nanna-up-north

Oh, Sewingitalltogether, it's going to be wonderful. Can't wait to see it finished.

Suz

If you compare both photos of Nanna's block (1187), you notice that the second block has been pressed into a towel. Obviously, pressed from the back side as the background lays perfectly flat and the blossoms are still 3/D. Pressing is to important. Very nice work. Congrats.

nanna-up-north

Haha! You certainly are observant, Suz. Yes, you are right. I press each block when I have it done. And, I spritz it with a bit of best press as well. I want it to hold its crisp appearance until I'm ready to start putting these together. And, I've found that the inktense pencil colors will set better with a good pressing as well.

I'm almost done with block #20. I'll post a picture soon.

frannella

Nanna-Up-North---I have the little brown bird book and cd. Years ago, I thought I would put this quilt on my bucket list. But I have come to realize there is NO WAY I could ever possibly attempt this masterpiece. Your blocks are exquisite and I can't believe how quickly you are turning them out. Your fan, Fran.

nanna-up-north

Thank you, frannella. I appreciate that. It is a huge undertaking so I certainly understand people not wanting to tackle this one. As far as me turning them out so quickly, I had 2 of this set of 4 already appliqued and the 3rd almost done so it's not so fast really. When I start the next set of 4 it will appear that I've slowed down. But, they take me a couple of weeks each to get one done. I work on them in the evening when my hubby and I sit down to watch a baseball game or a movie. And, I started this 5 years ago. I have hardly touched it the last couple of years so I brought it with me to our summer place so I'd focus on it and get the thrill back. It's been speaking to me. I think I'm excited about it again. That's what I wanted to happen. So, I'm going to keep working on them as long as the feeling lasts.

nanna-up-north

Okay, I got #20 (Pansy Posy) done tonight. I didn't like this one at all until I got the embellishment done. Thanks for looking.

sewingitalltogether

Oh, this is just lovely! You're right about the embellishments.

nanna-up-north

Thanks, Sewingitalltogether. Yes, the embellishments just make them come alive. At least that's what I think. Doing the applique is one thing but doing all the embroidery, coloring and painting is something else again. I have so much fun doing these though. It reminds me of when I was a little girl and I'd watch the Polaroid picture develop before my eyes.

I had a hard time deciding about how to shade the bow on #20 so I was working on #22 while I decided. I have it done now so I'll post that one, hopefully today.

I'm back at square one now. I have to cut some background squares, trace the picture and start the applique to the next set of 4. It will be awhile before I have block #23 done.

Suz

Nanna, again, pressing makes all the difference. Wonderful!! I have said so on this thread before that back-basting applique is my method of applique using needle turn. Have you tried it? I find it be extremely accurate in placement of the pieces. There are videos/tutorials on YouTube. Take a look and try a small sample. I'm interested in your evaluation of this method. AND also I have the beloved "Little Brown Bird" quilting book and love it. I have only done one block - a real challenge!

Owing to your fabric choices, there is a lot of dimension and gradation in your blocks and is such an improvement over what we had years ago when the fabrics were so flat. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful selection. The batiks are sooooo nice for selection.

nanna-up-north

Thanks, Suz. I went and watched a couple of Utube videos on your back-basting method of applique. It looks like so much work in preparation. I will try it at some point. Maybe it would be easier when I have overlapping pieces. Those are hard to match up when I can't see the lines anymore. I do a clear plastic overlay that I've drawn on the lines but even then, it takes a little fiddling around to get it just right.

Since starting to applique I've found I look at fabric so differently. I might be looking for a red with little black dots to be a strawberry or maybe a bubbly fabric that will become a bird's feathers, etc. Batiks work out so well on so many things. I try to fussy cut a lot to get the right look in the right place. When I was packing my LBB things to come up to the summer cabin this year I brought 2 pretty good sized totes of fabrics. I've separated them into pinks, yellows, blues, purples, etc. as well as leaf fabrics, fruits, and the list goes on. Blenders and Batiks fill up most of the bags of fabric pieces. Along with the embellishing items I filled up a pretty good sized space in the trailer coming up. My hubby doesn't mind. He loves seeing each block as it is finished.