Linda, I love your color choices! Your block looks so warm and cheery!

Maggie in E Central Illinois, hard to believe it is August with night time temp in the low 60s :shock:

Linda, the crystals went on quite easily and give it a bit of sparkle.... much less stress and work!

Carla

I just posted my July BOM. Carla, I too am adding crystals in place of those smallest circles. I'm just waiting for mine to arrive via "snail" mail.

Yes, daffodils are my favorite flower and I have never seen them any color but yellow.

Sandy:
THanks for the Beth Ferrier tip, I will check it out. Your blocks look great as well, and I notice that you decided, as I did,, to make your daffodils yellow! I just wanted them yellow! I guess you did too!

Carla, great block! Love the crystals rather than the teeny circles!

Maggie in E. Central Illinois, who spent her 2 days off NOT in her sewing room, and not too happy about it

Steven, Your quilts and BOMs are great. Welcome to the group. You might check out Beth Ferrier's show. I believe it was in Series 2. She talked about a washable interfacing type material to use for as a pattern that when washed becomes a fiber and you don't have to take it out. I use it to do needleturn applique and it eliminated taking the paper out.

Florence, thanks so much for the back basting tip. I'm not really sure how to navigate the forum site here.....i was looking for 'back basting' on google and found a 'pictorial demonstration' but i'm not sure i really get what it is.... Hopefully I'll find that video you were mentioning. If you have any tips about how to find it, i'd appreciate it. Thanks again for your help.
Steven

I finally put July's block to bed.... thank goodness! Now, on to August. U can see my block in my blog:
[url]community/my-profile/Stinki[/url]

Carla

Steven if you're looking for less prep time take a look at back-basting... I think if you search forum topics you'll find a link to a site that has a good tutorial ( or just google) I started w/ freezer paper... I did an applique years ago like you're doing now & was happy w/ the results, but cutting the back makes me nervous! then I tried FP on top for January & Feb., then discovered back-basting and am hooked. the only thing I do at home is bias stems & circles, plus the original tracing of the design. VERY portable!
Florence

Lynn: I didn't realize they are all needle turn....I use the freezer paper on the BACK and then fold it over, then slice the background and take paper out. It's alot of prep, but it makes for really nice edges.....I'm hoping to get my tradittional needle turn to a level that makes nice edges.....because I know there's less prep time......anyway, for now that's my method.

Steven I want to learn the machine applique because I think it looks sharper and you can interpret a more complicated picture. I've been using many different techniques for my needle turn. On most of them I have sewn a lightweight interfacing and cut a little hole in the center back of the interfacing to turn the applique piece right side out and pressed flat. On the very long branches that have leaves attached that aren't separate, this is too hard. So I'm just now starting March's block and am going to use Margo's and Bridget's methods.

You said you used freezer paper. I think there are several different methods for using it. On the right side to draw around, then remove and do needle turn. Or inside, on the wrong side, when you are finger-folding it under around the freezer paper. Some people then cut the back of their background and pull out the freezer paper while others just pull it out before closing around the last side of the piece. But I consider all of those needle turn...........what exactly does needle turn mean to you, Stephen. Maybe we need a semantics discussion first, here!

Thanks for the very nice welcome everyone! Everyone's work is so impressive. Thanks Maggie, I will change my captions, oops forgot about that. Yes I do sew on the train, it really makes the time fly......
I've been using freezer paper for my BOM's I've not yet mastered needle-turn. I've heard needle turn is the 'preferred' method, can anyone weigh in on that? I took a class at the website Quilt University, which was informative and helpful for needleturn, but I'm still hoping to go to a 'live' class at my local quiltshop.....
Anyway thanks for the nice welcome ladies!