Eye of the Beholder

original applique patterns inspired by the world around us

Colorado United States

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Mola Making-Sprig Mola: Hand Reverse Applique Workshop

  • Delectable Mountains Quilt Guild at Selbe Apartment 550 Rollingstone Drive Steamboat Springs, CO, 80487 United States (map)

Mola Making-Sprig Mola: Hand Reverse Applique Workshop for delectable mountains quilt guild of steamboat springs, co (In person)

All times are Local - Workshop is from 9 am - 3 pm (MST)

Find out more about the workshop, how to get there, and to book here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1241150983772503/?checkpoint_src=any

Suitable for Beginner Levels - 6 hours (with a break for lunch)

Enjoy using your creativity while learning to make the time-honored Molas like the Panamanian Indians with Eye of the Beholder’s easy 4-step method.

A Mola is a multi- layered reverse applique piece that is created by cutting down through the layers and hand stitching them to the layer below. Four mola variations on the Sprig Mola pattern to choose from to start with, from simple to more complex, while still affording lots of room for your creativity to shine through. Whichever pattern variation you choose, you’ll learn how to think through your personalized design to create it in 3 layers of fabric to stunning effect, choosing your colors, and creating your own added design motifs. 

Our Mola project uses 3 layers of contrasting fabric; a top, middle and background layer, with a 4th fabric for applique circles. Though the stitching is done by hand, we will learn how to baste both by hand and machine for speed.

This Mola is made using Eye of the Beholder’s Sprig Mola pattern.

If you want to learn a bit about this technique before the workshop, check out our Tutorials section on the website: Hand Reverse Appliqué tutorial. Learn more about Mola making by reading the blog Make a Mola with Block 10.

See below for downloadable Workshop preparation/materials list and Pre-cutting list. It’s essential that you pre-cut as there will not be time in the workshop to do this, so this will help us make best use of our time together. All links open in a new window.

Recommended items

Why do we recommend these specific supplies? Read more about it here in this PDF.

  • Kai scissors, bent, blunt tipped

  • Needle threader for small-eyed needles

  • Beam N Read personal Light (and USB adaptor to plug in)

  • Frixion gel pen

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Kai Scissors, Bent Handled with slightly Blunted Tips
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Kai Scissors, Bent Handled with slightly Blunted Tips
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$17.00

Kai scissors specially honed for Eye of the Beholder Quilt Design, and only available from us!

Hand-polished and with soft ergonomic grip handles, Kai Scissors are made in Japan of fine stainless steel with vanadium. These scissors are specially balanced to allow for fatigue-free cutting on all types of fabrics. Hardened stainless steel blades offer superior cutting action.

4 inch, bent handled scissor with slightly blunted tips. Allowed by most airlines when you travel.

These scissors are my very favorite when I Trace, Baste, Snip & Stitch. They allow me to trim away the top fabric without worry of cutting the background fabric. The slightly blunted tip means my scissor blade just glides between the top and background fabric layers.

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No. 7 Sharps - Basting Needles
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No. 7 Sharps - Basting Needles
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$3.52

These John James needles are the perfect size to use in basting your piece. The needle's thickness separates the fibers in your background fabric to give you those magical "holes" to show you your sew line. Why not add them to your cart so you can get started straight away?

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Desk Needle Threader
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Desk Needle Threader
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$19.25

Threads all needles...even the small-eyed No. 11 Milliner's needles and the No. 10 quilting betweens I recommend for these patterns.

How to use: 

Place Desk needle threader on table. Put the needle in the slot.  Don't worry about which way the eye is facing.  Lay thread in thread slot. Don't hold the thread down on the sides of the Needle threader like their directions say.  Stabilize and push lever down.  Voila - your needle is threaded. (It doesn't always work the first time, depending on thread thickness and whether my needle is beginning to bend, but it has never failed me yet.) Lift the needle out and pull the thread loop further through the eye.  

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Basting Thread
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Handworkshop, basting thread, handapplique, blocks, Medallion, handaccessorykits, handreverseapplique, handreverseappliqueproject, handappliqueproject, quilts, tablerunners, tracebastesnipstitch
Basting Thread
Handworkshop, basting thread, handapplique, blocks, Medallion, handaccessorykits, handreverseapplique, handreverseappliqueproject, handappliqueproject, quilts, tablerunners, tracebastesnipstitch
from $3.70

I use this 100% cotton, Guttermann hand quilting thread for basting when making our patterns by hand reverse applique. It is thick enough to separate the fibers of the fabrics, thus creating the desired "holes" in the background fabric, essential in our Trace, Baste, Snip & Stitch process. Easy to cut and remove as you needle-turn under along the basting line. Each spool has 220 yards on it. The thread is 40 wt., tear and abrasion resistant, and won’t curl.

Why 3 colors? You need a thread in a contrasting color to your top fabric when basting. In my experience these 3 colors, white, natural and red cover the majority of fabrics. Red is better than black as a universal dark contrast to medium/ light top fabrics, and busy prints. The Natural I’ve selected is dark enough to work for many mediums as well as darks and lights. The white works on almost all darks.

This basting thread can alos be used for hand quilting, too.

At times we change up the quilting thread we offer as basting thread to keep costs down and the quality of the basting thread up. We are transitioning our thbasting thread offerings now, May 2024. The Guttermann thread hsd become difficult to consistently restock in a timely manner, and the cost has risen to $4.99 a spool ($1.00 in a year). I found Coats & Clarks 100% cotton white hand quilting thread for $3.70 a spool, plus its thicker, 28 wt., so will yield a larger hole at a more reasonable cost for something we are going to baste to later cut, pull and throw away. We will give it a try.

Available in natural, white and red.

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Handworkshop, basting thread, handapplique, blocks, Medallion, handaccessorykits, handreverseapplique, handreverseappliqueproject, handappliqueproject, quilts, tablerunners, tracebastesnipstitch
Frixion Gel Pens-two colors
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Frixion Gel Pens-two colors
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$3.09

Frixion Gel Pens are a useful tool when doing our hand reverse applique process. They are the perfect pen for tracing your pattern onto the wrong side of your background fabric as they easily glide over the fabric. Generally we are using a light background fabric so we are using a dark pen. We have both a black and a blue pen.

The ink disappears with heat from your iron. If you expose it to heat by mistake you can put your fabric in the freezer and the markings will return. The experts say that once your quilt is washed the ink will completely wash out of the fabric.

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Hand Accessory Kits- ALSO optional kit for Hand Reverse Applique classes
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Hand Accessory Kits- ALSO optional kit for Hand Reverse Applique classes
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from $23.00

Hand Accessory Kits - ALSO optional kit for Hand Reverse Applique classes

We have assembled the essential tools we value and use everyday in the creation of all our reverse applique patterns when working by hand into these 2 Hand Accessory Kits.

Each kit, put together for your convenience has the needles, scissors and basting thread we use. Simply put, these tools work and will help you be successful in our hand reverse applique and mola classes. Having the right tools is important and can make all the difference in the world.

These start-up Hand Accessory kits are ideal if you are new to our method,

Kit 1 includes:

  • 1 pack of No. 7 Sharps needles (20) for basting

  • 1 pack of No. 11 Milliners needles (10) for hand reverse applique stitching

  • 1 spool natural color hand quilting thread for basting

  • 1 pair Kai 4” bent-handled, slightly blunt-tipped scissors for trimming out fabric and clipping. An Eye of the Beholder exclusive.

Kit 2 includes:

  • 1 - No. 7 Sharps needle (1)

  • 1 - No. 11 Milliners needle (1)

  • 1 spool natural color hand quilting thread for basting

  • 1 pair Kai 4” bent-handled, slightly blunt-tipped scissors for trimming out fabric and clipping. An Eye of the Beholder exclusive.

Don’t need everything in the kits but only an item or two? All items are sold separately on the notions page of our shop.

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No. 11 Milliner's Needles - Our preferred needle for Hand Applique. Several options.
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No. 11 Milliner's Needles - Our preferred needle for Hand Applique. Several options.
Handworkshop, QAYGworkshop, needles, hand sewing needles, Milliner's Needles, No 11 Milliners needles
from $3.11

My preferred needle! Several options to choose from.

I always use, No. 11 Milliner's needles when doing my reverse applique - a long, slender needle that glides through the fabric. They are honed well as to have no burrs. The delicate needle point is so fine you can easily pick up only a thread of the fabric to make invisible stitches, and the length facilitates the sweeping under of the raw edge.

Pre-pandemic we carried only Gold n’ Glides, but manufacturing issues made them extremely difficult to get, so I began testing other No. 11 Milliner’s needles so I could provide my customers with other options. Read the additional information sections to find out more.

Go on, add them to your cart so you can start stitching straight away!

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Earlier Event: April 15
Molas with a Modern Twist - In-Person Lecture
Later Event: May 10
Quilting: A Creative Journey @Lincoln Quilters Guild