Stuffed Appliqué with Nicholas Ball

This class is part of the five-part virtual Hand Sewn Quilting Series III. Classes may be purchased à la carte at $75 or as a five-part package for a discounted price of $350. 

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 + Time

Friday, November 7, 2025, 12:00 - 2:30 pm ET

Location

Zoom, a link will be emailed to participants the day before class.

Cost

$75 for the individual class
$350 for the series

Suggested 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 – a fat quarter would work well
• 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!

Scholarships 

There are scholarship spots available for this workshop. Please email info@tatter.org to learn more.

Our Teacher

Nicholas Ball is an improv quilter from South Wales.  After graduating Art School in 2006, it would be some six years before the quilting bug bit.  With a passion for improv quilting, Nicholas’ aesthetic is an organic one, preferring to sew without the use of patterns or templates.  He takes a lot of inspiration from natural world and his Vegetable Patch, Koi Carp and Shoal quilts showcase his love of liberated sewing. 

He has taught improv quilting both nationally and internationally, contributed to the UK’s leading quilting magazines and was a co-presenter of the QNNTV show Quilt Monkey, alongside fellow UK quilter Katy Jones. His debut book Inspiring Improv was published in April 2019 by Lucky Spool and his second title, Use & Ornament, followed in 2024. He is an Aurifil thread designer and Aurifilosopher and has released two thread collections.

*All classes in this series will be recorded. A link to the recording will be emailed to all students following the live session. You may purchase the series as a whole even after the classes have begun. You will be emailed the recordings upon sign-up.