I’m busy working on Block 6 for My Tweets and I wanted to share a little time-saver with you. The flower petals in the pink flower are the same as the leaves! To make the leaves into petals just clip off one end of the leaf!
I will be back on Friday with the Block!
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Back when we were starting My Tweets I did some tutorials on how I did bird feathers. I think ( my memory isn’t what it once was) that I was using Templar in these. While I was making the bird for Block 6 I decided to try my double freezer paper technique and I have to say I liked it much better. When you use a double piece of freezer paper the template sticks to the back side of the fabric and it is very easy to press around all those tight curves. The downside is that these templates only hold up to a few presses before they get a little mushy ( they last longer if you use starch sparingly) Since these blocks have only one or two birds it works great however.
Just remember to reverse the pattern so your bird faces in the right direction. I did this by turning the pattern over and tracing that way.
Here are some shots. The pattern is stuck to the backside of the fabric.
It doesn’t move around so much when you are working on very tight curves. I like this because then I don’t have to use the “death grip” and my hands get less tired.
See, it comes out just fine!
Ooops! Here is a picture of the freezer paper I use. Just iron two sides together and trace away. I get it here.
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Florabunda Fabric Requirements found here.
If you are not paper piecing the sawtooth borders then 4 yards of blue should be good. If you are paper piecing then buy a little more. The requirement for white background fabric is 4.5 yards.
Hope that helps
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This is making me a little sad but here is Block 12. I hope everyone joins along next year for My Tweets, my 2011 BOM. Next week I will have the center block and the finishing directions all ready for you.
The pattern has two formats. The first is a full size pattern (12” square you can download here) that you can save to a USB drive and take to a copy place to have printed. The other is a ¼ size drawing (download here) that should print on a regular printer. You can make 4 copies of this one and tape it together for a full size pattern.
For all you who like to share pictures you can join our FLICKR group at
http://www.flickr.com/groups/florabuddies
Have Fun and Happy Friday…now I am off to sew my fingers to bloody stumps.
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I’m sorry this is a little late in coming. Here is the alternate colorway for Block 11.
I’m in the process of getting Block 12 together for everyone and it’s making me a little sad…to think that Florabunda is almost over.
I’m off to wrack my brains on challenge 3. I will post more on that later.
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As promised here is Florabunda Block 11.The pattern has two formats. The first is a full size pattern (12” square you can download here) that you can save to a USB drive and take to a copy place to have printed. The other is a ¼ size drawing (download here) that should print on a regular printer. You can make 4 copies of this one and tape it together for a full size pattern.
For all you who like to share pictures you can join our FLICKR group at
http://www.flickr.com/groups/florabuddies
Have Fun and
Happy Friday
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As promised here is Florabunda Block 10.The pattern has two formats. The first is a full size pattern (12” square you can download here) that you can save to a USB drive and take to a copy place to have printed. The other is a ¼ size drawing (download here) that should print on a regular printer. You can make 4 copies of this one and tape it together for a full size pattern.
For all you who like to share pictures you can join our FLICKR group at
http://www.flickr.com/groups/florabuddies
Have Fun and
Happy Friday
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Sometimes when I am doing a large amount of appliqué I need some good old fashioned piecing to balance things out. Maybe you feel the same way? If you do, here is a small tutorial on how I am doing the borders of my Florabunda blocks. You might have noticed from my preview pictures that each block in Florabunda has a sawtooth border. Since you need a set of these for each block now is a good time to start thinking about getting these sewn. If you have nine blocks done you probably have enough of an idea what looks good with your color scheme and can decide what fabric to use for your borders. As I mentioned before you will need about 4 yards.
A couple of months ago I did a tutorial on sawtooth borders where I showed how I make them using 1 ½” x 2 ½” rectangles. You can read about this method here. If you use this method each block will need 24 blue rectangles and 24 white rectangles. In addition to these you will also need four 1 ½” x 1 ½ “ in both blue and white.
If you have some familiarity with foundation piecing you can create your borders using this method. Here I have drawn the long and the short border on graph paper.
These drawings can be transferred to freezer paper (or you can just use your graph paper) to create the borders.
Using your preferred method, create two long and two short borders that look like these.
Now it’s time to cut my appliqué block to the proper size. My short borders are 1 ½” x 12 ½” so I can cut my block to this size using my square ruler.
After this is done I attach my short borders and press the seams toward the center.
Next I attach my long borders and press this seam to the center as well.
I plan to add these borders as time permits. You can add one to each block with out having to decide how you are going to sew it all together yet. I will wait until I have all my blocks done before I decide on the sewing order. Sometimes you just need to see how all the colors are playing with each other before you make a decision.
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As promised here is Florabunda Block 9.The pattern has two formats. The first is a full size pattern (12” square you can download here) that you can save to a USB drive and take to a copy place to have printed. The other is a ¼ size drawing (download here) that should print on a regular printer. You can make 4 copies of this one and tape it together for a full size pattern. This pattern is swirly so you will have to align the leaves that are cut off. I couldn’t figure out a nice way around this…sorry.
For all you who like to share pictures you can join our FLICKR group at
http://www.flickr.com/groups/florabuddies
And here is the alternative color scheme
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I know, I know...it's my third post of the day...maybe I have had a little TOO much caffiene.
The number one question I get asked here is about my fabric selections. For next years BOM I am using the "Happy" fabric line from Moda and Me and My Sister Designs. This fabric just came out so there is plenty available at The Fat Quarter Shop. I am also using some other fabrics from the same designers that coordinate well. To make things easy for those of you that want to use that fabric I have made a list of everything I have ordered so far. You can download it here. Unless otherwise noted I have ordered half yards.I will also be pulling fabric from my stash for this quilt but it will all coordinate with the Happy fabric. The purple I used for the birds in Miss Kelly (the BOM center block) is from Maywood Studio, it's one of thier Shadowplay fabrics and I can't find the number (sorry). I'm sure there are plenty of tone on tone purples that will work.
Another Note, if you are using Miss Kelly for the BOM you will need a larger background square than is stated in the pattern. A 34" square should work great.
I know this BOM isn't starting until January but I wanted people to get the fabric while it was still available.
Ok, OK I'll go away now. Maybe I should have a glass of wine instead of an iced tea.
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