My Process in Designing an Applique Quilt.

I am in the stage of appliqueing blocks for the next quilt I have designed.  I would like to share with you the stages that I go through to design my Applique Quilts. The first thing that I do is work on flowers using shapes that I have designed and had made into dies for my Accuquilt Studio Die Cutter.

Here are the dies that I have had made.

I have cut out in template plastic all the shapes that I like to use.  As you can see here. Some of the shapes are cut from the template plastic.

I use these shapes to trace around on paper to make my flowers.

Once I am happy with all the flowers that I have come up with I will take Graph-It Quilt Designer's Graph Paper to start to draft out my Applique blocks.  This paper is 12 inch square if I would like the blocks to be bigger then I will use freezer paper.

In the above image you see that I have not only drafted out my Applique blocks I have drafted out the sashing that will frame my blocks.  In this case I have used my EQ7 to design the quilt top first.  I had to sew up a mock up of the sashing first to find the size of my Applique blocks.

This was a great way to test if this will work or not before I go to the trouble to design the Applique blocks. Once all the block are to my liking I will start to choose my fabrics.

I think these work I may not use every fabric that I have put aside for the blocks and quilt, but I always like to have more then less.  Now is the time to find my back ground fabric for this project.  This I always find hard, sometimes I may call in a friend that will see things differently.  So the fabric that I have chosen for my background on this quilt is really different then any of my other quilts.

This was the fabric that a friend had said would work so I went with it (total leap of faith) but in the end she was right.  She also told me to go with black stems (something that I have never done before). Again she was right.

I think that these block will look great ounce they are all finished and the quilt is put together.  At this time I had made up another EQ7 layout with colors closer to the colors that I am using in the blocks.

I am still working on the block I am working on the third block and I have one more after the third to do. Once that is done I will start cutting out all the little squares and triangle to start sewing the sashing together.

I like to prep my block with a trace over I do not like to mark the pattern onto the background fabric this way I have no marking to get rid of if I choose to move over a leaf or petal.  I will tweak each flower and leaf to make sure that all looks good as I am working on the block.  So having an over lay with the pattern traced on it works for me.

When I get to this last block I will iron all the shapes onto the fabric that I will use for each flower, leaf and so on.  I will then carry it with me as I go to my different meeting and shows with the store.

When this is quilt is all finished and quilted I will be patterning the Applique blocks and I may even work on getting the rest of the quilt patterned (time will tell). 

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Happy Quilting