Once Upon A Story Row Along

I am so excited to to welcome you all here for my day as part of Marian Pena of Seams to Be Sew 2019 Row Along.  This is my first year to participate and it has been a lot of fun planning and preparing my part of the quilt.  Be sure and enter the giveways at the end of this blog post.

First a little bit about me:
I made my first quilt in the 1980's and have been at it ever since.  My quliting business is just over a year old and I now spend my days designing quilts for quilt alongs that I host here and via Facebook.  I love the chance to meet quilters from all over the world in my online world.  My passion is to pass on my knowledge of quilting with quilters of all levels, but I really try to gear things for those who may want to try it for the very first time.  Maybe it is because I have the heart of a teacher and my favorite years of teaching were in a Preschool setting.

Now back to the reason we are here today:
​The theme this year is Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales.  As soon as Marian suggested the theme I knew what I wanted to do.  Little Bo Peep. I envisioned Bo Peep wandering the countryside looking for her sheep who are all hiding from our  wee shepherdess.

I thought I knew the nursery rhyme well, but there is much more to it than I recalled:

Little Bo-Peep
BY MOTHER GOOSE
​
​Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can't tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, and they'll come home,
Bringing their tails behind them.

Little Bo-Peep fell fast asleep,
And dreamt she heard them bleating;
But when she awoke, she found it a joke,
For they were still all fleeting.

Then up she took her little crook,
Determined for to find them;
She found them indeed, but it made her heart bleed,
For they'd left their tails behind them.

It happened one day, as Bo-Peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails, side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

She heaved a sigh and wiped her eye,
And over the hillocks she raced;
And tried what she could, as a shepherdess should,
That each tail be properly placed.

I have always love the look of applique blocks, especially needle turn, but have had a really hard time getting mine to come out as nicely as the photos I see on pinterest.  My fall back has been  fusible machine applique. I love it for it's simplicity and ease of getting a quilt finished quickly.  But I still have a desire to sit in a peaceful spot with hand applique.  That is what I did with this block.  I used a combination of techniques, Apliquick tools for the smaller bits, and a variation on needle turn where I finger press the seams on the larger pieces before adding it to my block.  
For the large pieces I turned my pattern upside down and traced around it onto the back of my fabric.  Then I cut them out, leaving a seam allowance where there is solid line and trimming to the dotted lines.  (The dotted line areas do not need to be turned as they will lay underneath other applique pieces.)  HINT: I place a very fine piece of sandpaper under the fabric when tracing as this keeps the fabric from slipping.
Once I have the piece cut out I use a tool with an angle such as the one shown here to go over the line that needs to be folded under.  I do this on the sandpaper as well.

As an added bonus, the sandpaper leaves a line that I can see on the front of the piece.

The tool I used to go over the drawn line adds a bit of a crease that I can now easily follow.  I finger press the fold into place and it makes it so easy to sew it into place now. 

 I just pin and sew without having to work out turning the fabric with my needle
​as I go since the fabric already wants to lay the way I want it to.

For my smaller pieces I have prepared them using the Apliquick method.  I picked up these tools a couple of years ago and after watching several videos have gotten comfortable with how to use them to get excellent results.  I like the results much better than trying to machine stitch around something so tiny as my smallest of the sheep.

For this method I start by transferring the applique patterns onto this lightweight fusible interfacing.  It runs through my inkjet printer so it saves me a lot of time.  The paper will eventually disolve in the wash leaving a soft finish to my row.  HINT: Set printer to a lighter print so that nothing shows through on lighter fabrics.
​
Once printed I cut out all of the shapes using a sharp pair of scissors.  My favorites are Karen Kay Buckley's perfect scissors.  My arthritic hands love the large, soft handles on these and they are sharp to the very tip.

I place the cutout pieces with enough room between them to add a seam allowance.

I next prepare the pieces by making cuts on the curves and inner points.  These are the two Apliquick tools that have become my good friends.

Using a watersoluble glue pen I place a light amount of glue on a small section of the seam allowance.  This particular glue goes on blue and dries clear pretty quickly while giving me enough time to manipulate the seam the way I want.

The forked tool is used to hold the piece you are working with and turn it as you go.  The other tool is angled on one end and pointed on the other.  The angled end is perfect for folding over the fabric and smoothing the seam out.

Before moving on to the next section I do a quick check to make sure
​that the fold is nice and smooth.   This is looking good so I finish it off.

This piece is now ready to go onto my prepared background piece.  I have a light box which really helps to see the layout and get things placed as I want them.

One last HINT:  Make sure to check that the applique piece you are laying will be completely covered by the pieces that go on top.  I have lifted the piece I am working on to show clearly what I am looking at as I work.

I can see that this piece looks good in its place.  The unfinshed edge will be covered by the applique pieces that will go on top of it.

I ended up making two samples of this block.  One was done entirely from scraps in my stash.  The second was doing using some green fabrics from Northcott.  I was able to pick out some ligher color greens which helped when trying to see the patter outlines underneath. ( I have listed those fabrics in my pattern.

For your copy of Little Bo Peep just click HERE. 
​The pattern will remain free until the end of October.

Currently I am running a free BOM on my blog:  Just Desserts.  You can find it and more free patterns HERE.

​And now for the promised giveaways because we all like to win fun stuff.

I am so excited about this one.  I use Electric Quilt (EQ) for designing a large number of my quilts. I upgraded to this version last year (EQ8) and love how easy it is to get around within it.  To learn more visit https://electricquilt.com/online-shop/category/electric-quilt-8-eq8/

To enter this Giveaway complete the items in the box below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The second giveaway is for this LED lighting kit for your sewing machine.  I had not heard of this product before, but after watching the video I am sure thinking about it. More lighting would be fantastic.  Note that the winner will pay shipping cost. 

​For more information about rules and guidelines for all giveaways please visit Marian's post at: 
http://www.seamstobesew.com/?p=22811

​

Complete the items in the box below to enter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There is more fun to be had.  Be sure and visit today's other featured designer's blogs today
for more rows and even more giveaways.
From My Carolina Home
Words & Stitches


And stop by Seams to Be Sew as well, Marian will have all of the latest for you.
 There is still time to get past rows, and there are yet more to come!

I would love to have you join me on Facebook.   You can share a photo of your completed row with me there.  I always enjoy seeing the quilts made from my patterns.
  https://www.facebook.com/tuningmyheartquilts/

​Happy Quilting!