My Holiday Project

Me sewing the baskets handle by the pool in Kefelonia

My quilting hobby has been off and on a lot over the last 8 years, its either all I can think about and want to do and then i might not do anything for months!
But last year i was quite prolific (well for me that is) and when it came time for my 2 weeks holiday, panic set in "no quilting for 2 weeks" how will I cope?.
So I decided to have another go at hand applique, I found a luscious pattern from my Applique Flower's book.
Next decision was what type of hand applique technique to use? I tried out loads, but settled on the pritt stick and freezer paper one.
So I started making up my flower petals and leaves etc, I already had all the fabrics I needed, lots of lovely batik ones, but then I fell out with this method (too sticky) so I tried the spray starch with templar plastic method which I loved.
I roughly cut out a large piece of white fabric and using a light box set up, I traced the pattern on using a wash away blue marker pen, then I was ready to go.

Sorry about the colour tone on the photo's

I really enjoyed making this quilt and I learnt a lot such as

1.  Cut the backgroud fabric more accurately, as I had a lot of trouble squaring it up later.
2.  Centre the applique.
3.  Check even after pre washing my fabrics that they don't run (as they did when i washed it to get rid of the blue marker pen lines).
4.  Don't use a pritt stick to shape and then a temporarily attach the applique pieces as they go hard and are difficult to sew.

If you look at the second leaf on the left you can see where the colour ran

5.  Last but not least Don't use a blue washable marker pen again, as then I couldn't then iron my project again until it was completed and washed, and it got quite creased and I still had to sew onto it, some parts of the applique will always be creased I can't do anything about it.

The orange tulip is particularly creased

The quilting on it was the first time i had used a free form feather design and I'm really pleased with how it turned out, I also traced a pattern of a tulip and quilted around that on either side.