March | 2016 | Simple Bird Applique

Words can’t describe how much I enjoyed visiting England and Amsterdam. I loved England. It felt like I was in Canada, except for the wonderful accents and the whole driving on the wrong side of the road thing. We visited Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Liberty of London (of course!) and more than a few traditional British pubs. I especially loved Amsterdam and felt like I was in a completely different world. The language, the bikes, the floral arrangements everywhere, the history, the food and friendly people….

A day or two before we were to leave on our trip, I picked up the latest edition of Quiltmania No. 111. I figured it would give me something to read on the plane and in the hotel room.

As I was casually leafing through the magazine, I noticed Part 1 of a new mystery quilt called “Discovery”. (I am always up for a mystery!) I was intrigued. Then I noticed the pattern uses Dutch Heritage Fabrics. Again, I was intrigued.

And I thought it was a bit of a happy coincidence that we were going to Amsterdam and I might just have to see these Dutch Heritage Fabrics in person. The word “omen” popped into my head. I turned a few more pages and saw that the fabrics are available at these locations.

It didn’t take me long to hop onto Google Maps and find out that Den Haan & Wagenmakers was about a 10 minute drive from where we were staying. Can you feel the excitement building? Anyway, I went to the shop and was overwhelmed with the beautiful sample quilts and fabrics. Elsbeth was kind enough to show me the first part of the mystery quilt. That sold it for me. Long story short, I am now the proud and excited owner of the first installments of the mystery quilt using the Dutch Heritage Fabrics. I can’t wait to start!!

Even though I came home with these quilting goodies and so much inspiration, I promised myself before I even took the fabric out of the packages, I wanted to start Parts 1 and 2 of Hazel, a free BOM by Esther Aliu. Last year I bought these fabrics, and in hindsight I may have gone a little crazy. But, it was my birthday, I was in a quilt shop and the fabrics were on sale. On sale! I have been patiently waiting for the perfect project to come my way so I can start cutting this fabric up. Hello Hazel!!

I knew I wanted to fussy cut the fabrics for the star. I made a template and cut out 8 exact pieces.

When I trace my templates, I cut on the inside of that line, so that the fabric piece does not “grow”.

Whenever I stitch something together that has set in seams, I always take the time to draw on the 1/4″ seam allowance on all of the pieces.

So, next, I started to stitch the pieces together.

I always use a stiletto when I get to the end of the stitching line, just to keep things straight. This stiletto also has a flat surface on the end, which I used to flatten the seams, rather than an iron. Very handy and available on my website!