August Applique
The flower for August is Gladiolus - such a beautiful flower in so many colors. When I made my collection of flowers, I definitely included a gladys as we often call them, but this week I decided to make a second block using pink instead of my original red.
I printed off the pattern templates for the gladioli and then checked my fabric stash for some pinks and greens - I need 7 pinks varying from light to dark and also 3 greens.

my red and pink fabrics
These pink Hoffman watercolors are perfect!

Hoffman Fabric watercolor batiks
But here's a tip: Sometimes when you don't have enough fabrics..... but you can use one fabric for several different shades. Here's a great example of a fabric that could be used for 2 or 3 different pinks and it really doesn't matter if in places it goes into the yellow a little. In fact, it makes it look more realistic.

fabric perfect for flower creating
The trick is, just have enough contrast between the pieces so they don't all blend into one blob. Of course, a darker outline using thread can help define them too.
I continued on, fusing all my pieces and cutting them out. I built the entire arrangement on my Teflon sheet with the layout guide underneath for guidance

Building the applique on a Teflon Sheet
...then gently removed it ready to be placed on the background.

applique bouquet removed from Teflon, ready to be placed on background
The background I chose for this block was another Hoffman fabric, this time a muted green/grey color. I had a number of comments on the background for my Water Lily with remarks about how they liked the colored background. Personally, I felt it was a little too distracting from the flowers and leaves so this week I chose the muted look instead thus somewhere in between.

applique fused on background
With everything fused in place, it's time to start stitching. I'll use my favorite free-motion technique of stitching around the raw edges twice.
Here's how my new Gladiolus Block turned out!

Gladiolus block finished
You can find the pattern here: Gladiolus Pattern
If you've already made this block, feel free to send me a photo - I'd love to see how yours turned out.... and if you missed my tips on fusible applique posted a few weeks ago, you can find them here: Applique Tips
For more information & updates be sure to sign up for our newsletter
You can unsubscribe anytime!
Post your comment
Comments
No one has commented on this page yet.
RSS feed for comments on this page | RSS feed for all comments