I'm back, sort of

Shortly after starting this blog, I was hit by a back injury that has kept me off of my feet, and my sewing machine, and my computer. I'm still off of my feet, but thanks to my newly-repaired laptop and a nifty spinal injection, I'm back! I won't be able to sew on my machine for a while yet, but I have slunk back to my knitting basket for crafty satisfaction. I had been so thoroughly seduced by sewing that I thoughtlessly cast aside my knitting about a year ago, and I forgot how wonderful my yarn stash is!

For March's quilt bee, before my back completely failed, I tried a new technique. The theme of the quilt was water, and Nikki chose some very beautiful batiks, which I've always been a little put off by, for some reason, but they were perfect for this design. The size of the blocks was a little awkward, 5"x35". I was inspired by a snakes-in-the-grass design to try my hand at freezer paper applique to make a water dragon. I drew my design onto the paper, ironed it to the pieced fabric, cut it to 1/4" around the paper.




After notching and ironing all the little flaps down, I was getting really frustrated with the result. One of my fellow bee-ers recommended using starch, so I mixed up a batch and applied it with a q-tip, and it worked like a charm. I'm now confident that I could applique just about anything. Unfortunately, I didn't take any close-ups of the finished piece, but it turned out quite well. The square looks a little rippled but it came out nice and flat in the finished quilt.