Block of the Month 14—Apple

Thank you for your interest in our Flora and Fauna blocks! They are no longer free but will be part of a future quilt pattern.

What a spectacular autumn we have had here in Germany—warm temperatures, sunny skies, and loaded apple trees! Although we haven't had much rain, the orchard we walk in was full of every shape, size, and color of apple that I have ever seen. 

The dogs and I walk in this area every single day rain or shine. One time, a kind gentleman gave me a bag of apples from his tree. It was a little challenging getting home with two, large dogs and about 5lbs of apples, but it was worth it. There was no question that the apple would make it into our free block of the month series.

Cotton Block

When I decided to do the apple, I remembered a particular fabric at my friend Birgit's shop. I knew it would make the perfect apple. The green is a Van Gogh inspired fabric that has many colors, but the yellow-green section was just the right shade

The name of my perfect apple fabric.

Before I back-basted the apple, I cut out two pieces of thin batting—one slightly smaller than the apple and then another piece about a quarter inch smaller than the first piece. I positioned those in place with a little dab of a glue stick and then proceeded to back-baste the apple. Make sure that the batting is thin so that the apple doesn't draw in the background too much. I fussy cut the fabric so that the little bit of yellow would be near the top right giving the illusion of a highlight.

Batting pieces cut out.

Fussy cut apple ready to appliqué,

Appliqué finished.

The embroidery consisted of straight, stem, and chain stitches. At the base of the apple, I made 3 straight stitches vertically and one tiny, tight one horizontally to draw in the bottom to give it some depth. With the same perle cotton, I chain stitched the stem using 3 chain stitches and then I brought my needle up through the second chain stitch from the bottom and made two more chain stitches next to the previous ones. A straight stitch over the top and the stem was finished.The leaves were done with embroidery floss and a stem stitch.

A tiny, tight, stitch at the top of the three straight stitches
draws the fabric in at that point.

Stem close-up

One strand of floss for the leaf veins.

Two strands of floss for the main leaf vein and stems.

The finished block!

Stitches and Threads Used (Cotton Block)

Leaves—Gentle Arts, Green With Envy, floss, stem stitch

Stems—Painters Threads, Friedrich, #5 perle, chain stitch and straight stitch

Wool Block

During my "Quilty Visit to Rothenburg", I bought a large bag of wool knit scraps from a fashion designer there and one of the red scraps was perfect for my wool apple. It's a little fuzzy which I thought would give the apple an interesting texture—not that I would want to eat a fuzzy apple!

As always, I glued my patten pieces to freezer paper and then cut them out. Then I ironed them onto the wool and cut those pieces out and stapled them in place on my background. Using a matching thread, I stitched them down. I did not pad the wool apple because the wool I used was already dimensional.

Ready to stitch.

Ready for embroidery.

The embroidery stitches are exactly the same for the wool block as the cotton.  I used the same #5 perle cotton and a more olive shade of green floss.

The finished wool apple!

Stitches and Threads Used (Wool Block)

Leaves—Weeks Dyeworks, Moss, floss, stem stitch

Stems—Painters Threads, Friedrich, #5 perle, chain stitch and straight stitch

This has been one of my favorite blocks to create, mainly because I love it when the fabrics and threads come together to make something very realistic to the original. I also think, for me, apples are one of the best parts of fall—the colors, the smell, apple pie, cider, just to name a few. Hopefully you will enjoy stitching this block too!

Only two more blocks to go until the big reveal of all the blocks put together!!

Back-Basted Basket Weaving

In November, I (Teri) taught a workshop for the Baltimore Appliqué Society on this lovely flower basket block, made by Mildred Tahara. I wrote about this stunning quilt in the post, In Praise of Jane Austen: An Album Quilt, including close-up shots of the blocks Mildred made that will be BAS workshops. Elly Sienkiewicz designed the patterns Mildred used.

As I began stitching my model, I pondered the basket. My favorite appliqué method is back-basting, so I knew that would be how I'd construct my basket. I studied the baskets on both Elly's and Mildred's models. (Elly was kind enough to loan me her block.) When Elly first made the block, she used a solid piece of fabric and used reverse appliqué.

Basket, reverse appliquéd by Elly Sienkiewicz
What a perfect fabric for the basket!

Mildred also reverse appliquéd the basket with a single piece of fabric, but then she appliquéd the rectangles of white on top of it to give the basket an open look.

Basket appliquéd by Mildred Tahara

Since I was using Mildred's quilt as my teaching model, I wanted the basket to have the same look; however, I don't think I have the patience that Mildred must have, because I couldn't imagine me trying to appliqué all those skinny rectangles. So I decided to "weave" my basket, using the back-basting method. Here's what I did.

First, I marked every other spoke on the back, and basted them, using one piece of fabric. I then trimmed and appliquéd each of the spokes.

Next, I basted the cross-bar on top of those spokes, trimmed, and appliquéd it.

Here is the back of the piece, where the basket is marked. Note the light marked lines in the stitched spokes, which helped me place the first alternating spokes. Here, I am basting the remaining alternating spokes

The basting lines are marked on the outside of the spokes, so that when they are trimmed and the basting stitches are removed one at a time, the marked lines are my turning lines. 

As I stitched these spokes on top of the previous spokes and cross-bar, I got the illusion of having woven the basket fabric. But all I had to do was stitch straight lines...easy peasy!!

After the inside of the basket was finished, I basted one large piece of fabric over the entire basket design—the inside and the outside edges. I marked the basting lines with my white pencil.

First I trimmed—very carefully—along the inside edges and reverse appliquéd the inside of the basket.

After the inside was reverse appliquéd, I appliquéd around the outside edge of the basket, removing just a few basting stitches at a time, not more than an inch or so ahead of my appliqué stitches. 

You can see the woven look that is achieved.

And here is my finished basket!

I am nearly finished with the block. I just have a few flowers remaining to create and stitch. I will be teaching the second part of the this block in January, at which point I will share my version with you. It has been great fun to stitch this Flower Basket, inspired by both Elly and Mildred. 

There are many ways to stitch a basket. How might you go about weaving an appliquéd basket?

Aloha from Germany!

Since arriving in Germany this past June, I (Kara) have jumped into a number of quilt guilds and groups. One group that I have joined is called the Baltimore Beauties. Many of the ladies there were once a part of a group that made a Baltimore Album quilt based on Mimi Dietrich's patterns; thus the name. The group has stuck together and now meets monthly to quilt, knit, or just to help develop their skills in English or German. Most of the ladies are German, but the love of quilting overcomes any language barriers. Their English is hands-down, way better than my German, and they graciously correct my inept pronunciations. Their willingness to teach even extends to cooking, as one of the ladies is going to teach a few of us how to make spaetzle, the traditional Swabian way.

Spaetzle: A staple around here. Click here for the recipe

On my very first visit to this group, Daniela, the organizer, mentioned that one of the local museums in Stuttgart was going to be presenting an exhibit about Hawaii. Somehow the idea of a sew-in of Hawaiian quilts was brought up, and our group was asked to stitch Hawaiian quilt blocks at the museum. Many agreed to participate, so for the next few months, we prepped and started our blocks. I purchased a few books with patterns; Amazon had a great deal on three books which I rationalized gave me more blocks to choose from! I chose to back-baste my block instead of constructing it in the traditional, Hawaiian way and found that it was the perfect method for this style of appliqué.

Three for $20! How could I pass it up?

The front.

The back.

A quarter of the way finished

As you can see, I haven't finished my block yet, but I needed something to stitch on for the sew-in (that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it). I forgot how much I enjoyed needle-turning batik fabric. Unfortunately, that block has been relegated down on the priority list, but I will finish it.

At the exhibit entrance.

Our sew-in day was November 29, and before we sat down to stitch, we were able to get a private tour with the curator of the exhibit. The items in the exhibit were gathered from all parts of the world, and surprisingly, most of the collections came from other European countries. 

The curator explaining how this particular textile was made.

The focus of the exhibit was about the tumultuous history of Hawaii and its colonization, so there was only one quilt in the exhibit; not in the traditional style, but made to share a political opinion. Of course, I was most interested in the textiles, so that is primarily what I will show you here.

A quilt made about the British rule.

A traditional kapa cloth made  of bark fibers

Kapa cloth detail

Most kapa cloth was used for clothing; the plain for the common man
and the patterned for the high-ranking families.

Kapa was also used for blankets.

Kapa was traditionally made by women using the fibres
of the wauke or Paper Mulberry. 

Since the 1980s, the forgotten tradition of making kapa
has been revived as a part of Hawaiian, textile. artistry.

Other textiles in this exhibit involved feathers—and a lot of them! The feathered cloaks and headdresses were considered sacred and worn as symbols of power.

a

All made of feathers attached to a web-like structure.

A close up of the feathers.

More feathered detail

This feathered cloak and helmet were designed to protect the head and spine,
which were thought to be sacred.

Helmet detail

"My! What big teeth you have!"

After our tour of these amazing artifacts, it was our turn to sit and stitch.  We had quite a few visitors stop by to watch us as we needle-turned our blocks. A couple of our ladies had already finished their blocks and were beginning to quilt them.

German and American quilters stitching Hawaiian appliqué!
You can't make this stuff up!

Beautiful, bright, tropical, colors!

We all had such a lovely time, and it was a wonderful opportunity on so many levels. It was so kind of the museum to invite us to share our appliqué passion with the museum goers. Have you tried Hawaiian appliqué? If so, we'd love to hear about your experience. 

Until next time, Aloha!