Playtime: the car

Set aside, but definitely not forgotten! Working on my "Hop to It" blocks really reminded me how much I love applique, and has motivated me to get going again on my American Jane "Playtime" quilt. For those of you unfamiliar with this project, the quilt is by designer Sandy Klop of American Jane Patterns. It was designed for fusible applique, but I have been doing it all by hand. I started the project in January 2009.

Looking back at my posts, I was shocked to see that the previous block was completed last March. Whoa. Time really does fly!

The car:

This one took me a couple of weeks to complete. I think my biggest hangup was the size of the pieces. I'm really just not into appliqueing large chunks. From rear to front, the car measures 20.5" and is 9.5" tall. The steering wheel and grille were also pretty challenging because of the narrow sections on each.

Techniques used:

• Vinyl overlay (for positioning pieces on the background)
• Needleturn with freezer paper on top
• Freezer paper + starch (for the large wheel pieces)
• Karen Kay Buckley's Perfect Cirlces (for the smaller wheel pieces)
• Backstitch embroidery (I'm kind of wishing I had used the stem stitch because I'm better at that and think it would have looked smoother... oh, well.)

And here's a look at my progress so far:


The top two thirds are fully assembled now (though I still need to applique a couple more floaty balls and the pull for the elephant's wagon). Only two more blocks to go!