Raconteur - applique

 I have been writing up my patterns for Raconteur and have been working on the applique patterns lately so I thought that I would share some of the blocks with you.  There wasn't much choice in what to feature here as I have only five applique blocks in the entire quilt.  Not bad considering there are 363 blocks altogether.  

I initially intended that there would be no applique apart form one by Merelyn.... a common held belief is that if a quilt doesn't have applique then it can't succeed at various quilt shows.  Applique has never been a technique which I enjoyed and so I seldom use it.  Merelyn was happy to make a block for me.  Can you guess which one she did?

Ok so it really is a no brainer... the star within the heart is my usual applique... fused and machined.  The travelling moons are my second kind of applique... a bit puffy and almost smooth.

 

Merelyn never does applique like this due to the fact that she always has points which are pointy, curves which are smooth and so little seam allowance that when you handle the fabric it feels as though there is only one layer of fabric... and she hadn't cut away the backing fabric... plus you can't see her stitches.  

No wonder she wins all of the competitions and everyone wants to learn from her.  

Mind you I still think my idea was the best... get her to actually make the block. I am positive my eyesight would go before I would have the hand skills to even pretend to be pretender!

Oh by the way the size of the blocks in Raconteur are only 2.25in AFTER the border has been added. This may not seem too small, particularly with applique blocks but wait until I upload some of the pieced blocks.