Good Morning, Quilters!
Hand applique is a perfect project when you want to enjoy the weather AND quilting!
I designed the Rose and Dot block to honor my grandmother, Rose and my mother, Dorothy for the Splendid Sampler 2 Book. Many of you were able to download the block during Martingale’s promotion. If not, The Rose and Dot block is one of the fabulous six-inch blocks available in the Splendid Sampler 2 book.
It’s really a great book and a great way to learn a variety of machine and hand applique, as well as machine piecing techniques!
Preparing the Blocks
To get the hand applique blocks ready to travel, I machine stitched the center seam in the background of several blocks.
Then I cut out all of the circles and leaves.
I cut out lightweight batting circles, slightly smaller than the large circle. Batting gives the flowers more volume. (Don’t skip this step!)
And I made several lengths of stem using the 1/2 inch Clover bias tape maker. I have the whole set, but I use the 1/2 inch size the most.
Simple Block Board
I covered a 15 inch square of foam board (similar to this)with scraps of lightweight batting. It’s a great way to store blocks and a great way to keep the pieces in one place. Make a stack of these–they come in very handy!
Add Basic Supplies
Now all I need are a few basic sewing supplies: thread, scissors and a thimble and I am ready to machine applique outdoors, indoors, in the car….
I can’t wait to start stitching!
What about YOU?
Do YOU have a portable quilting project?
When is the last time YOU quilted on your patio or while traveling?
Do YOU love or hate hand applique (there doesn’t seem to be a middle ground-LOL)?
We’d LOVE to hear!
More Rose and Dot Blocks
You might enjoy seeing a few other colorways of the Rose and Dot block HERE
and HERE
Happy Hand Stitching!
Lori
PS…All tutorials, images and information are the property of Lori Kennedy Quilts and are intended for personal use only. Feel free to re-blog, pin or share with attribution to LKQ. For all other purposes, please contact me at Lori@LoriKennedyQuilts.com. Thanks!
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Signed copies of my books are available at LoriKennedyShop
18 comments
Kathie
Currently I’m making a wall hanging of a peacock. The feathers need something special for the “eyes” so while taking a 10 hour drive to visit friends from high school, I embroidered some of them on tulle. Once I bling them up a little with beads, I’ll needle turn them onto the feathers on the piece. My arthritis is protesting, but in the end, the work will make the piece 10x more special.
Chela's Colchas y Mas
I have not been brave enough to try hand applique. It is on my list of things I want to learn.
Rosemary B
Lori, I live in Northern Virginia and this place is HOT
I do love your handsewing and I enjoy taking a project with me in a cute little plastic box
I take it to daddy’s doctor appointments, so I am listening but letting the doctor and daddy talk to each other. I am just a fly in the room haha
I do english paper piecing, just little hexies and I make little flowers and sew them to quilt tops or other things. It is just nice hand sewing that I enjoy
Every other applique I engage in goes right under my presser foot
I adore your project
Lynne
I always found “passenger time” to be empty time that I filled with a number of things: proofreading, grading papers, knitting, hand applique, or reading to my husband. Now my husband has dementia, so I have to drive wherever we go (which is not far these days). I fill the empty time of watching television with the same things except for reading to my husband. He likes to watch programs that I don’t so I sometimes read during them.
Life makes changes for us when we aren’t watching.
Suzanne
My heart goes out to you Lynne. Dementia can be very difficult to deal with in a loved on. I lost my mother to it and have perhaps some sense of what you’re going through.
Good luck and God bless
Lori Kennedy Quilts
I’m so sorry about your husband! Stitching can be very therapeutic for many of us!
Chris
I do a lot of hand quilting with wool and wish I could sit outside and work, but my bloodhounds make it difficult. Inside they know to leave me alone when working, outside not so much. And bloodhounds do drool. I generally drive as I can’t sew, knit or read in a moving vehicle. I envy people who can.
Sandy
Our quilting guild has a Quilter’s Happy Hour once monthly at a little “cafe” in the grocery store in summer and at the library during school the school year at which hand project work can be done. We started this to get together and to promote the guild. The other time I NEED hand work is on car trips back to Missouri to visit family. This is an eight-hour drive. Hubby does most of the driving and I just cannot waste this time when I could be quilting! I have invented projects just to keep busy on those drives! Currently my favorite thing to do is preparing EPP hexagons. Someday I have a quilt made of those hexagons!
Linda St Andre
I love this idea to bring guild members together during the month for an “extra”! I started EPP last year and it would be a great time to work on my pieces.
Susan
I don’t bother with portable hand-stitching projects anymore. I find I never have time to really get into them. I do 99.9% of the driving on most trips and with all the activities that are planned it hasn’t bee feasible.
Lucy Blum
Love this block! I made it during the Splendid Sampler 2 quilt along. Love the idea of prepping pieces for a portable hand stitching project!
Louise
Hi Lori. I usually try to save my binding projects for travel. I fold larger quilts in thirds so I can reach the ends better and unfold in a roll as I go along. I love the flower idea you shared. L
Marta
We travel regularly twice a month..I save hand work for those trips. It has been made easier by a kit I made up. Denim on one side for stiffness and cotton on other side of a rectangle with velcro closure. It holds small scissors, Frixion pens, tweezers, small empty zip lock bag for “trash threads” and TaDa: most important, my seam ripper. Fingers are not so nimble anymore for applique work by hand, so ripping it is !!
Sue
I always have a hand project for trips, appointments, TV watching, etc. And it’s so relaxing to be outside on a nice day with something to work on. I can’t be away from stitching!!!
Jackie
I love to appliqué but as the eyes go it becomes so much more difficult to travel with it so I have gone to traveling with my knitting.
Becky Shaffer
I’m glad that you’ve found a way to quilt and enjoy the great outdoors, but handwork is just not for me. The only thing I do by hand is turn on my Bernina. Your project looks beautiful!
Suzanne
I’m with you Becky; I do almost no quilting by hand other than turn on my Brother machine. When it comes to applique, it’s machine only! And forget embroidery – I don’t even do that by machine, let alone by hand – yuck!
The only hand sewing I ever do is when making a dress, blouse or whatever. To me, it’s different (dunno why) and I don’t mind tacking down a facing, hand stitching a hem, or even hand-picking a zipper.
Bette
Becky, your comment made me laugh out loud.
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