I’ve spent the better part of this week getting my next quilt up on the wall. You saw the background of one block last week. Today I put the applique pieces on it.

I began by pinning up small pieces of the different fabrics just to get an idea of how they might look. Once I was pretty sure I liked what I saw, I cut them out. I included their seam allowances and cut them out carefully with a 3/16″ seam allowance.

It’s really important to see the fabric cut to shape. That way you will have a much better idea of how your block will look after it has been stitched. I use the placement overlay to get these pieces in the correct position on the wall. I’ll post a photo soon showing the block without the overlay and with the vase cut and ready to sew.

I bought some special iris bulbs a couple of years ago. They bloom later than my other iris and are a pleasant surprise. They are that lovely shade of blue that is almost purple, but not quite.

We have new neighbors! The house they moved into has two bedrooms and around 1500 square feet. They unloaded three big UHauls into the house – I’m not sure how everything got squeezed in.

The zebra UHaul parked at the end of our alley caught my eye. In studying the photo I think what makes it more interesting is the pattern in the asphalt in front of it.

I just found this on YouTube. BroadwayWorld.com’s “Give Us Your Voice” Contest was in 2007 so you can see that I’m behind the times. Nick Pitera, the guy in this video, didn’t win but he’s fascinating to watch. How does he sound so much like Ariel?

Many of you know that I wear a lot of green, but I don’t always wear green. Elizabeth Sweetheart does! I am a regular reader of Joanna Goddard’s design blog and somehow I missed her post from February 2008. In it she refers us to an article she wrote for New York Magazine about New Yorkers who dress in monochrome.

Like all quilters, I love color. In fact, I love color so much that I can’t choose just one favorite color. How did these folks choose just one color!? I could not do that – but I do admit that it makes for a lovely closet. I’ll bet their drawers are fun to look at too.

The background in an applique block is the “negative space” that surrounds applique. You don’t want your negative space to overshadow the “positive space” – you want it to enhance the applique.

Our next book is titled Applique Outside the Lines. It’s all about constructing a quilt with freer lines. Imagine a line drawn with a soft pencil on paper, without a ruler. That line has a flowing quality that a ruler-straight line does not. We want to capture that flowing line in our quilts.

Most piecing is comprised of pieces that are cut with rulers. The sewn lines are very straight, very exact. Take away the ruler and you can cut flowing lines using a rotary cutter. The key is to not use a ruler. You’ll learn a whole lot more about this in the book when it comes out in July or August.

Linda and I put a lot of interesting backgrounds behind our applique – it’s part of the signature Piece O’ Cake look. In Applique Outside the Lines the backgrounds are scrappy and constructed without rulers. I’m constructing the backgrounds for my new quilt the same way. I’ll show you pictures of this block as it progresses over the next week or two.