I've been shopping

We had to go get a few things at the mall today and I whipped over to the LQS to get a batting for the cot quilt. You can't go in without looking around at what's new now can you? I found some reproduction style fabrics with a bit of texture and also some blue and greens........ for this pattern which I will do sometime in the future. You can see it here
It's designed by Robyn Falloon, a very talented Australian designer.

I've been able to get a little prep time in today and thought you might be interested to know what pencil I use to prepare the s.a for applique. It is the Sanford Prismacolor white coloured pencil. It always washes out and unlike chalk pencils does not rub off easily. I used to buy it from a quilt stand at the Sydney quilt show but now can get it at an art shop. You need a good pencil sharpener or one that is just for coloured pencils.

I usually use a propelling lead pencil if the white one won't show up.

I've been using templates made out of plastic instead of freezer paper templates because I have multiples of the same shapes and also need to fussy cut. I like to label my pieces with those sticky dots so I can keep track of what goes where. The dots come in handy for numbering rows or blocks when piecing too.

I know that there are some quilters that do amazing applique out there but I know a lot of people also struggle.

One tip I have for smooth curves is to keep your seam allowance small. 3/16" is the normal s.a for applique but for needle turning tight curves, I will trim to 1/8" I don't clip into inner curves until I need to and find a dampened toothpick does the trick to help turn it under smoothly.

For outer curves, I turn under those tricky s.a's sometimes only one or two stitches ahead, you can get in a flap if you try to get too far ahead of yourself.

I also never ever clip outer curves, only inner ones.

P.S. I think the white pencils are the same as the Pat Campbell white pencils.