This month was all about applique. I was pretty excited because it is something I was always too scared to try aside from some basic raw edge appliques. But as it turned out, more than learning how to applique, I learned that I pretty much hate it. The first block went off without a hitch, but then came the second. You know, the one where we actually learned to applique. And I did not enjoy it much. I am fairly happy with the end result, and I'm glad I tried all those different methods, but I have already taken the applique book off my wishlist haha. Consequently, the third block was whatever method you prefer so I did another raw edge applique block. Here they are!
Block #19 - Orange Windows
I kind of love this block. It's like cathedral windows without all the trouble. I chose to shift the pattern a bit because I liked it better that way since I see more circles than X's. I decided to mix up all the fabrics instead of grouping them by color and I'm glad, I love the way it looks. To place the pieces since I shifted it and couldn't use the diagonals, I used my cutting mat and folded to mark the center and then 3" on either side to make a grid to fit the pieces in. It seemed to work really well.
Block #20 - Circles
I was so excited about this one. I have been wanting to try circles for a long time. I wanted the block to be pretty filled, so I did 12 circles, one in each of my fabrics and did 3 of each of the methods. I started out trying to figure out circle sizes, but in the end I went into the kitchen and picked 6 circular things of varying sizes and started tracing. It made my life much easier. The circles that I used the cheater method for, I sewed down by machine so I could try out my blanket stitches and see which I liked; the rest were hand sewn. I guess needle turn was my favorite, but as I said, I really didn't like any of it much. I thought since I love to hand sew my binding, I would like this too, but apparently not. Ah well, I still like my finished block.
Block #21 - Applique pattern of choice
Sadly, I don't even remember where I saved the image for this from. But I cropped it into quarters and traced it....which didn't work great since the angles ended up all over the place and it didn't come together quite right, but I covered it up nicely and I think it looks pretty good in the end. The colors were chosen based on which fabrics I had big enough scraps from. I am really happy with how this turned out. Since my circle of diamonds didn't form correctly, I had to fuse them all down to make sure they would come together and then zig zag them like that, which I guess saved me time in the end instead of doing each individually.
And that's that. I am glad that I did it and I am also glad that it is done. And I can't wait to learn curves this month. There are a lot of curved blocks calling my name :) All in due time. For now, I have many other things to go work on. Now that I am not allowing myself to start another quilt until I have my list done, I am feeling pretty motivated. And of course all I can think about is quilts I want to make :) And by next week hopefully things will be feeling more back to normal around here as we settle into the new year.
Your blocks look amazing! That's so funny that after all that you figured out you don't like it- I guess that's skill builder's for, right? We'll see what I think after I do it. I keep putting it off. :)
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