What's Under the Needle?

August Applique

Posted by on 13 August 2019 | 0 Comments
This content belongs to Arbee Designs.

Tags: flower, applique, pattern

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

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