"It's The Stupidest Tea Party I Was Ever At" Said Alice

Super, super excited to share April's NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild Bee Block with you, I'm just loving the challenge set by
Queen Bee Emily N.

The Bee Block package included a piece of green cotton and instructions to create an applique block on the theme of 'Tea'.  Emily is obviously a girl after my own heart and tells us she's obsessed with tea.  We can use any fabrics from our stash as long as we use the green fabric somewhere in the block and Emily suggests to applique items such as cups & saucers, mugs, tiered cake stands, teapots and more.

It doesn't get any better for this English girl abroad, immediately I knew what I was making - it just had to be a teapot and rather than sketching my own to save time I pulled this teapot image by Colleen from her blog justpaintit.

Pulling fabrics was easy - 

in my stash I had this scrap of British Icons: London by Timeless Treasures and then I pulled some Olive the Ostrich pink heart fabric by Laurie Wisbrun.  A multi dot (C3095 White) fabric from the Timeless Treasures Indian Summer collection is absolutely perfect to link the colours together with the given green which I'm going to use as the background fabric for the finished block.

I've an idea to include some of my Queen's Guard ribbon (Berisfords Ribbons - The Best Of British Art 13605 Soldiers) and a strip of Alice in Wonderland cotton twill ribbon too.

The strip of Alice ribbon was given to me by Dee, one of my Late Night Sewing students,

she's used it in my classes to make tea cosies for a couple of her friends and she gave me this piece.  This seemed like the perfect time to use it, thanks Dee xxx

Here's a look at one of Dee's tea cosies too, isn't it fab?

 Back to making the block, here we go, step by step:

I cut the image into sections - I'm not going to use the lid handle so I didn't cut that bit out;

I transferred each section onto the paper side of the Pellon Wonder Under fusible web Emily provided being sure to draw the pieces back to front so the final applique will come out the correct way round;

I pressed each piece of Wonder Under on to the appropriate fabrics

and cut the pieces out.

Emily asked for a 9.5" block so I placed the pieces under a 9.5" square ruler to see how best to lay them out.  I'm opting for a blown apart design, having gaps between each section leaves the background fabric visible and pulls the colours together more.

With the placement decided I marked the outline of the block and the pieces on the green background fabric using a FriXion pen that'll disappear with the heat of the iron then peeled the backing paper from each piece and pressed to fix them in place.  (Be sure to test any marking pen first on a scrap of fabric first to be certain it will 'disappear' from your project - also note that FriXion pen marks are known to 'reappear' in cold temperatures.)

Before fixing the teapot lid I sewed the looped piece of Soldier ribbon in place as the handle.

With everything ironed and permanently fixed in place I freemotion scribble-stitched two or three times around the pieces and within minutes it was all done.

 I love, love, love how easy raw edge applique is and if you're interested in learning more click through to any of my other applique tutes below:

And photos of that finished block

  with a closer look at the scribble stitching,

and the tea pot lid/handle

and a peep at the back.

I've put so much of me and my home country into creating this block, I do hope Emily loves it as much as I do.

And now I think it's time for a well earned cup of tea x

Clicking on a image will take you to a new page of crafty goodness :)
 

     

Creating and Adding Applique to the Children of Israel Block

Using iron-on adhesive transfer web to attach applique to block

To follow on with my idea to include an image of Moses as part of the block, I quickly sketched out a basket and bullrush design slightly smaller than the central square of the block.  Next I selected my fabric, obviously something to represent basketweave would be good and in my stash I found this wonderful Quilter's Linen by Robert Kaufman.  I used two shades, beige and taupe - the darker shade will create depth and shadow for inside the basket.

Basket pieces cut out and ready to attach to block

Using an English product called Bondaweb (I think it's called Wonder Under in America) I ironed the adhesive transfer web to the two fabrics.  Next I cut out my basket design and drew around it onto the Bondaweb paper backing.  I cut the basket sections out of the fabric, removed the backing paper and ironed them onto the central square block.

Appliqued basket with free machine stitched outline

Using a zigzag stitch I appliqued the basket onto the central fabric square.  Once this was done I sketched bullrushes onto the fabric using an air erasing pen - as long as I don't iron over my sketched lines before they disappear then the pen will be gone from the fabric over the next couple of hours.

Close up detail of central square

I lowered the feed dogs on my machine and free motion stitched over the sketched lines using different coloured threads.  I used a different colour bobbin thread to add more textural detail as this lifts through from the back of the fabric depending on the tension used.  Finally I filled in the outline of the bullrushes again using a different colour to add more detail.






TIP: I haven't appliqued within a block before and what I've learnt from this is that it would be better to do the sewing and applique onto the fabric before cutting it to size for the block.  The heavy stitching pulls the fabric in slightly and, as we all know, every 1/8" counts when you're patchworking so now I'll have to do scant 1/4" seams to make up the difference.  Cutting the square after appliqueing would mean you could cut the square accurately to size.

And here's the finished square within its block

Finished applique and free motion stitching

Well it's time to walk the dog now, she's been quite neglected today as I've been so engrossed in creating this block so I'll sew it together tomorrow.


Other related posts about my 'Children of Israel' block:
My First Quilting Bee
Children of Israel 12" Quilting Block
A Very Wet Tuesday