Becky's Blocks.
How does she do it?
Becky's Block #2 has a star with blue sunflowers fussy-cut to rotate around the center.
The print is Fritillary from Morris Earthly Paradise.
We printed #8334 in four colorways
The print may look more like a sunfower (I do love the checkerboard center on that big sunflower)
but Morris sometimes named his prints after a minor flower in the garden.
The Victoria and Albert Museum has updated their website and I notice their splash photo makes use of the fritillary (the bellflower in the background) rather than the sunflower. They own samples of the design, originally a Morris-designed wallpaper, perhaps from 1885.
The fritillary is a rather rare plant (Fritillaria meleagris ) that likes a boggy English soil. Other names include Snake's head fritillary, Checkered lily and Chess flower.
Fritillaria meleagris, W. Curtis, Flora Londinensis, 1777.
Do look up images of the flower as it looks like a checkerboard too. You can see why Morris combined the two blooms.
A detail. The scale is small in our repro print. It makes a good color texture
with directionality.
But let's go back to Becky's technique.
Here's how she stitched Block #5.
I watched Bettina make her models using traditional hand piecing, at which she is quite adept. I assumed Becky machine-pieced her models but she corrects me:
"NONE of mine are machine pieced - at this size is that even possible? I'm not that good! Just wanted to let you know that I don't sew those little pieces by machine. (Have never even tried.)"
She English-Paper-Pieced it.
(Dear Editor: I know that's not grammatical---
oops I forgot there is no editor.)
The seams show the whip stitching and open seams typical of EPP. She's removed the paper (freezer paper).
"Most of my blocks were done EPP using freezer paper (faster than basting the seam over). I print your patterns directly to freezer paper. Some of the blocks with fewer pieces were done with traditional hand piecing."
"Notice, I do nothing to the outer edge of the blocks."
In other words she doesn't glue/baste/iron those outer edges under.
Her technique:
"I print the block out on "the dull side of of 8-1/2 x 11" freezer paper sheet, which I order from C. Jenkins Company (see a link below). It's always nice to get just what you want delivered to your front door, and I use a lot of freezer sheets, especially with applique.
1. Cut the freezer paper pattern apart on the lines and you have all the pieces for the block. (I keep them in the same position after they are cut apart).
2. Cut your fabrics about 1/4" larger than the paper pieces (less on smaller pieces). With a hot dry iron, on a firm pressing surface, press the fabric edges onto the shiny side of the freezer papers and you are ready to start stitching them together - one block each week!"
2. Cut your fabrics about 1/4" larger than the paper pieces (less on smaller pieces). With a hot dry iron, on a firm pressing surface, press the fabric edges onto the shiny side of the freezer papers and you are ready to start stitching them together - one block each week!"
So you see she is not using any glue, but rather the heat-interactive side of the freezer paper to "baste" the edges under.
This is how I'd do it---if I did it. My job is to do the patterns---and challenge all of you.
Buy freezer paper for your printer:
See the Victoria & Albert Museum's new website: