Applique time

I thought I should share pictures of my applique blocks. I'm working on a BOM of Lori Smith's Flowers From My Garden and these are my first three blocks. I'm almost finished with the fourth.

I really love doing hand applique because I can do it almost anywhere. I've been fairly successful in keeping up with my blocks as they come in - at least I was until we got into December. I have the fifth block waiting and I will get another one in soon, so I will be behind. Hopefully I can catch up before the blocks really start stacking up. The applique method I use is back-basting. This method is taught by Jeanna Kimball, although she didn't create the method. For those who've never heard of this method, the way you do it is by tracing the design on the back of your background. Then you baste the applique fabric onto the background using a large needle and heavy thread and trim the fabric about 1/4" from the basting line. You clip the basting threads a little at a time and do your needleturn applique. The basting helps the applique fabric turn under. I think I've tried almost every applique method out there, and this is the one that has given me the best results. You can see a good explanation of this method by going to Apple Blossom Quilts.