Good morning, and happy Sunday! I haven't mentioned my needle turned
applique project in awhile, mostly because it's dragging on FOREVER and, since
I'm making 9 identical blocks, it feels like treading water without ever
actually making any progress.
For those of you who haven't been around that long, I started this project in March of 2014. I'd just completed my
first appliqué project, my Jingle quilt using Erin Russek's
pattern and fabulous tutorials using the starch and press prepared edge
method (nope, that one's not finished yet, either, but it's at least a
finished top waiting its turn under the long arm needle). Anyway, I
loved the crisp, precise shapes I was able to achieve with the starch and
press method, and I loved that I could just focus on my stitches as I
sewed the applique shapes to the background, since the raw edges were
already tucked neatly underneath. However, I was hoping to find a
method of hand stitched appliqué that was more portable throughout
the process and didn't require a hot iron to get a block ready for
stitching.
I bought myself a copy of The Best-Ever Appliqué Sampler Book by Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins, and set about teaching myself needle turn appliqué. It's a great book with clear instructions, but I wasn't feeling inspired by the projects in the book. The authors had deliberately chosen some straight, skinny stems, circles, inside points and curves, outside points and curves, and reverse appliqué to build all of those skills that a newbie would need to tackle any appliqué design. So I set about finding a different pattern that would have all of those different elements but that was more appealing to me creatively at that point in time, and I ended up with this pattern that I found in an issue of the now defunct Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. The quilter whose work was featured in the magazine had based her design on an older Kim Diehl pattern, and I made further changes to her pattern motivated by my loathing for cutesy folk hearts and my love of antique appliqué quilts. I replaced the folksy hearts with reverse appliqué tulips from a historical reproduction pattern (sourced from a different issue of QNM -- man, I miss that magazine!). And I added little broderie perse rose buds around the center of the big rose, fussy cut from leftover drapery fabric. If you'd like to see and read more about the pattern sources, see this blog post.
At first I was just planning to make the one 16" block, to teach myself the techniques of needle turn appliqué but when I'd finished I liked it so much that I decided to keep going and do a whole quilt with it. So I imported this photo of my one completed block into my EQ quilt design software and played around with how I could use it in a quilt design. The idea I liked the most was this one, using nine of these big blocks:
And now here we are, six years later... I am still working on the other eight appliqué blocks! To be fair, I've only been working on this in fits and snatches. I've discovered that it's kind of boring to make a bunch of blocks that are all exactly the same. I've also learned that I probably prefer the starch and press prepared edge method, burned fingertips and all. Even though I don't need an iron with needle turn, the whole business of perfectly positioning this vinyl overlay so I can get each applique element positioned just right, then fiddling with tiny 1/2" or 3/4" pins to hold them in place, is not really portable anyway -- I mean, I'm not able to do this in my lap while I'm waiting at the doctor's office, if you know what I mean. And, although the slight variations from one shape to another that you get with needle turning the edges as you go gives a more authentic, organic look for an historical reproduction quilt (none of those antique quilts were as "perfect" as what we quilters aim for today!), my personality is probably better suited to a method where I have more precise control over the outcome.
Looking at that design I came up with in EQ today, I'm not quite as in love with it anymore -- but it's hard to know whether that's because I've got a combination of photo blocks with so-so-lighting and virtual fabric swatches from the software program. If I do make that design, I would be using the same fabrics for the pieced blocks, sashing and skinny border that I used in the appliqué blocks. Right now I'm still plodding along with the appliqué. After finishing the first block in its entirety, I've been doing the remaining 8 blocks like an assembly line, so all eight of them have their layered petals, center circles, and stems stitched down. I'm currently pinning leaves on the second-to-last block, which is nice because I am SO SICK AND TIRED OF SEWING LITTLE GREEN LEAVES OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!! After the leaves, I'll move on to the reverse appliqué tulips for all 8 blocks, and then finish with the stuffed fussy cut berries and the broderie perse rosebuds that go around the center circles.
I feel like we should place bets as to how many years it will take me to finish this quilt, like guessing how many jelly beans are in the jar and whoever comes closest wins a prize!
I'm linking up today's post with the following linky parties:
