This block from Sue Garman’s “Friends of Baltimore” was staring at me from the design wall.  It was saying: “Finish me!  Finish me!”  So I did.

I had not gotten around to adding the section to the front of the book.  I was afraid it was going to be a little… fiddly. (Definition of fiddly: requiring close attention to detail : fussy; especially : requiring an annoying amount of close attention).  It was!

Here is what I did.  I ironed a piece of freezer paper to the back of the fabric that I was going to write “Album” on.  I did this so the fabric would not slip around while I was writing on it.

Using my light box, I traced the word “Album” with a permanent marker.

I traced the finished line with a Frixion marker, so that line would eventually disappear.

Bruin likes to pay close attention to the details!

Next, I took the freezer paper template and ironed it to the back of the fabric with the writing on it.  I used the line I drew with the Frixion marker to place the freezer paper template in the correct spot.

Once that was all done, I prepped the piece as usual.

Next, I prepped the beige piece…

….and here we go…An Officially Finished Block!

Til next time…

Kerry

Very wrong!  I had been wanting to start the next block of Sue Garman’s “Friend’s of Baltimore”.  Well!  I took one look at the block…and walked away!  It looked way too difficult.  Boy, was I wrong.

In fact, it was not difficult at all…almost a walk in the park!  Here is the freezer paper template. Yikes!

And here is the template ironed on to the wrong side of the fabric.  So far, so good!

I thought this is where it might get a bit dicey.  So instead of cutting out the entire design, I just cut a small portion and starched the seam allowance in place.

The next thing I knew, I was finished the inner part!

So I worked on the outer section until the whole piece was prepped!

I took a deep breath and removed the freezer paper…

And this tangled mess….

…turned in to this!

I would  like to thank the quilt gods for helping make this possible!!

Til next time…

Kerry

Believe it or not, I am working pretty steady on this block from Sue Garman’s “Friends of Baltimore”.  First, I made a flower and some leaves.

And then I did it all over again!

Then came a few more leaves and a stem.  (Just between you and me, the leaf on top of the blue handle is supposed to be under the blue handle.  Mum’s the word!)

Finally! Some red berries!

Sometimes I trace the pattern onto the background fabric with a Clover wash-out marker.  I use this method when it is  a simple design, like this one.  And by “simple”, I mean it does not have a lot of pieces!

The block I am currently working on is not complicated, there are just a lot(!) of pieces that must line up properly or the whole thing goes bad!  So for this block, I am using my light table.  Not only is it more accurate, I save tons of time not having to trace the design on the background fabric.

First I tape the pattern onto the light table.

Next, I place a background square on top of the pattern.  I always cut my backgrounds a good 2″-3″ bigger to allow for shrinkage.  I mark my corners so that I can re-position my block when I remove it from the light box.  I like to glue a few pieces on the background fabric, then I stitch the pieces in place, so I do a lot of re-positioning!

This rose was fun!  I like to build units off-block when I can.  I start with the very  “back” layer.

Then I add each layer…

…until I have built a rose!!

And it goes right about here!

Til next time….

Kerry