A Day for Applique

It is a rainy blustery day that is keeping me indoors so I can devote almost the whole day to quilting. I have finished another block in the Civil War Bride Quilt. This is block one in the quilt and I changed it just a little. I put the little birds in the upper corners instead of the leaves on the pattern. The idea came from the Civil War Bride Quilt blog and another quilter had done this. I really wanted hummingbirds but I could not get any to fit in the left over space. I did my best to draw these and I am glad they will be WAY up at the top of the quilt when it eventually hangs on the wall so no one can see them up close.


I have started my next block. I am using the back basting (or template free) method of applique on this quilt. My first step in a new block is tracing.






I put the pattern upside down on the lite table and then trace the pattern onto the back of the background fabric. I am pulling fabrics and will start basting the chosen fabrics on the front of the block next.

I place a piece of the fabric on the front of the block covering the section I will first baste. I use a heavy quilting thread and from the back of the block I just baste around the individual applique piece with a long running stitch. I sometimes place a pin to hold the fabric on the other side of the block.

Once I have the piece basted I trim away the excess fabric leaving a scant 1/4 seam allowance. I like to take a Clover Fine White Marking Pen and trace over my basting stitches, this will erase when I iron the block when completed. I am now ready to needle turn applique. I remove a few basting stitches at at time. I also baste several areas before I start appliqueing. Yea ! Another Civil War Bride Quilt block is started.

Happy Stitching...

Cheri