Process in pictures

Yesterday Mrs. Furui and Mrs. Ochiai and I had an "advance class" patchwork day.  Just the three of us.

It all started a couple of months ago when Mrs. Furui showed us the cover of one of her Keepsake catalogs.  A McKenna Design quilt.

"Isn't that the cutest Christmas quilt?  It is really one block of a set of 6."

Mrs. Ochiai jumped at the magazine and declared that she wanted to make the quilt.  Wait... with more browsing she decided she wanted to make one of the other blocks...the larger size Santa Claus quilt.  The cost was a bit of a deterrent and Mrs. Ochiai considered buying just the pattern and trying to choose fabrics herself.

"Impossible!  The quilt is pretty because of the fabrics...  Trying to trace patterns and apply fusible backing and cut out all the little pieces will burn you out.  Go for the kit."

We convinced Mrs. Ochiai to buy the KIT if Mrs. Furui and I would make a block each ourselves...  It might be kind of fun to work jointly and get three mini quilts made.  (And in the end Mrs. Furui ordered 4 kits... no claim to the last one yet.)

Well, the kits have been coming in separate parcels... and we have had an issue with missing fabric that we are still conferring with Keepsake magazine about.  But yesterday we started with one of the complete kits...  Actually the first one that we had seen on the catalog cover...  Mrs. Furui will be the final owner of this quilt.

Following, is a step-by-step process in pictures.

The pattern comes numbered.  Can you see tracing all those pieces onto fabric and then cutting them all out?

We were very pleased with the fabrics used. 

In the kit, the pieces already have fusible backing and are pre-cut.

Still... it took a bit of figuring and placing and ironing together.

Small scissors, a pick and a few tweezers came in handy.

Wait a minute... Do we know what we are doing?

We made the parts and then placed them on the background fabric.

Oh my!  Isn't that pretty!

Next apply the border.

 And add the ribbon frame.

 Then photograph!

So.  One flimsy is made!  And what fun we had!

BUT WAIT!!!  That was the easy part!!!!  Now someone has to machine applique this down!!!!

"Um..  I don't think I can do that."

"Mrs. Furui.  This is YOUR quilt.  You have to sew it all down."

Actually Mrs. Furui and Mrs. Ochiai have never done machine freehand applique.  I've done it once or twice.

PLEA FOR HELP!!!!!  Has anyone ever done one of these McKenna applique kits?  Please send advice!!!  Or give encouragement!

We have three more kits to go and don't want to end up with 4 expensive flimsys sitting in a closet.  Is this going to need a stabilizer on the back?  (The kit doesn't mention stabilizer.)  Do we use monofiliment thread for the applique?  (Oh dear... and a blog friend had just given me advice on using Superior threads and needles.)

If the missing fabric comes in Mrs. Furui, Mrs. Ochiai and I are meeting next Friday too to work on another kit...