WIP Wednesday & giveaway winners

Greetings folks!  Its a beautiful day here :)  I am finally caught up on my backlog of things that I couldn't do last week because I didn't have internet, and my desk is slowly being unpacked and organized :)

Unfortunately I haven't done much sewing since I've been so busy at work, but I did finally get started on my Penny Sampler.  The first month's lessons are applique blocks.  I had the impression that applique was going to be difficult, but it's super easy :)  Roxanne's glue baste really does make the job easier.

Rachel introduced us to two applique methods -- stitch and turn (which I am using for my Dogwood Blossoms), and freezer paper.  These blocks were made with the freezer paper method.  It was much easier than I anticipated.  I even made my own liquid starch to use instead of paying $12 for Best Press at my Local Quilt shop.

heart quartet block, sketch stitch applique

 I really love my heart quartet block.  I think there is going to be quite a bit of DS fabrics sneaking their way into my quilt :)

sketch stitch close-up

It took me several tries to get the hang of the sketch stitch.  And my machine did not like the iron on stabilizer even though I was using a brand new needle.  So I opted to skip the stabilizer and just take it slow around the curves.  I didn't really like it at first, but I think it's growing on me now.

Single heart block, sketch stitch applique

 I opted for a little bolder of a look for the single heart since it's all by it's lonesome in the bottom of the finished quilt.  I actually did this block after the heart quartet, so the sketch stitch turned out better.

Mitten Block, blanket stitch applique

I opted for a blanket stitch for the mitten after seeing Laura's adorable block :)  You can see my mistake in tracing the template around the thumb where I almost cut the block out backwards... This is why you measure (read) twice, cut once right...

And here are the blocks in the quilt so far.  I saw people doing a grid for Tula Pink's city sampler, so I decided to try it for this too :)

I'm going to try to catch up with the rest of the blocks this week.  I'm a week and a half (7 blocks) behind right now, and the little village promises to be time consuming.



And now for the my Sunday Funday Giveaway winners:

Congratulations to
Amy @ Amy's Crafty Snenanigans who gets the FMF charm pack, and Jody Polen who gets the Croquet FQ bundle :)

Thank you all for stopping by and commenting!