Spring CQ....Iris

It's not really a Siberian Iris...it's more a generic one.

This time I thought I would try just appliqueing my flower on, using fabrics and the buttonhole stitch. But I constructed my flower in a slightly different way for me...I used that water soluble stabilizer.

As an experiment, it worked pretty well.
I used clear thread in a zig zag and just slapped the pieces together on the stabilizer base.

Once the flower was dunked in water and then ironed dry, it looked like this.
I knew that none of the stitching along the edge would show, as it would be covered by the buttonhole stitching. Plus this kept the edges from fraying.
I was just too lazy to back all my little fabrics with fusible web...and a little nervous about fusing directly onto my quilt, anyway. Plus I just don't like hand stitching through fused fabrics, even if I do use lightweight MistyFuse.

It was just a matter of a few pins to hold my "unit" in place while I stitched it on.

See, once the button hole stitching went on, that raggedy edge with the machine stitching completely disappeared.

Which brought me to this point. But then I decided there should be one open flower...

All of a sudden my quilt is dominated by the presence of this iris!!!
But that's o.k....the roses to come will balance it all out. And do we have roses coming!!!!

But meanwhile I think I will just cover some seams for a few days. I feel like just plain ol' crazy stitching while the roses get ready to pop outside.