A few days back, the Rosebud Quilt was discussed. Yesterday, I finally got down to business about piecing it. For days I've waivered between "traditional applique" or "fusible applique". The quilt was not going to get started, much less finished if I didn't make up my mind!
Plus, one rosebud or two per block?
Two is the more traditional setting for this Vintage Inspired design...so, finally after much consideration it will be two. I created an overlay on vellum to help me align the various applique parts.
Next, I needed to trace all of the different leaf, sepal, and bud shapes. Going with traditional applique...these would be traced to freezer paper. Going with fusible applique...these would be traced to double-sided fusible like Heat'n'Bond.
Considering that I already have a large traditional applique project underway...I decided to go with the fusible applique method. I'll be adding embroidery around each piece and extra for the stem and but accents.
The quilt will not have sashing between the blocks but will include outside border(s). I'm cutting the blocks 9-inches finished size. These will be set in eight columns of ten rows...for a total of 80 blocks in the quilt. So, doing the math...that's 960 small leaves, 160 sepals and 160 buds to applique. That's a LOT of tracing of shapes to fusible!
So, I'm taking a shortcut. My plan is to fuse the Heat'n'Bond to the fabric...then press these printable freezer paper sheets on top of that...and cut out. The paper will peel away along with the fusible backing paper when each piece is ready to go down. If you want to give this a try yourself, just trace one page of design...and copy this on to freezer paper sheets (purchase these from C&T Publications) made for a printer in standard 8.5 x 11.0 inch size. Works wonderfully!
If you are wondering, my tracings meant printing 12 pages of small leaves, and 8 pages each of sepal and buds. There will be a lot of pressing and cutting out this weekend...and into next week too perhaps! :)
A lot of work, and I can't imagine doing that much by hand. I'm glad I didn't live in a time when there was no choice! It's going to be so worth it, though.
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