Eye of the Beholder

original applique patterns inspired by the world around us

Colorado United States

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Embroidery for Molas (#55W3501)


  • AQS Lancaster at Spooky Nook Sports Conference Center 2913 Spooky Nook Rd Manheim, PA 17545 United States (map)

Click the picture to sign up.

Registration is open to public June 17.

To find out more and book workshops with me go to: https://www.americanquilter.com/quiltweek/instructor/view/eventid/39/instructorid/131

Embroidery for Molas

All Levels - 3 hours

All times are Local: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Location: Victory Hall

Workshop: AQS Lancaster #55W3501

After the stitchwork of a Mola is complete, interest is added by the Kuna makers with some very finely worked basic embroidery stitches. The running stitch, seed stitch, chain stitch, feather stitch, fly stitch, and buttonhole to name a few. They are worked in threads or floss. Come learn these basic stitches and how they are used so you can embellish your Molas / favorite quilt pieces with embroidery with a modern twist.   

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.

See below for downloadable Workshop materials list. All links open in a new window.

There is a Required Kit for a fee that must be purchased in addition to the workshop.

If you’d like us to make a mola prior to class, make the Sprig Mola mug rug. The pattern comes in your required Kit, You can also choose to buy an optional fabric kit put together by us perfectly to suit the pattern’s design and style. There are several colorways to choose from.

View and Download Workshop Supply List and Required Kit for Students.

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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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: September 2
Create your own Quilted Jacket Workshop: 4/5
Later Event: September 11
Needle-turn Applique: Step-by-Step-Impatiens (#55T3503)