Moda Blockheads: Block 22-Birdhouse

Jan Patek designed this cute little applique block for us.  You can find the pattern on her blog, HERE
This is one of the blocks I missed over the summer, so doing a little catch up.  There is an alternate pieced block that I will be doing later on.  You can find all of the tutorials I have done for the Moda Blockheads BOW at this link- Debra's Blockhead tutorials

I am going to use the fusible applique method for this block.  I begin by tracing all of the patterns in reverse onto the paper side of my fusible.  (I am using Heat-N-Bond Lite)  I cut them out leaving a little beyond the pattern lines, fused them onto the back of my chosen fabrics, and then cut out on the drawn lines.

Next, I start laying the pieces onto my background fabric beginning with the piece that is in the back as I layer them on.  I like to begin with a little larger background piece so have cut it 7" x 7" and will trim it to size after I am finished with the block.  I have made fold lines in both the paper pattern and the background fabric to find the middle of the each and simply lay the fabric on top so the folds all line up.

I keep adding pieces going from back to front of the design.

When everything is arranged as I like I use my iron to fuse them all to the background fabric.

Before I begin sewing I pin a piece of stabilizer to the back of the block.  I am using a stabilizer that washes away with water.  Stabilizer really helps to keep my stitches even and smooth.  It was one of the keys for me in achieving an end result that I liked.

With my thread chosen and my wide embroidery foot in place on my machine I am ready to start stitching.  I am going to start with a straight stitch with a length of 1.9, and always have my needle in the down position.  Having the needle down is very important when making turns and adjustments.  My machine has the ability to move the needle position and for this I stitch I have moved it to the right two positions.  

To begin I take a few straight stitches towards the point where I will begin my applique stitch.

Once I reach my starting point I pivot my work to sew back over those straight stitches with the Buttonhole stitch I am going to use.  This way I have no worries about my stitches coming out.

I switch to a Buttonhole stitch (I am using the double buttonhole stitch on my machine)  and have set the length to 1.9-the same as my straight stitch length- and width to 2.0.  My needle continues in the down position.  This time I do not make any adjustments to the needle position.

And away we go with the buttonhole stitch.

When I come to this corner I turn my work and will continue the buttonhole stitch around the post.

I pivot my work again and switch to the straight stitch (thankfully my machine remembers the settings I am using so I do not have to enter them in each time,)  I will sew straight across to until I meet the stitches in the other end.

Now I pivot my work and will resume sewing with the buttonhole stitch.

To finish off this section I turn my work and will do a few straight stitches back over the buttonhole stitches, ending with a locking stitch.

Now I just repeat this process as i work around the other sections, working from the back to the front of the applique pieces.

Start with a straight stitch

Turn and begin the Buttonhole stitch

I decided I wanted a little more definition to my birdhouse and drew a faint line where I want to indicate the corner of the house.  I used a straight type stitch and went up and back down over this line.  I forgot to take a photo, but here is a closer look at the finished birdhouse where you can see the corner added.

The roof was done next.  Then I moved to the bird.  You can see where I started at the point where the wing and bird meet.  That allowed me to go around the entire bird so that when I came to the wing I just turned and continued on around the wing.

Once I made it all around the wing I turned and finished off with a few straight stitches back over the previous buttonhole stitching.

I decided I just wanted to do one of those tiny circles, so I made it a door and used these plastic circle templates to do a similar method as Jan showed on her blog.  For my step by step directions for this click HERE.

I stitched the circle down by hand and then added a French Knot for a little eye using four strands of embroidery floss.  It was nice to do a block that made me think of summer while having to turn on the heat as our temps dipped below freezing this week.  Can there really be snow in the forecast for tomorrow?

Click here for PDF Version of Block 22
Link to all of my Blockhead tutorials

Until next time...
Happy Quilting!!
Debra
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