What a fantastically productive week this has been!

The goal was to finish the two smaller blocks for my BOM club and to sew the edges of the applique block I put together last week. Done and done!

The small Ohio Star block is the fifth one I’ve done so I’ve had plenty of practice with it. I’ll be doing three more by the end of year. I’m excited to see them all laid out together with the different colors.

This was only the second Shadow Blossom block that I’ve done. The first one I ended up hand stitching the applique pieces because the monofilament thread I was using kept getting stuck in the machine. It turns out the problem was because I was using the monofilament in the bobbin. I shouldn’t have done that because it kept messing with the tension. This time, I kept some white thread in the bobbin and it made a world of difference. There are a few sections where you can see the bobbin thread peaking through, but I figured out that only happened when the monofilament was getting too tight up top. Once I’d fix the block it would go back to staying beneath where it belongs. I’m not too worried about it because once I wash the finished quilt the appliqued pieces will curl under slightly and hide most of the stitches. I’m grateful I was able to practice on this smaller block so I was ready to stitch the larger applique block without these same issues.

Doesn’t it look beautiful? This has been my favorite block that I’ve finished for this quilt, which is funny because it was the one I was the most nervous about. It turns out I love applique. Which is fantastic because the Easter project I have in mind will utilize applique for part of it.

This week I also put together a ‘sandwich’ to use to practice my free style quilting. I also figured out how to put my free style quilting foot on my machine. I’m nervous to try this. I know that my first attempts will not look very good, I just wonder how long it’s going to take before I feel confident enough to attempt to quilt my black and red quilt. I’ll make sure I capture some pictures of my attempts as I try to get better at it. Just promise you won’t laugh at my pathetic designs and uneven stitches.