sewing belly buttons boutique: July 2016

When I was asked to do a block for the Splendid Sampler I was so honored. 80 designers were asked to design a block that shared the story behind why we love quilting and sewing.
My block is called "Sewing Nut" it depicts -

A Tale of a Little squirrels’ adventure

When I first discovered quilting I fell in love with applique. Maybe it's because I was an illustration major in college and I love anything that is storybook -- and appliqué is just that.

Here is my finished block. YOU CAN GET THE PATTERN HERE
This was sent away to Pat Slone and Jane Davidson (quilt Jane) to go to the Martingale book isn't that exciting?

After cutting out my backgrounds I need to chose my "ground grass" strip colors.

Here is what my drawn piece on the Heat and Bond Heavy sheet looks like. And yes I use the craft heavy fuse even if it gums up my needle... I really want these small pieces to stick.

After cuting my white squares, I positioned my white square over my printed pattern for registration to use as a guide.

Have you ever had those big platers at the market for veggies or other foods? This black food plastic plater is great to hold all my applique shapes. It is also great to hold any of your quilt block pieces and it is very easy to cary them around in this. The black also is great to see things well.

Here is the finish block and beautiful Aurfil thread colors to match. I love the sharp mini frisker scissors for cutting out my applique pieces.

I decided to make a mini quilt with my little squirrel blocks so I cut out 4. Aren't the trees cute?

Time to take out your decorative buttons and use them!

I Have a seasonal theme for each of my blocks. It's suttle but the buttons sort of do it.

Spring Summer Fall then Winter. You could problably push this idea further with the colors and fabrics you choose.

SPRING

Here are the close up of the mini quilt I made using my blocks. I just cut 2.5 in strips and did a sort of log cabin around my block. I measured as I went. I sewed in a round ... starting with the left side of the block then the top then the right side then the bottom cutting the 2.5 in strips and measred the length of the block after I sewed each strip.