I couldn't resist playing along with Barbara Brackman's 2020 Civil War BOM: Cassandra's Circle.
The Civil War history focus for this BOM is the diary of South Carolinian Mary Boykin Chestnut.
The BOM project itself will be a much larger quilt, including a large center medallion, and an appliquéd border.
I decided to stay with reproduction style fabrics for this year's BOM. Several years ago, I inadvertently purchased two identical fat quarter collections from Penny Rose Fabrics: Civil War Times. I decided to put them to use on this project - I should have plenty of fabric!
The January block, called Washington's Plume, is also the center medallion. After prepping all the pieces with the freezer paper/starch method, I used invisible stitch machine appliqué to attach the pieces. As much as I have learned to enjoy hand appliqué, I wanted to get the block finished by the end of the month!
The February block, Mulberry Wreath, was published last week. I have been contemplating how I can represent the leaves on the wreath using just my fat quarter fabrics, i. e. not adding any green fabric. Luckily, I just learned a new-to-me appliqué tip from @Red_Alfreda (Mary Jenkins) on Instagram.
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| Photocopied fabric |
Her tip was to photocopy fabric to help plan how to cut shapes for broderie perse appliqué. I figured the technique would work for auditioning appliqué shapes, too.
Now I can contemplate which fabric layout I like better before I even cut into my fabric!
