Fiesta de Talavera - Block 2

I've finished block 2! This is such a fun project to hand applique. There are a lot of pieces in each block (this one has 125) and they take a little time, but the majority of them have easy, gentle curves making them perfect for time in front of the TV. I really like working with these bright colors against the dark background. It's so much fun to see the block coming together as I'm working on it.

SBS - Glorified Nine Patch

The block I chose to do this week is Glorified Nine Patch. I really love this block. I hope to do a whole quilt in this block one day. If I do, the blocks will be larger than 6" though. There were two different methods for assembling this block. One was to use templates and do curved piecing. The other was to assemble an uneven nine patch and applique the long curved pieces. Can you guess which method I chose? I really like how it came out. If I were to do a whole quilt I think I'd go with the templates though.

Fiesta de Talavera - Block 1

This is Fiesta de Talavera, an applique quilt pattern by J. Michelle Watts. I fell in love with it the second I saw it. It's being offered as a Block of the Month class at Southwest Decoratives in Albuquerque, NM and my friend Liz is teaching it. My friend Olive is taking the class. I wanted to take it too, but it's kind of a long commute from Virginia. So, I decided that I'd follow along as best I can. In class, Liz will be exploring different methods of applique, but I'm just going to stick with my favorite method - back basting. I like to get stitching as quick as possible and don't really like making templates or overlays. Yeah, I'm lazy. Here's my first block:

SBS BOW - Fool's Puzzle

The block I chose to do this week, Fool's Puzzle, is a Drunkard's Path variation. I generally don't mind sewing curves, when they're large, gentle curves. But, these units finish at 1-1/2 inches and I didn't relish doing 16 of them. So, I decided that I'd try a technique I once saw in a book. I appliqued circles to squares, and cut them into quarters. 

This isn't the final arrangement. I forgot to take that picture, but it looks great, right? Well, look what happened when those units were sewn together.

Not so great. This technique might work for larger circles and squares, but at this size it's very noticeable that the arcs are kind of flat and the circle shape is lost. So I thought. And thought. And thought some more and just before falling asleep a couple of nights ago it came to me. Remarkably I still remembered my "bright idea" the next morning AND it seemed to make sense. I made a template and appliqued the shapes to the squares and cut them into quarters. 

They look a little wonky, don't they? But, here's what they look like sewn together:

I'd say this is a definite improvement. 

(Sorry about the different lighting in the pictures. The completed blocks were scanned whereas the intermediary steps were done with the camera.)

February UFO Finish

For February, Judy drew #1 and on my list that was an Applique Sampler wallhanging. This was made in a class over 4 months that I took back in 2006 (or was it 2007?) learning hand applique from Piece O' Cake's book, The New Applique Sampler. I loved making this wallhanging, but it was never finished when I didn't know how I'd quilt it. The top was done and I had the batting, backing and even the binding ready to go. I am excited to say that it's now done!

SBS BOW - Grace's Friendship

Here's my SBS block for this week, G-6 Grace's Friendship: