Work around from Ernalee Munday
Applique fans, there are a ton of resources out there. Some cost more than budgets allow.
Ernalee Munday offers her solution.
From Area Coordinator, Ernalee Munday in Marysville, WA:
?I like to machine applique quilts for kids. My hands are not strong enough to hand applique any more so here is how I do it.
I find cute pictures or applique patterns online or in quilt pattern catalog books, etc. I copy them in my printer and enlarge them to the “fit to page” size. Then I take the copy to my local Office Depot and have them blow them up to 2’ x 3’ in their blueprint copier. If you just go with black and white the charge is $2.00 and change. I keep a large tablet of tracing paper on hand. I use it to trace over each object in the picture to make a piece of pattern. Since my hands don’t work so well I then use Wonder Under on whatever piece of fabric I am using. Cut it out, put it in place, press and do the applique. And that is how I am able to make some really cute machine applique quilts without having spent money I don’t have.
Most of the patterns you can buy from the catalogs or order online, run around $9.98 and up. By the time you add shipping and tax you can spend as much as $15.00 for a pattern. I did that for my great grandson’s quilt pattern. Then I got smart and started using some of the modern equipment we have available and now have several full size patterns on my sewing room wall. Would rather spend less than $5.00 than upwards of $15.00 and it is so easy. Between poorly functioning hands and a small income, I can still do what the rest of the ladies do and feel like I am contributing to the kids out there that should have something cute to cover up with.