Hand Appliqué Quilts
The most common type of quilting technique is the hand appliqué. This technique is used when the quilt has special decorations. Appliqué refers to sewing one or more shapes to a larger piece of fabric, called the background.
For hand appliqué, individual shapes are cut out of fabric as needed for a design, like the floral pattern in the picture of the queen quilt on the left. The edges of the shapes are turned under and hand sewn to a background fabric.
There are a number of hand appliqué methods. With freezer paper appliqué, shapes are transferred onto freezer paper, cut out, and pressed onto fabric that become the templates used to cut and sew patches. Hawaiian appliqué quilts are made by appliqueing large, intricately cut shapes onto a background fabric. With the needleturn appliqué method the edges of shapes are turned under before they are sewn to the background.