I happened to be catching up on a few Tula Talk Tuesday videos recently, and noticed that she has been doing some appliqué! It looks like she’s doing some variation of needle turn appliqué, and I was impressed by how intricate her blocks are.
As is often the case when I watch a video or see a photo, I’m inspired to pull out one of my own projects that happens to use a similar fabric or technique that I’ve just seen. So I pulled out the Blocks From the Past quilt project box, and noticed that I had three unfinished appliqué blocks.
The first is the one above – it’s called Princess Feather in the book. I used a DMC floss that was a similar color, and blanket stitched around each piece. That was certainly a challenge with all of the little curves. I can’t even begin to imagine doing this one with a needle-turn technique.
This next one is a combination of english paper piecing (whipstitch), prepped and turned appliqué, and blanket stitching.
I started out by using paper templates (using the template in the book) to create the star points, and whip-stitched them together to create the flower motif. The stem and leaves were fused to the background, then I appliquéd the flower first in the prepped appliqué technique (no raw edges there). I finished by blanket stitching the stem and leaves.
Then I finally pulled back out the one that I had prepped a long time ago, started, stopped, started again, stopped again, and resolved to finally finish it. It isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either. I know I can’t get better unless I actually practice. So instead of starting over, I just forged ahead, and finished the needle-turn appliqué block.
Part of my issue with the leaf fabric is that it’s a much thicker/stiffer fabric, with a bit of a finish on it (which makes it feel almost plastic-y). It was nearly impossible to get a smooth curve. I’ll just console myself that most leaves aren’t perfectly shaped, and maybe mine have that “real life” look.
The little berries were made with Perfect Circles templates by Karen Kay Buckley. I “painted” spray starch on the fabric edge, folded and set it around the template with an iron to get them as round as possible, then popped the templates out of the pieces after they cooled. It was a lot of prep work, but worth it.