Macybaby

I am using my 9.5" hoop, but bought the design for the 9" block that finishes at 8.5"

I'm working on the 8th block for the neutral set - I'm liking more as I get more blocks done. It's kind of tedious dealing with the lace though. I stitch out the applique lines, then rough cut the fabric. I do this by laying the fabric over the stitching, fold and finger press the lines, then cut about a half inch away. Then I start digging through my lace and lay that out on the cut pieces. The next step is to determine exactly where I want the lace placement and I glue it to the fabric. I am using my Pfaff embroidery machine and zigzagging the edge of the lace down, using invisible thread and stabilizer underneath. ( so I can leave the Babylock set up for embroidery) I remove the stabilizer, then start appliqueing them to the fabric in the hoop- also gluing them down to stitch. I'll put down as many pieces at one time as I can, remove the hoop and trim, and lay another set down. It usually takes 3-4 stitching to get them all down, trimmed and ready to start the embroidery part. That all takes about an hour per block.

I want to do a set with all white on white, and a wider range of beige/cream/tan thread (no pastels or lace) and see how that turns out. I've decided I'll leave the lace for the set of crazy quilt blocks I've been working on that have fancy machine stitching, but are not done in the hoop. That is a set of 100 blocks and I've got about half done. Have not worked on it in over a year though. . .