MCKENNA RYAN QUILT - BELLA GARDEN - BLOCK ONE - GARDEN PARTY

Santa has left me a beautiful BOM kit subscription to put together over the next few months.  It a McKenna Ryan Quilt called 'Bella Garden' and its gorgeous !!

 

Full Quilt Pattern

The kit comes complete with all the materials, patterns and instructions and I was very excited to receive the first one in the post.  After reading and re-reading the instructions, I  set about tracing, cutting and fusing onto the background material.  Thats easy, I thought.

BLOCK ONE



Some of the threads I purchaed to match the vibrant materials.

Then a girlfriend mentioned about the raw edge applique that I needed to do (blank look on my face) ...sure...no problems.  That was until I found out that every little bitty petal, flower bud, stem, butterfly wing, the list goes on, needed stitching and in different colours to boot !!  

Block One all fused and ready for sewing, oops one butterfly to add

How did I miss that instruction.  I thought that the fusing would be enough to hold everything together forever (how naive am I ??)

No point feeling sorry, I picked myself up off the floor and set to it.  I got into a rhythm and got my first leaf done, and as long as you dont look too close, its passable.  I have chosen to use the open-toe foot and a small stitch length,  rather than free-motion as I have more control this way. 

First flower stitched.....many more to go!

 

 

The best part of this whole exercise, is that I found people just like me who have started a McKenna Ryan Blog and now I'm part of the group.  We can all go through this life changing experience together and hopefully come through it with a heirloom masterpiece.

I'll keep you posted on each block but I'm not looking forward to the Wisteria in the second block, there must be at least 50 individual petals that will need applique! Phew thats a lot of eye-strain.