Outdoor applique sewing season!

During the past week I've been working a bit here and there on quilting on Moonglow; also some piecing of works in progress, and of course applique!

Yesterday morning I sat down to some quilting, then got thinking of the bluebells block I'm in the middle of sewing...how does it look with the sunflower?  So I put those two on the flannel and next thing you know I've decided to spend a few hours planning and preparing the remaining two blocks in this wallhanging.

These blocks are all from Baltimore's Country Cousins, as mentioned in previous posts.  The bottom two blocks are rose, and thistle.  I decided to do all of the applique prep as freezer paper templates, these pieces are pretty large and placement accuracy isn't very important in the layout of the pieces.  Its nice to know I have these ready to sew as the "summer patio applique  sewing season" is here!  This quilt will need some more desgining as to how its set; and a name...anyone have any ideas?


After getting that prep work completed, I realized  now is the time to make a decision about Jacqueline's Album border.  I've been in a real quandry about this...I have never done an applique border as honestly, they scare me!  So much fabric, so many pieces, and in this quilt, a mitred border to boot!  Why not do just a plain border instead?!

All the leaves in this border design tuck under the vine, so they have to be sewn on first.  And, all the leaves are different sizes.  Do I make freezer paper templates?  Well that would mean a lot of drawing, cutting, marking, cutting again...also numbering each leaf shape to put it where it should.  I know I could revise this border any way I want to...make less leaves, or less elements, make the leaves more similar in size, have them point to the vine instead of under the vine.  But I kept thinking, if I'm going to make this first applique border attempt, I'd like to do it the way the designer intended...and it is a lovely design, packed with leaves, berries, and various flowers.  Here's a link to the designer's page.

In the end I decided backbasting would give me the most accuracy to make sure those leaves end up under the vine.  Backbasting would also allow me to make sure I had a good variety of greens, spread out throughout the length of the border.  And, after I have sewn the leaves, I could use templates for the flowers and remaining elements...I often mix up applique methods!

I figured my best bet would be to pin all my little green leaf pieces to the border fabric, then baste and trim them.  Then they'll be ready to applique.  If I make it though this border without pulling my hair out, then I'll proceed to the remaining borders!  Could be a long time till this is all done!

Sunflower and Sweet Peas

From the book Baltimore Country Cousins by Susan McKelvey.  I'd like a new wallhanging, so now to decide, do I make four of these to set together, do I use this 16" block as a medallion centre  with pieced borders, or do I make three more different flowers-in-containers blocks from the book?for

Shipeshewana Scraps

 

I've been working away at these blocks over the past few months, yesterday I discovered I just needed a few more to complete the centre!  The blocks here on my design wall are laid out sideways...the quilt is 4 rows of five.  There will be two narrow borders and a pieced border...finishing the quilt at about 58" x 68", a nice lap size.  

I had a lot of fun making these blocks, just picking away at assorted neutrals, and learning that I can put just about anything together and its looks okay!!  The pattern is written by Gay at Sentimental Stitches..

Today I'm going to start basting Moonglow.  I finished this top about two years ago, meant for my younger son's high school graduation.  But he took an extra year to finish high school, so I gained an extra year to think about how to quilt this.  I still don't know how, but basting it is the first step, and I don't think Scott is all that concerned about the actual quilting as its the patterns on the top he'll focus on!