If only May would have come 7 or so days later......

But it didn't.
And now I'm busy finishing up the final touches to get everyone's fabrics in the mail by Thursday. Thanks everyone for being so patient with me!

Ok, so here it is:

May's block is the gargantuan tulip. I got the idea from the Material Obsession Two book.

I will be sending everyone:

• an 18 inch square white background fabric


• two side petal pattern pieces


• one middle petal pattern piece


• scraps for the petals (these will be all colors BUT green)
  
• green scraps for the stem and leaf
  

Please do not use any green scraps in the petals, but only on the stem and leaf. Feel free to use some of your own scraps if you like, but if you don't, that's fine too!

You can arrange your tulip on the block however you like.

Please keep any leftover scraps that you would like.

Please sign your tulip on the leaf instead of sending siggy blocks.

This block is MACHINE applique'd, not hand. Yay!!

Here's a how-to for this block:

These are the paper pattern pieces I will be sending to everyone. The seam allowance is already included in each pattern piece.


Sewing the fabrics right to the paper, using a similar technique to this or this, cut and arrange your fabrics to your liking onto the paper pieces. The fabrics don't have to be straight strings, feel free to get creative with it! *tip, make sure you sew the fabric to the opposite sides of the two end petals so they will fit on either side of the center petal.

Trim excess fabric around the paper pattern:

Next, free-form your stem and leaf however you like and turn under the edges about 1/4 inch and press.

**edited to add (and thanks Angela for bringing this up :), please do not use interfacing for any of the pieces. And seriously, don't feel like your edges need to be perfect. Mine are far from perfect, but I think this imperfectness will add to the charm of the overall quilt**

Remove the paper backing from the petal pieces, following the instructions in the tutorial(s), and then turn under about 1/4 inch and press both edges of the center petal. For the two side petals, you only need to turn under and press the outside edges and the top (since the inside edge will be tucked under the center petal).

Arrange your pieces to your liking on the block:

Then remove the center petal and pin down the stem and two side petals. Using a straight MACHINE stitch and white thread, machine stitch the stem down first (close to the edge), then the two side petals down.

Now place the center petal and leaf back down, pin, and straight edge-stitch them in place.

Yay! You're done!

(sorry about the lengthy instructions!)

thanks again everyone for your patience with me!