Cowboy Shirt

With this year's Home on the Range BOM, my intent is to show a different way to do something each month.  Last month, I used the fusible web backing from my cowboy boot appliques as stencils to stitch around when machine quilting a block.  This time, I traced the cowboy shirt line drawing on an old sheet of typing paper (remember that thin paper we typed on before the days of computers and ink-guzzling printers?)  I was going to use the drawing I'd printed on inkjet printer paper, but when I spied the typing paper in my sewing shed with my art supplies, I thought it might tear more easily.  I just traced the image rather than walking 100 feet back to my trailer to run the typing paper through my printer.  (Someday, I'm going to get a cheap printer set up in my shed and save myself some time running back and forth.)

After tracing the image, I cut away the excess paper, pinned it to my Tonganoxie 9-Patch block sandwich, then stitched on the lines just like when doing foundation paper piecing.  The only drawback to this method is pulling off the paper when finished - just like paper piecing, it can be a tedious pain!

 Here it is with half the paper removed.  The paper looks much like a tiny white shirt!  I'll have to try this as an applique someday using white batiste or some other sheer fabric.

Paper is now completely removed.  This method went fast for quilting one 7" block.  If doing a lot of blocks, I'd want a paper that was even easier to remove like the disolvable kind.  As a 7" block, the Tonganoxie 9-Patch is so small and busy that I didn't try the shirt as an applique.  The appliques can always be used on another block, though.

Tonganoxie Nine-Patch

Here's the finished Tonganoxie 9-Patch block (that I can't upload to my web site, arrgh) made from the test fabrics that I found at Wal-mart.  These fabrics more closely match the colors that I used in my Electric Quilt versions, so I decided to use them for my instructional photos in the Home on the Range BOM.

This block uses fabrics from the fat quarter sampler I purchased from Connecting Threads.  One thing missing from this sampler is a blue that reads as a medium blue when compared to the other fabrics.  So I chose the lightest blue in the bunch and the darkest red, then used the back side of the red to make it look darker.

The front side of the red print has a lot of white in it, which really brightens the overall color.  On the back side, the white barely shows so the overall color is more like a dull burgundy.  In most cases, I prefer the bright, right side of the fabric, but I think the duller back side works better for these small, 1-inch squares (finished size) of fabric in this block.