So obviously Thanksgiving is my inspiration for this cute and easy applique Table Topper. I made a similar version of this a long time a go at a quilt retreat and we used the scrap table to make it. This version is one that I drew up and made much larger as a table topper for the Thanksgiving Season.
The different thing about this table topper is that we turn it inside out and there is no binding on this quilt. The quilt has a 1/4″ finishing seam on the outside which also shuts the opening we used to turn it.
I have drawn up all the pieces for this quilt and I have them ready to print out in our Free Resource Library. To grab these pieces and get started head over to the Library Access page or click the link below to get our free password!
Lets Get Started!!
Step 1 – Getting your Materials Ready
Once you have the applique pieces printed, we can start getting our fabrics and Lite Steam a Seam 2 cut out.
All applique fabrics and Lite Steam a Seam 2 will be the same size.
Applique Fabrics:
- 1 – Turkey Body – 8 1/2″ x 5″ piece of fabric and Lite Steam a Seam 2
- 1 – Circle – 7 1/2″ square piece of fabric and Lite Steam a Seam 2
- 22 – Feathers – 5″ x 2 1/2″ piece of fabric and Lite Steam a Seam 2
- 1 – Turkey Tie – 2 1/2″ square piece of fabric and Lite Steam a Seam 2
- 1 – Wattle – 2″ square piece of fabric and Lite Steam a Seam 2
- 2 – Eyes and 1 – Beak – 4″ x 2″ piece of fabric and Lite Steam a Seam 2
Top, Back and Batting Pieces
- 1 – Top, Back and Batting – 18″ Square pieces
For my fabrics, I used Batik Fat Quarters and Scraps of Batik Fat Quarters that I had. The Fat Quarters are similar to these at Fat Quarter Shop
Transfer Shapes to the Lite Steam A Seam 2
Now that you have gathered all your materials for the Turkey Trot Table Topper, we will need to transfer the shapes to our Lite Steam a Seam 2. I transfer the shapes onto the grid side of the Lite Steam a Seam 2 because we will take off the plain side to place the pieces.
After the images are transferred onto the Lite Steam A Seam 2, the plain paper side can be removed and placed onto the wrong side of the fabric. To adhere the Lite Steam A Seam 2 to the fabric, just press for about 3 seconds. Don’t remove the grid paper yet, we will need it to cut the shapes out of the fabrics!
Cut your Shapes Out!
Take your materials with the Lite Steam A Seam 2 with the shape tracings and cut the shapes out. Don’t peel the paper just yet, wait until we are ready to lay out our pieces.
Assemble Your Turkey Top
First thing we want to do is to assemble our Turkey. Lay out the body piece and put the eyes, beak, waddle and tie where you want them. Once you are happy with your placement, pull the papers off the the eyes, beak, waddle and tie and gently place them on the turkey body. Put the left edge of the waddle slightly under the beak. Gently press with your fingers to keep them in place.
Now we will start to arrange our turkey on to the top quilt fabric. Let’s start with the Circle, but don’t peel the paper yet, set it in place where you would like to place the circle. Start laying your feathers around the outer edge of the circle (with papers on) to make sure that your circle is centered and your feathers aren’t too close to the edge.
Once you are happy with where your feathers are going to land, peel the paper off of the circle and gently place it on the top fabric. Now we will take our top feather and peel the paper off and place it by peeling back the circle slightly and placing it under the circle. Next we will do exactly the same thing alternating sides of the top feather. Place your next feathers just slightly over the previous feather also.
After the feathers have been placed, we can place the body on the circle. Line up the body with the bottom of the circle, peel the paper off the body and then place it on gently.
If you are happy with all your placements you can now iron it all down to the quilt top. Lite Steam a Seam 2 says to press for 10 seconds, so I will do that all over the applique and then check to make sure that it is all pressed down. Your top should now look similar to this!
Let’s put our layers together!
We can now take our quilt top, batting and backing and layer them. Start with putting your batting down first, then place your quilt top face up on top of the batting, and then place your backing right side down on the quilt top. Make sure these are all lined up together and pin them.
Find the center of the bottom of the quilt top and make a mark 3″ on either side of the center. These are the marks that you will start and stop sewing at so we can turn the quilt.
Now we will sew our layers together leaving the opening so we can turn the quilt through it. I did a 1/2″ seam so that I make sure that I catch all the sides, and I also backstitch in the corners. I backstitch the corners so that when I turn it and push the corners out the stitching is much sturdier and it won’t come loose.
After you have stitched around the quilt and left the opening, then we can trim all the seams to 1/4″ except where the opening is. Turn your quilt out and gently push the corners out. Finger press around edges and then we can iron down all edges and make sure the fabric at the opening is turned in and lined up with the sewed seam.
Load your machine with your decorative top stitch thread now. We can now stitch around the entire quilt to close it up!
Applique Sewing Time
We will now start to raw edge applique all the pieces down. Keep your decorative top stitch thread in to do raw edge applique. I have my machine set up for free motion quilting and I just follow around all the edges that are exposed on the applique pieces. The only think we will add besides stitching around all edges, is some free motion pupils in the eyes, and a line up and back down in the middle of each feather!
Quilting outside of the Turkey
After all the applique is done, trim your threads on the front and back of the quilt and now we can do some free motion quilting around the turkey. I would stay in between your outside seams and your turkey and keep your free motion quilting inside that portion. The free motion quilting is at your discretion, whatever you would like to do in this area! I just did some swirls and stuff in there. If you don’t want to do free motion here, you can just go around the outside of the turkey with some stitching.
To watch the video tutorial for the Turkey Trot Table Topper click below!
Your Turkey Trot Table Topper is Now Done!
All you have to do now is trim your threads and you are done with your quilt! Lay it on your table and decorate around it, or use it to hold your turkey dinner! Happy Thanksgiving Season and I would love to see if you make this table topper. Head over to my Facebook page and leave a picture if you do make this quilt and let us see it!
Thank you so much for coming along this journey with me!
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Great job Carrie!!!