I cut out all the pieces for Lib’s Bumble Bee quilt; 25 yellow squares, 20 yellow bodies and 40 brown wings. Then came my favorite part with a new project – problem solving. How was I going to figure out how to place them accurately on the square?

Geometry to the rescue. I cut 4 2” strips to place on the edges so that I could place the 5 1” yellow squares in the center in the now 3” x 3” spot in the middle and then worked out from there. I had the 7” x 7” green square placed on a cutting matt so I could see where the 3 ½ “ mark was on each edge to know where each pair of wings needed to meet up. Seemed simple enough. Result is the picture above. But I still needed to figure out how to keep the pieces in place while I sewed them on and I was momentarily stumped.

Then I remembered that I was not the first person to attempt appliqué (latest face to palm moment). So I started reading up on appliqué quilt techniques. Turns out there are many different types of appliqué, lots of tips and tricks and some neat specialized tools for it. When I emerged from the Pinterest/YouTube hole that I had gotten lost in I came away with several nuggets: raw edge applique is the technique that best translates to paper, Wonder-Under(R) is amazing stuff but it will never work with encaustic prints, if I ever have any spare time I want to make an actual fabric quilt (of the minimalist/abstract variety).

So with my new found knowledge of raw edge appliqué (and coincidentally raw honey – it is very easy to go off on tangents on Pinterest) I was left to figure out how to affix my pieces to my backing. In raw edge appliqué (which is exactly what it sounds like, the edges of the applied pieces are left “raw”, not folded under) the appliqued pieces are attached to the backing using Wonder-Under (a type of fusible interfacing) or fabric glue and then machine sewn in place inside the appliqued piece.

Fusible=iron on so as wonderful as Wonder-Under seems to be it would not work for my purposes. Fabric glue would work it theory but I don’t have any and I doubt it would be archival but I fortunately remembered that I did have a paper equivalent, methyl-cellulose! Methyl-cellulose is a plant based glue used in collage and book making. It probably wouldn’t be strong enough to hold the encaustic prints together permanently but it would certainly hold them together long enough for me to sew them together. I went back to my guide and whipped up a fresh batch of glue:

I then made a second guide to attach the outer pieces:

I then had to decide what color to sew the pieces on with. Everything I was reading suggested practicing appliqué stitching first and since I generally do this anyway I tried out white thread and black thread on some scrap pieces to see which I liked best. Unfortunately I decided I like the black stitching best because the white stitching would have hidden my crappy stitch work better. I then proceeded to practice a lot with the shapes that I would be working with as the write ups suggested:

I have great admiration for anyone who does appliqué work, particularly if you have mastered the whole pivot thing. I need more practice.