Learning Applique!

Hi everyone,

Time to catch you up with what I have been working on.

I have decided to learn new applique techniques. Over the past year, I have really taken time to read books, practice, and enhance my knowledge and skill of applique. In the process, I am making a beautiful Baltimore Album quilt. A quilt of a lot of memories. Woohoo, I am so excited! It has been wonderful to have these blocks because they have traveled cross country so many times with me that I have lost track of the number of times. It has been a blessing to have these blocks with me so that I can work on them when I want to. They have traveled with me through many ups and downs in life. So, these blocks have tons of memories! Have you found that hand sewing is not only relaxing and sort of meditative, but comforting as well?

To teach myself and to learn more about applique, I purchased a series of books by Elly Sienkiewicz. (I hope that I pronounced her name correctly in the video!) I purchased Baltimore Beauties and Beyond, Dimensional Applique, Baltimore Album Quilts, The Best of Baltimore Beauties, The Best of Baltimore Beauties Part II, Beloved Baltimore Album Quilts, and Spoken Without a Word 30th Anniversary Revised Edition, all by Elly Sienkiewicz. Whew….I didn’t realize I had accumulated that many. I started this journey with Baltimore Beauties and Beyond. I love the series of lessons in this book that build your skills with each completed lesson. These have been my go-to books to better my knowledge and skill in applique. I would love to hear what you’re working on. Do you have a go-to-book? If so, please leave it in the comments, I would love to hear.

When I decided to start this project, I decided to use as much of my stash as possible. I wanted to use my stash and learn new techniques! When I went shopping in my stash, I wanted to make sure that I had my foundation fabrics. These fabrics, my foundation/base fabrics, would be those I would use throughout the quilt. I would also have my accent fabrics, that as the details of the blocks increased, I would have those fabrics available. My base fabrics is a series of greens, reds, and yellow and cheddar. I did not have too much yellow and cheddar in my stash. (It is eye opening what color holes you have in your stash when you shop your fabrics for a specific project.) I wanted to make sure to have those fabrics as my base so that it would provide some continuity throughout the quilt. As I progressed in the quilt, I went in and chose additional accent fabrics which I will continue to do as needed. Some of my fabrics are reproduction fabrics and some are not. I really am mixing and matching and just going for it.

A few of the completed blocks are below.

So, that is what I have been up to lately. I would love to hear what you are working on, any comments that you have, please leave below.

Be sure to check out the video that talks about this at the QPM YouTube channel. Your subscription to the channel would be appreciated! Stay tuned for future blog posts and videos about this quilt.

Thank you for joining me.

Have a wonderful day.

Bye for now….

Julie