Block One: Mrs Beasley's Sampler Quilt

What is the best thing to do when you can't sleep on a transatlantic flight? Sew of course!!

You may remember my post about cutting out and labelling up all the pieces for 'Mrs Beasley's Sampler Quilt'.  Well, during my recent flights to and from the USA, I was able to get quite a bit of stitching done.  Since getting home, I have finished block one of my version of 'Mrs Beasley's Sampler Quilt'.  This quilt pattern was designed by Leanne Beasley of Leanne's House and the instructions for all the cutting plus, piecing together the first block were published in issue 10 of Vignette magazine.

My version of block one differs in a few places from the original.  Several of the changes were intentional but one wasn't as I explain below.

The first difference (intentional) was that I used a fusible appliqué  method rather than the hand-turned method described.  This is simply because it is a method I am more familiar with.  I traced the appliqué shapes onto the fusible web backing paper using the pattern templates.  I then fused the shapes onto the back of the appropriate fabric pieces and cut them out.  These shapes were in turn fused into position on the block and finished off with a small, machine-sewn zig-zag stitch.

The second change I made (intentional) was to make my partial dresden plate using a ruler that I already had to hand rather than using paper piecing.  This was fine except that the resulting partial dresden plate didn't quite fit onto the background fabric.  I solved this by reducing the size of the partial dresden plate.  However, this left me with a bit of a gap in the top lefthand corner of the background fabric, so I filled it with an extra embroidered butterfly.  (I just reduced the pattern slightly to give me a smaller butterfly to trace)

 

The final difference (unintentional/mistake) was the large butterfly which is a bit larger than it should be (and has more vein details!)  I think I must have moved my fabric when I was tracing the embroidery pattern.  I don't think it looks too bad though!

I'm now looking forward to the next issue of Vignette and the next block!!