Center Appliqué

My appliqué is just like Lori's but in RED!! My stems are black. I use wonder under which I use to trace the pattern onto. For the birds facing different directions, I held up the pattern to the window and turned it around for tracing. In other words, I held the reverse side of the pattern to the window so I was tracing the back side of the pattern...That way we would have mirror images of the birds!

My stems are made using bias bars I have had from Clothilde, I think. I cut my strips on the bias 2" wide, sewed them together WRONG sides together, using a  very scant 1/4" seam. I insert the bias bar into my strip, place the seam in the center and press from that side. I also spray as I iron with starch. I used a glue stick to hold the stems in place.  Then I sewed them, using a regular straight stitch along each side of the stem.

For sewing the pieces down, I used a buttonhole stitch.  For doing the flowers, I sewed the center circle down first onto the flower.  Once the center was sewn down, then I could sew down the whole flower. It was easier for me to do it that way!  The bird's eye is just a black permanent pen.

Easy!! Fun (even though it's appliqué!!)