Holiday Hand Turn Applique Project

We have had the blessing of a family holiday, booked before lock-down, thankfully fitting with the easing of the social distancing rules. A house share with our children and Son-in-Law in the stunning Peak District National Park.

The living room had a picture window looking out over farmland to hills and moors. Through the week we could sit on comfy sofas watching the effect changing weather and time of day had on the view….

We did occasionally get off the sofas to go walking 😉

The Peak District is a wonderful place to go walking – from gentle strolls in green river valleys to steep climbs up to high peak moorland.

Back at the house, when I could drag my eyes away from the view, I did make some progress with the Basket of Blooms needle turn applique project. I made and stitched bias stems for the first time and got plenty of practice turning points with the 24 leaves to stitch in place. Well! I cut out 24 leaves as the pattern directed but actually only used twenty two! Doh! Zero out of ten for observation – I stitched four pairs of leaves to the stem under the basket – the pattern clearly shows there should be FIVE pairs! 😀

In my quest to build on my first steps in hand turn applique I found a series of video tutorials by Becky Goldsmith. They are very detailed and packed full of handy tips and hints – I added a couple of toothpicks to my applique kit after watching Becky in action! Here is her technique for creating super neat needle turn applique stitches. This tutorial demonstrates (in great detail!) how to stitch down an inner point. Per-fec- tion! And in this tutorial Becky demonstrates how to achieve perfect outer points and how to resolve pleats.

I’m hoping to keep up momentum with the Basket of Blooms project, I’m looking forward to adding the flowers as well as following the instructions to make the Suffolk Puffs (yo-yos) to decorate the top edge of the basket. The pattern is written by Jo Avery – read about her inspiration for the block here.

Linking with Susan for Midweek Makers.

Allison