Innovative Hand Applique, Piecing and Quilting Without Pain with Liuxin Newman

Do you know

How has everyone improved SO dramatically

after learning my needle turn appliqué secrets through my Thimblelady™ Teaching Course???

My book + DVD Perfect Hand Appliqué with Thimblelady™ is not just another pattern book. It is about how to appliqué better and the best of our time!!!

My Thimblelady™ Teaching Course is developed by me, a real quilter just like you! My techniques are scientific solutions which is why you can see a real cure when you treat your appliqué problems with them!

Needle turn Baltimore Album will be a piece of cake for you – It is my promise!

I can needle turn easily and fast:

A sharp point sharper than your sharp awl,

A tiny circle smaller than half of a grain of rice,

A Line narrower than angel hair spaghetti,

Not to mention tightest curves and steepest indentations… 

Many quilters jokingly asked me how I even dreamed of appliquéing so much finer at the first place, let alone insane enough to actually make it possible?!

If you truly love the free expression of needle turn appliqué, you would know how turned on appliquérs can get by their needle turn… If you think it is ok to be so crazy to my true first love, let me tell you the whole story…

How I fell in love with needle turn at first sight?

I accidentally bumped into the quilting world accidentally after spotting a book about machine quilting in a book shop. I naturally started quilt making by machine until…

One day in 1996 at a small local quilt show, I saw a big Baltimore Album quilt all made by hand! It was the first time I had been to a quilt show and learned quilts were also made by hand! I had only seen and made machine pieced top and machine quilted quilts up to then. – it was also the first needle turn appliqué quilt I had seen! Even to this day after making many appliqué quilts, perhaps I can say much better in every way than that quilt, THAT ONE still occupies the most special spot in my memory! It is that quilt that has inspired me the most and set me onto the path of fine hand quilting and appliqué that I am still travelling today! I have not looked back. The rest is history as they always say…

What happened next?

Initially, I didn’t even think appliqué was difficult. Appliqué to me was just a pretty pattern. It was hand quilting technique that nearly killed my arm. So I set out to fix my quilting and you know the quilting story…

After I managed quilting, I quickly made a pretty appliquéd top, then put all my effort into hand quilting – ¼ inch cross hatching on the background with my finest stitches…

I entered slides of it to AQS Paducah show in 2000. Soon I got a letter saying in the most diplomatic manner that my quilt was not accepted… I was disappointed! But eventually curiosity overcame the disappointment. I was curious why it was rejected. I reread the letter over and over again and I realised it was my appliqué that was holding me back; Excellent hand quilting alone was not enough! 

Up till then, I had never thought of what was good or better appliqué. To me, it was just about personal preference.

This rejection letter started me thinking…

What is the point of a juried show?

What does it take to win?

What are quilters competing for?

What do I want to achieve through competition?

I realised, there are entry rules to quilt shows, but not judging rules that make clear sense to me.

I wanted to know the rules of a competition, just like a race of sprinters is to see who runs faster not slower, because running faster is harder. You can’t go into a competition without knowing your goal!

I started thinking about judging rules by looking at quilts that have won in the past. I became convinced that the point of a juried show should be to bring out the best quilt for both its artistic merit and technical skills. If I want to win, I must make the best quilt. Then I told myself, that sounded fun! Competing to make a better quilt would challenge myself to improve. But what was better appliqué? I decided not to enter a competition until I found that out.

Since then I had my eyes out everywhere for better appliqué. I came across a Baltimore Album book where the designs were referred to as the ultimate challenge of needle turn appliqué! I loved the designs but didn’t quite understand why they were more challenging than others. I compared the Baltimore designs to some other appliqué designs.

I noticed that in Baltimore designs, points of leaves were sharper, circles were smaller, basket handles and vines were narrower as well as the striking beauty of colour and symbolic stories behind each design! It suddenly dawned on me that whenever I was frustrated by and swore at my appliqué, it was either at the point of a leaf, the valley of a heart or the fineness of a stem. 

Soon I concluded, no matter what colour or style design I make, no shape involves more than point (cusp), indentation, curves (convex and concave), band (stet) and circle! A leaf? It is just two points connected by two convex curves. A heart? It is one point and one indent joint up by two convex curves…

This is how my Chart of 6 most basic shapes and 5 degrees of needle skills in my book came about. I realised anything and everything on earth is composed of 1 or multiple of these 6 most basic shapes. It makes no difference whether you learn to appliqué a green heart or a red heart. Make a hundred hearts won’t make me or anyone a better appliquér as the skills needed to make one heart is the same for all hundred.

The improvement lies in making the heart smaller and smaller… Why?! Because the point is sharper and curve is tighter in a smaller heart… Why is a sharper point or tighter curve harder? When point is sharper, there will be less room underneath it to store seams! Therefore, you need to turn narrower seams under!  That is the difference between an advanced appliqué and a novice. Once you can turn narrow seams, you automatically know how to turn wide seams.

How I developed my techniques?

Once I found the goal and defined my battleground, I started to make great progress. I focused on finding techniques for seams around the 6 most basic shapes! But it was only at this point, I realised the total lack of theoretical knowledge and scientific techniques in the field for me to learn properly. So I started to make up my own and experiemented on each of the six basic shapes until they are defeated on by one...

As I finally got Baltimore designs under control and was about to start one to enter a competition, a question flew passed my mind: What if another appliquér made the same Baltimore design for the same competition? How could judges decide? Is Baltimore Album still the ultimate challenge? Can I do better than that?

I started to design my own, making sure the 6 most basic shapes are represented in the design and made sure they are all finer than the Baltimore designs. Each time, I tried to make them finer, I got a dose of frustration until I made up new fixes. Techniques for gentle points in Baltimore designs do not work for the much finer points in my designs.
 
Gradually, I found some of the new fixes worked better and are more precise and scientific. Out of each frustration came the joy of improvement. I grew to love frustration, just like our dog, Snowball, loves the worm tablet because of the cheese following every tablet! Hard work finally paid off…

With determined and deliberate efforts, 2001 saw a turning point in my appliqué skills and my quilt. I no longer randomly picked up a pattern. I design my quilt to demonstrate I had finer needle skills. My quilt “Four Friends” was a demo piecing to test the finest techniques – the fixes for my mistakes - with vines narrower than 1/16 inch; points sharper than 15 degree and the tiniest circle 1/20th of an inch!  

In the quest to find the finest possible needle turn appliqué, I discovered more!

First, I found some tight weave sheeting fabric that frayed less than the average patchwork fabric. I thought, WOW, I could appliqué finer as long as I could get these fabrics!

Well, I hit my limit quickly. I started to draw designs with very narrow curvy lines to appliqué. I used my secret technique plus tight weave fabrics… Nope, the stitched part flared, refusing to lay flat, I ironed it and ironed it. It didn’t work… Needle turn appliqué is all about seams!

That is right! Needle turn appliqué is all about seams!

The ultimate challenge is how to match materials, tools and techniques with designs!

The answer to that challenge is the scientific balance of materials and tools to turn seams easily and store them under each and every shape the designs require!

It was getting more and more interesting! I was totally absorbed by the challenges. Upon a closer look, I realised the flare was caused by too many stitches in the same area… When I trimmed the seams so narrow at a fine point, I had to stitch more closely to secure the seams. By adding the number of stitches without reducing the thickness or the bulk of threads, threads over crowded in the dense weave fabrics! 

I started to search for threads. Soon, I found the perfect thread when I came across the YLI #100 silk thread – the thinnest thread in the world.

When the perfect fine thread is found, I started to look for a matching finer needle to go through finer seams. The search was ended by the design of my own fine needles – a thinner and longer needle made out of surgical steel that finally satisfied all my needs! And only three sizes to cover all hand sewing purposes – as I found there are mainly three densities in the weaves for quilt materials, therefore, only three matching sizes of needles are necessary. A thinner needle penetrates the materials easily and a longer needle makes it less stressful to hold onto. 

Now you see why Baltimore design was the ultimate challenge in the past? It is the improvement of technology and improved materials and tools that enabled me to achieve more. Only with the better tools and materials was I able to challenge the past “ultimate challenge”. Invention is the result of making past impossible possible. After I tidied up all the fixes for my mistakes, I gave them a grand name called techniques!

This is also why, I think, it is our obligation to make the most of the best materials and tools of our time and to push boundaries as today’s quilters. That is why I share my secrets with you! We should all be Master appliquérs. This is what we owe to the past pioneering appliquérs who had done their best to create the Baltimore Album!

Why I say I can turn you into a master appliquér in one day?

First, It is learnable! Needle skills are learned not born! Reading my story of how I turned the fixes of mistakes into “scientific techniques”, you should be convinced now that these techniques are learnable. It is my firm belief and I always make it clear to my students that if I can do it, you can do it!

Second, I have shared once again all my secrets of appliqué.  Once you learned all the techniques and the knowledge shared in my book, you will be as good as me. There is nothing more to learn until the day you invent higher skills with newer techniques when materials, needles and threads are improved! That is why I say and I believe every appliquér can, as long as you have a pair of hands and the will to improve!

Third, I developed my Thimblelady™ Teaching Course taht will make your learning fast by focusing on all knowledge and techniques presented logically and progressively in a day’s course – this is a deliberate effort because success in teaching hand quilting through Thimblelady™ Teaching Course for quilting has convinced me teaching is not just an art. It is a scientific art.

In 2002, I started teaching my own appliqué techniques as a class. Through teaching, I deliberately experimented on how to present the subjects that students will take in better and improve faster.

I believe bringing students along with me and encourage them to overcome fear of learning is the art of teaching. Scientific design of a class and logical presentation of the techniques and applique knowledge is the science.

By 2003, I worked out an efficient Teaching Course that I immediately trademarked it under legal advice. Through this course, I could make you learn smart and fast by dividing the entire needle turn appliqué into 3 parts:

♫       Logical relations between designs and materials/tools, and their best match;

♫       Physically how to appliqué the most efficient way - such as how to turn seams exactly with  a needle so you can turn 2 inches of seam once, instead of turning one bit of seam 5 times;   

♫       Understanding the nature of seams around the 6 most basic shapes and the scientific method of storing seams…

All this through making 20 beautiful butterflies incorporating all the above knowledge and skills. 

That is why quilters who have taken the teaching course in person through my class or by my book and DVD have had such dramatic improvement!

I am a good appliquér and have appliquéd Baltimore Album several times, do I have anything more to learn?

Yes, if the best you can appliqué is the Baltimore Album. Make the most out of the best today can offer would be my advice! To me, it is simply not good enough to copy Baltimore Album. The Baltimore Album was the result of past appliquérs’ effort to improve needle turn appliqué. It is their precious gift to the present generation quilters. It is also a high bench mark they have set for us. What would be our contribution to the future generation if all we did was to replicate past generations work? For the past and future, we are obliged to keep inventing and improving…

I am almost a beginner appliquér, are the master techniques too advanced for me?

No. To progress bottomup is not the only way of learning. It is definitely not the most efficient way of learning in this case! Top down learning of needle turn applique is most efficient. An imperfect master is still heaps better than a perfect beginner! 

The way I teach is the way I want to be taught. I see no harm to learn faster. Striving for excellence can never be too fast. That is why I always tell my class my Teaching Course is about smart learning not just about the innovative techniques. By starting you at the deep end, you don’t need to learn how to handle wide seams any more once you know how to handle narrow seams. Chances are: you will either be a Master or almost an imperfect Master! Either way you win! And either way is better than waste your money and time to become a perfect beginner.

Is it harder or easier than the quilting technique?

I’d say both are easy. But they are different in the learning process. The quilting technique is about the balance the power in your fingers. If you persevere for one hour, you will learn.

So I’d say it is easier as you won’t have a frustrating first hour. Each and every technique is independent. Once you learned how to handle points, you can appliqué perfect points even if you don’t yet know how to handle indentations… The challenge is how to learn all skills in a logical order in one day! And how you can remember the lot!

Get the learning package that includes a piece of every essential tool and material plus the book and DVD. So you can follow the smart learning course at home or with friends, to make the 20 butterflies designed to incorporate all needle turn techniques from beginner to master. By the time you can appliqué the 20th butterfly beautifully, you know you are one of the best needle turn appliquérs in the world!

Can I learn just by your book and DVD with the learning package?

Absolutely. This is the most efficientway of learning. Efficiency is saving! Spend less equals a pay rise!

The book and DVD learning package is better! Why don’t you want to learn from the inventor at a fraction of the cost?! Why would I have put myself at risk of being ripped off by some “teachers” who live off the fruits of other’s inventions if the book and DVD wouldn’t teach you well?!

I put every technique I developed together with my teaching course with a DVD that illustrated every technique in close up motion! You will be amazed by the difference in how much more you can achieve and how fast you can improve once you take yourself through my teaching course and appliqué scientifically!

If my quilting technique is all about balance of power between hands, needle and quilt, needle-turn appliqué is all about seams. In my 8 years of developing and teaching this subject, I have not seen anybody failed to learn the techniques nor have I seen one who could remember precisely every technique and knowledge in one day.

In fact, the book and DVD are better! As nature dictates, as a middle to senior aged learner, you often understand better but remember less when your memory is being over taken by wisdom. A note pad and a pen become our second brain as we gracefully age. This book + DVD is your second brain! – believe me you won’t have any problems to learn. Your problem will be remembering every technique precisely!  That is why I laid out this book like a dictionary for your handy reference. It will be your next best friend!

Because of this nature of learning, I’d recommend the book and DVD before you take my class, since after my class, you still need your “needle turn appliqué dictionary” anyway.  Don’t be scared of learning. Don’t be talked into believing you can’t learn unless you attend a physical class.

You are always welcome to my class, even if you already mastered the techniques.

So why not try it out yourself first? Learn one technique at a time!

What if I fail?

You can not fail if you don’t give up. As a safety blanket, let me give you my unlimited Live Support (just click on the blinking green button on the upper right hand corner of my website) or by emails through Contacts: info@thimblelady.com.

As a personal guarantee, if after all my personal help, you still fail to learn, you can send the entire package back and we shall give you a full refund with no further question asked.

Get the learning package now and see for yourself how easy and fun to be a master appliquer!