As we all know there are thousands of very cool quilt patterns out there in the quilting world, as well as thousands of appliqué patterns. All of these can be adapted for use with wool.
For traditional pieced patterns, try to avoid traditionally stitched seams, they cause a big hump that is hard to disguise. My suggestion in this case is to cut out the pattern pieces without the seam allowance, and butt them up to each other and/or cut the entire pattern out of one piece of wool and stitch it to a background. For example: If you are doing a star quilt, cut the entire star out in one piece and stitch it to the background instead of cutting all the many pieces of the star. If you choose to cut out each piece individually then you will need to be sure to get them tight so the background fabric doesn’t show through. Avoid overlapping any of the pieces as this also causes a hump.
With that said, I have used traditional seams to piece a large background on a lap-sized (or bigger) quilt. I still get the humps, but they are spread-out and don’t overpower my design.
Any and all appliqué patterns are begging to be stitched in wool. A couple of things to look for and avoid or adjust if possible are: 1. Designs with lots of small pieces – take the design to a copy machine and enlarge it so the pieces are a stitchable size. 2. Use only a portion of the design. Just because it is drawn on the pattern doesn’t mean you have to do it all. Pick the components of the design that appeal to you and use them. 3. Cut out your pattern pieces without the seam allowance.
