A few months ago I signed up to take part in this years mystery button club by Lynette Anderson Designs. Seaside Town is a 12 part BOM, each month getting a pattern and a hand painted wooden button to embellish the block with once the quilt is completed. I signed up with Cross Patch here in the UK. I was full of good intentions to get each block completed before the next one arrived, but life in general and other sewing projects got in the way so I've been rather behind in getting this one going. Today I decided it was about time to make the small pieced blocks for Month 1 of Seaside Town. I'd already completed the applique/stitchery block and just needed some uninterrupted sewing time alone with my Bernina to get the remainder finished so I could get started on Month 2!! First of all I cut some narrow strips of fabric 1.5" wide and laid them out until I found a pleasing arrangement. The strips were sewn together in sets of 4, then cross-cut and pieced together to make the final block. This method was a lot less fiddly than sewing 16 1.5" squares together! I used Aurifil thread 50wt in a medium grey for the piecing, and I'm using a Titanium Microtex size 60 needle together with my straight stitch needle plate for precision piecing...
 |  |
...a couple of hours later, and all 4 blocks were ready for pressing - a quick press with a shot of steam and they were done! The embroidery/applique block was made several weeks ago. The design was traced using a ligh box and a Micron Pigma pen (pale brown in colour is my favourite) and weaveline (a fine woven cotton fusible interfacing) is fused to the wrong side of the background fabric. I used the applique paper gluestick and apliquick tools method for the applique (there is a brilliant tutorial on YouTube with Lynette demonstrating this method). The hand embroidery was all done with variegated Valdani threads. These can be a bit dry and are prone to breaking, but I find if the threads are conditioned (Thread Heaven is especially good for this) and using a good quality needle (my favourites are Tulip needles) then that eliminates too many issues with snagging. So here is the finished result - a few months after the first block arrived "Under The Tree" is finished. The cute hand painted wooden button will be stitched in place once the quilt is completed. Now I can make a start on Month 2 which has been languishing in my sewing box for simply ages!
RSS Feed
