Stuffed Applique

During the early days of the UK’s first lockdown, Nicholas was inspired to make a temperature quilt by fellow improv quilter Jo Avery, yet wanted his to be a little different from any quilting technique he’d attempted before. After some initial research Nicholas discovered stuffed appliqué and soon, what started out as a daily creative practice to help ease the monotony of the Covid situation, this technique quickly turned into one of his favourites. The resulting quilt, Viral Temperature, is now the cover star of his new book “Use & Ornament” and he was overjoyed when the quilt received second place in the Appliqué category at the 2022 QuiltCon competition.

In this workshop, Nicholas will take you through his step-by-step process of creating stuffed appliqués or traditional trapunto. The technique is an age-old one and the origins of the more familiar faux trapunto used by some quilters today.

During the class, students will first make individual units by hand to practice the technique. Next, students will be free to continue to make individual units or work on a wholecloth example, which Nicholas will partially demonstrate. Students will also look at layered stuffed appliqué, as well as embellishing the finished shapes.

Date
Friday, October 9th, 2026

Time
12:00-2:30 pm ET

Location
Zoom, a link will be sent to participants the day before class

Cost
$75

Recording

All Hand Sewn Quilting Series sessions will be recorded. A link to each recording will be emailed to all registrants following the live session. Each link is live for three months after the live session.

Class Materials:

• An assortment of fabric scraps for the appliqué shapes
• Pieces of background fabric, approximately 1/2” bigger on all sides than the shape to be appliquéd
• A larger piece of background fabric for the wholecloth technique
• Pencil or fabric marker
• Fabric scissors
• Small appliqué pins
• A hand sewing needle – Nicholas uses a long milliners or cotton darner with the largest eye (size 1)
• Heavier weight thread – Nicholas uses 12wt Aurifil
• Small embroidery scissors or thread snips
• Small embroidery hoop (4-6”)
• Long, thin tweezers
• Good quality fibre fill or toy stuffing
• A fine hand sewing needle
• 50wt thread – Nicholas uses Aurifil
• Fray check (optional but very useful)
• Embroidery floss of perle cotton for embellishment.
• A willingness to explore your own creativity!