Faeries and Fibres: More on back basting applique

Friday, November 7, 2014

More on back basting applique

Time for some more Gardens of King blocks! I can't tell you how much I am enjoying testing this pattern for Missie of Traditional Primitives. It has been a great learning experience and I am loving all of the blocks. Missie revealed a bit more of the quilt on Wednesday. Her big reveal is coming! Even I haven't seen the finished quilt so it will also be a surprise for me! One of the things Missie showed on Wednesday is applique blocks in the border. They are assorted fruits and plants that would have been in King George's garden hence the name of the quilt!

Missie is doing her blocks in wool applique but I don't have a quilt shop or wool so I am using my quilting cottons and the applique technique I am using is back basting applique. I wrote a little tutorial yesterday and you can read it here.

Here is my first block. It isn't quite finished because I still need to add the stems to attach the early apples to the branches so that they aren't floating in space! I plan on using a Hungarian chain stitch. I've never done it before so this seemed like a good time to learn how to do it!

In the picture below I've numbered the pieces to show you the order of basting and stitching. Back basting is such a great technique and I always get fabulous results! All of the fabrics used were in my scrap basket. It doesn't take much fabric to make this pretty little block.

I've still got more of the pieced blocks to make and here is the latest pair. I was dreading the tiny star in the middle of this block but as it turns out it came together nicely. It'f funny that some blocks that I thought were difficult turned out to be fairly easy and those that I thought would be easy were more challenging! I've ranked the blocks in order of difficult (from my perspective) and Missie will take that information into consideration when she ranks the blocks in the final pattern.

Once again I've change the value placement to create the second block that is subtly different. I did enjoy making this one and would consider making it once again in lieu of one of the others (one that I still have to finish)! I love the fussy cut centre in this block. I bought a half meter of this fabric and loved it so much that I bought a full meter and have used it extensively for fussy cutting.

Today is the final day for voting in the Blogger's Quilt Festival organized by Amy of Amy's Creative Side.Thank you to all of you lovely readers for your very generous comments and an extra big thank you for those of you who have been so generous in your comments and who voted for my quilts! 81 The Giant Monstrosity is in the running for Viewer's Choice and also it is in the Home Machine Quilted category. Cherry Blossom in is Original Design. If you visit the Festival be sure to leave a comment to be entered in the draw for a Babylock sewing machine!