Jingle: Block 1

I joined Erin’s FREE (yes free!!) 2013 Block of the Month. Every year this very talented lady does a BOM and shares all of the patterns for free throughout the year. The only thing you have to buy is the center block for the quilt and it is a very reasonable $10. This year’s BOM is a Christmas themed quilt with appliqué and pieced blocks.

Last year I tried to follow along in the “My Tweets” BOM that featured lots of peacocks and lots of appliqué. I didn’t even finish up block 1 before I fell off the wagon. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep up this year especially since some of the blocks will be pieced.

I use a wash away embroidery stabilizer to prepare my fabrics for appliqué. I then I use a machine appliqué method known as “invisible machine appliqué” to stitch down my fabrics. As you can see from the picture above, it almost looks like needle turn appliqué. I can share a quick tutorial if you are interested.

Here is a very, very close up shot of the stitches:

The thread that you see is actually my bobbin thread that was pulled to the top. I kept trying to adjust the tension and couldn’t get it just right. This is the best I could do and it’s good enough for me! I really should change my bobbin thread to match what I’m stitching but that is a lot of thread changes!

Here is a close up shot of what the stitches look like on the back of the block:

I still need to add the berries to the block but I need to go to the hardware store and buy some washers so that my circles will come out perfect!

~ Norma

Linking up to “Design Wall Monday”