Applique Project

Winsome Baby was one of the first Nancy Halvorsen books I ever bought.  Though I have bought a number of her books since I have never actually sewn anything from one of them and I thought maybe it was time to start.

I've been home sick for a few days and I'm finally feeling well enough to sit up so I wanted to spend part of the day sewing.  My sewing room was a disaster so I literally pushed everything off to the side and picked up the book.

Some fusible web and a stack of pretty pastel fabrics and I was ready to roll.  Well that, and a good audiobook. (Right now I'm listening to Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin.)

I picked the announcement wall hanging pictured on the front of the book because it is just so sweet; "we made a wish and you came true"

I started by picking fabrics and laying out the base for the front. (The inside border is very tiny, 3/4" cut and only 1/4" once sewn.)  Then I sandwiched the layers together with a little bit of basting spray and started the hard part.

The pattern is meant to have the baby's detailed stitched on before it is put together but I don't know who I'm making it for yet so I will just do that later.  

Then I traced and cut out tons of tiny little pieces and started appliqueing them on.  

I used a blanket stitch in matching thread to go around every piece, starting with the bottom shapes like the branch and working my way up.  The little flowers and hearts took ages because I'm so darn picky!

Now all that's left is to hand embroider the saying and finish it off.  That and decide who it's for...

This is one of my first applique projects and overall I'm quite happy with it so far.  Nancy Halvorsen's books are just SEW beautiful and I'm happy that I'm finally trying one of the projects.  

I suspect you will be seeing more of then as I work to complete my 50 projects.  

happy sewing!
~KT