If I understand your reverse applique, you turned under your background fabric and appliqued it to the butterfly fabric?   Was it easier or more difficult than your regular needleturn?

Your clay figures should be fun to have in your  garden.  Should they be durable for the winter or will you need to bring them in? 

Pirate (PIRATE_SR) said:

"California Department of Corrections.  How may I direct your call?"    It was very satisfying. :-)

It gets a pretty immediate hang up..........

I did an experiment last winter with polymer clay "applique" that had been baked on very smooth river rocks and they survived quite well. I had coated the rocks with a layer of polymer clay first so it was clay-to-clay adhesion. I don't see why these should not work. There were days when the temperatures got down well below zero degrees so I guess this colorful plastic product can survive Ohio winter weather.

You have the concept exactly correct.

Regular applique: cut out a shape, apply to the top of the base fabric.  The applique sits *on top* of the fabric.

Reverse applique: Place applique fabric UNDER the base fabric.  Cut a shape from the base fabric only (creating a hole); the applique fabric is now visible..  Turn under the edges of the shape.  The "applique" sits *behind* (under) the base fabric.

My opinion so far: it's an interesting technique.  I'm not sure if there is a specific situation where it would be preferred over standard applique.  It does give a different texture, since the applique sits under the base fabric.  Hmmm .. maybe if you were to mix the two techniques on the same piece, you might get a unique visual, with the different layers.

BUT, it's tedious (for me).  The small shapes (of this butterfly) are obnoxious to turn the edges under.  For standard applique, when I have small, obnoxious shapes, I use a water-soluable, fusible interfacing to cut the shape out of, to create a stand alone applique shape, which I then plop down onto the base fabric.   Also,  I think part of my dissatisfaction is the looser weave of my base fabric ... little snippets of the weave come unraveled.  I think a tighter weave in the base fabric would make the method easier.

I'm not entirely certain I'll attempt a second piece; I'm just not that in love with the process.

You were wondering where you would want to do reverse applique over regular. You many not be able to see the red ribbon at the bottom of this quilt but it says Albuquerque 1706 - 2006 on that ribbon. This was a group project with my guild back in 2006 and I was the one that did that red banner. I used reverse applique to do that word and the numbers.............there is no way this would have looked good if I would have tried to applique the blue letters and numbers on the banner. I just put the blue fabric under the red and wrote on the red fabric and cut away fabric as I worked on it. Then I appliqued the red ribbon with the letters and numbers to the quilt. I do not find either method of applique very different from each other and there are applications where reverse applique give way better results like in this case.

This is what I'm working on for all who asked for a photo. It's quilted (by check) and I am putting the binding on now. The binding will be dark blue. I hope all of those curves and inside miters go well. It is all batiks. I didn't think I would finish it in time for my brother and SIL's 50th Anniversary on June 20.

Mary

Mary, that is one awesome, breathtakingly beautiful, drop dead gorgeous quilt!

Can you tell that I like it?? 

I hope your brother and SIL are truly quilt worthy because the quilt is soooo total amazing.

Jo

Thanks for the amazing description. It sure looks nice on my bed. I started that quilt about seven  years ago and got bored with sewing all of those little pieces together. At the time I didn't realize the hard part was yet to come.