When I was doing more prep on my Baltimore blocks this afternoon, I decided to try out a technique that I have been reading about on Teresa's blog ..... you can find out more here and here. It's a very different way to use freezer paper to the one that I use, but as it looked quick and easy, I thought I would do a sample piece.
I started with a leaf-shaped piece of freezer paper ironed on to the RIGHT side of a scrap of fabric, a glue pen, cocktail stick, and an old ruler to work on (as suggested by Teresa, as it is easy to clean)
! put a line of glue along the edge - helpfully, the glue is blue so that you can see your line
I turned the seam allowance over, using the cocktail stick to smooth out the curves
For the next stage, I got out my box of cotton threads .....
...... a scrap of backing fabric, my favourite applique needles - and a vital piece of equipment, a needle threader!
I peeled the freezer paper off, pinned the leaf to the background fabric and started stitching
Then I encountered a small problem. I had too much glue on the ends of the leaves, making it difficult to make neat points. Once I had finished stitching, I washed the sample to remove the glue, and ironed it dry. Apart from the untidy points, I was pleased with the result. It is a quick way to prep the pieces, and I think I will use it for this quilt
Just after lunch, I heard a great deal of noise coming from the field across the road. I looked out to find Billy the Farmer trying to persuade these sheep to move in to the next field. As you can see, they weren't in any hurry to move!
A lot of the noise came from this little chap .... but he soon grew tired of trying to be sheepdog!