An Apple A Day......

A while back my friend Jo at Pieceful Afternoon showed a block she designed that represented Washington. I fell in love with it and begged a copy of the pattern, which she kindly shared with me. This is my block.

Now Jo lives in northern Washington State so I'm sure her mountain represents Mt Baker, a large mountain in the northern Cascade Mountains. I lived in the Seattle area so "my" mountain represents Mt Rainier, a VERY large mountain in the southern Cascade Mountains. Either way, I look at this block and think of home and I truly thank Jo for sharing it with me.

I wanted to share how I approach making an applique block. With this pattern, I drafted it up in EQ and printed it directly onto freezer paper, when it's a large pattern I trace it onto freezer paper. I then number the order inwhich I will apply them and put an arrow at the edges that go UNDER another piece.

I then make a vinyl overlay of the entire pattern.

I audition fabrics.

Once I decide on them, I cut the freezer paper pattern apart, iron it to the front of the fabric and trace around the template ONLY where the piece is stitched, not where it goes under another piece, this is where those arrows come in handy.

I have this thing about not liking to use knots and I don't use them in needle turn applique if I can avoid it. What I do is gently pull back the piece and take a stitch then a back stitch into the background fabric.

I flip the piece back into position, turn under the edge and bring the needle up into the fold then directly down into the background and continue stitching. The anchoring of the end of the thread is hidden, no tails showing and no knot creeping into the turn under causing a lump.

I apologize, I should have taken a couple more pictures and will try to remember to take one of what the piece looks like after I trace around it and when I take my first stitch after hiding the anchor stitch.

Crispy