Hive 1 - November - Tutorial - Jo

A few years ago, with Stash Bee - I did an Applique flower block and the results were fabulous!  (please excuse the wonky picture!)

So as it's getting to that "Seasonal time of year", and my favourite time of year - it has to be "Christmas" this time around!

So.......

You will need:

·                     Background Fabric:     A 12.5" square - that shows off your applique - I used a solid

·                     Christmas design:       Scraps of traditional Christmas colours - I used a mix of patterned and solids

·                      Applique method of your choice:  I used bondaweb and blanket stitch

·                     Threads:   Your choice

Basic instructions:

I don't want to patronise so will not labour these too much!

Only two rules:

• Finished block is 12.5" Square
• No "Wishy Washy" colours - bright traditional Christmas please - reds, golds, greens, blues, whites, creams etc - a chance to use all those lovely Christmas fabrics that we buy and then never get chance to use.

Example colours and pic of my Christmas stash box.

Now for the fun bit!

Christmas applique:

Feel free to applique in whichever method you feel most comfortable, i.e. turned edge, raw edge etc.

As we are not trying to turn this into a mammoth time frame, the raw edge method is by far the quickest!

If you aren't familiar with this, I've done a brief tutorial below:

•  Decide on a Christmas design – I Googled a few things for inspiration and have "Pinned" some onto a pinterest page if you need some inspiration:

• Stashbee - Pinterest

(Incase the link doesn't work:   https://www.pinterest.co.uk/twinkletoesuk/stashbee-christmas/)

• I decided on a Christmas pudding - so drew out something that looked representative

•  Select some fabric that will ensure this design stands out from your background - you really don't want all this work to be lost and disappear into the background.

• From this design, you transfer the individual elements to bondaweb – don’t forget the overlaps!!,  (don't forget to draw on the non-sticky side, and that you get the opposite of what you draw!)

•  Iron this onto the WRONG side of you fabric
• Cut out on the lines.  I use a large pair of scissors (if i can get a large scissor blade round a design i will definitely be able to stitch around it!)

• I use the Teflon sheet method to initially align.  Simply remove the backing and iron all the pieces onto a non-stick (baking) teflon sheet - EXACTLY how you want them to be. 

• Allow to cool, peel off as one “solid” design, position where you want the design on your background and re-iron in the final position (saves a lot of faffing with trying to get things in the right place!)

• As this is raw edge appliqué you need to stitch around.  How you do this is your choice.  A running stitch all around?  Blanket stitch?  Wide zigzag?  YOU decide!

• I love blanket stitch so I used that in different colours – feel free to have a play with different stitches

If you are not confident or worried about a wavy line - have a practise on some scraps. A few wonky stitched wings, really isn't an issue, BUT if you are really worried, leave this bit and I'll do this when I receive - but go on have a go!

Hopefully - you'll end up with something like this! 

I'm conscious this may be a bit too time consuming if you are not used to applique, so if it is taking up too much time, please just "adhere" to your background and I will do the stitching (that's the bit I really enjoy!!)

 Enjoy!  Any questions let me know!