Autumn Love Blocks in Black and White
If you've been following this blog lately, you'll know I've been participating in some fun Sew Alongs. These 2 blocks are from Week 8 of Lori Holt's Autumn Love Sew Along. Lori is known for her cute and colorful applique quilts and her latest quilt and fabric collection celebrate all things autumn. Don't you love the pattern?
Here's a closer look at the 2 blocks that Lori made using her Autumn Love collection by Riley Blake Designs.
Mine will be different only in color and pattern. I'm inspired by the neutral color palette of the Rustic Farmhouse decor style. It suits my small house and minimalist philosophy. Here is my inspiration collage (see my board on Pinterest) for my take on the Autumn Love blocks.
With black and white in mind I dug into my stash of PANDA LOVE fabrics and found this lovely selection.
The last time I used the appliqué technique, I tried Lori's method using lightweight interfacing to turn your appliqué pieces, but this time I thought I would try the raw edge method using the iron-on adhesive HeatnBond "Lite". I was inspired by Bev at Flamingo Toes and her version of the Week 3 Block. I love the way she used the black thread lines to frame the pieced fabrics.
To make the process easy, Lori designed "Simple Shapes" to go with the Autumn Love sew along. Just trace the shapes onto your fabric or interfacing and cut them out. Easy Peasy!
Choose the shapes you're going to use for your block and trace onto the paper side of HeatnBond Adhesive. Check the pattern to see how many of each shape to trace. I traced 4 of the Maple Leaf (F-12) shape. Loosely cut around the pen line making sure to have about 1/4" excess paper all around. Helpful Tip: To reduce stiffness when the project is finished (sometimes multiple layered shapes are on top of each other), I cut out the middle area (see below) before ironing onto the back side of fabric. Follow directions on package to press the adhesive to fabric and then cut along solid pen line to reveal the finished shape.
After all your fabric shapes are cut out, cut a background square about an inch larger than the finished trim size (the appliqué method generally causes the total work to shrink or warp a little). After appliqué you can square up the block to 10 1/2". Fold the background fabric in half and in half again and press to create fold lines that we'll use as guides for placement of the shapes. You could also fold on the diagonal but I chose to use an erasable pen to make diagonal lines.
When you're happy with your placement, you can start pressing the pieces to the background. For the pieces that have 2 or 3 layers, make sure to fuse the top layers before ironing the pieced element to the background.
With all the pieces fused to the background you can think about how you'll sew the edges. Zig-zag stitch is nice or hand sewing but I wanted to try the thread drawing. You may not need to draw first with an erasable pen like I did here, but because this was my first time trying it, I thought I needed the extra help. I'm sure it would be easier with a lighter colored fabric but in the end, I'm happy with the results and I'd like to try more projects with this method. I like the hand drawn look of it!
Here is my finished Maple Leaf block (before trimming to 10 1/2").
And here is the Sunflower Block (using all the same steps in the method described above) and it also uses fabrics from our PANDA LOVE collection
Every week on her Blog, Lori posts a tutorial for a new block. Even if you can’t make the whole quilt there is lots of inspiration for cute Autumn projects. Happy Fall y’all!
If you can't find our PANDA LOVE fabrics at your local quilt shop, I've got you covered in our shop HERE