I've been working on a special quilt for a special little girl and in doing so, I created a new flower block for my BOW collection. In fact, I will be creating two new blocks but today I only have the first to show you.
The block I've created is a Gerbera - often and commonly known as African Daisies. They come in all sorts of variations and colors however I wanted to stick with shades of orange fabric for my sample.
I drew my design and then transferred it to fusible webbing. I cut the fusible apart and pressed it onto the back of my fabrics.
There looks like a lot of pieces there but that is enough to make two blocks.
I have to say, some of my favorite fabrics to use for my flower blocks are Hoffman Fabrics Crackers - these are their 1895 watercolors cut in 10" squares so you get a whole range of colors..... and I particularly love using Hoffman fabrics because of their quality and quality definitely is important when working with fusible webbing.
Hoffman Fabrics Cracker Pack - 10" squares
Tip: before cutting out each shape, I like to lift the paper backing a little. It makes it so much easier to remove the paper once the shape is cut out... but don't lift it right off otherwise you lose your cutting lines.
With all the pieces cut out, I can now use the layout plan to position them on the background square.
...And then it is time to start stitching - my favorite part.
I use free motion stitching for most applique work and I like to stitch around all the raw edges twice except when I do a free motion zigzag around the centers of the flowers like I did for this Gerbera.
With my block finished, I used some of the shapes to recreate the block for an alternative setting. This I made in shades of red
.....and I'm about to head off and stitch it!
If you would like to check out this pattern, it is now available on my website here: Gerbera Flower Block
