Applique Design and Stashed Treasure

I hope you've had a lovely Labor Day weekend if you live in the states. Poor hubby worked, but the kids and I decided to take a day off from school. Monday afternoon did find us laboriously cleaning out a closet that holds most of our arts and crafts supplies, games and puzzles. What a mess!

I've turned my hand to trying some fairly traditional applique. I think applique work might give my free motion quilting skills a better chance to shine. I am working on a wall quilt to hang at the quilt shop (Threads Run Through It, Phenix VA) that wants to promote me as a quilter for hire and where I will begin teaching free motion quilting classes this winter.

I am learning to use a graphics program on the  computer to design the applique. It's a bit of a steep learning curve, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Above is the first flower of the design. I haven't quite decided what background fabric to use yet. Maybe something lighter than what it's sitting on right now.

Preparing the shapes. This little iron is so handy for turning the edges under! I nearly tore my stash and storage area up, trying to find the thing. I could visualize the basket it was in, along with other items in the basket. But could not find the basket!

Turns out, the basket was inside a nearly empty tote. I did come across several nice pieces of fabric I had forgotten about as I searched. Amazing how I can find treasure just by stirring the stash occasionally!

I challenge you to stir through your fabric if you've neglected it for a while and see what treasures you can come up with!