to allow you to create a complete scene, with repositioning at any time. When you are done, then iron the completed scene, melting the fusible to permanence.

The creative options available in appliqué through the use of fusibles is incredible. You can create just about anything and stretch your own ideas even further with any of these new products.

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