Farm Fresh Eggs Applique Picture

Delicious farm fresh eggs - one of the joys of spring!

Posted by Bustle & Sew

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Lovely fresh eggs and toast soldiers - favourite comfort food for childhood tea times, or perhaps an indulgent weekend breakfast?

Enjoy scrummy eggs all week round with this quick and easy project combining machine applique with hand embroidery and mounted onto an artist’s canvas block. It's a great way to use up all your scraps too!

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You Will Need (8 things)

  • A4 size Canvas block
  • 17 in x 5 inch Cotton Fabric for the lower part of the background
  • 17 in x 9 inch Cotton Fabric for upper part of background
  • Fabric Scraps for the applique shapes
  • dark green Stranded Cotton
  • Staple Gun
  • Embroidery Foot
  • Temporary Fabric Marker pen

Steps (9 steps, 120 minutes)

  1. 1

    Download the template.

    Join the two pieces of background fabric together along one long edge. Use ¼” seam allowance and press seam open to minimise bulk.

  2. 2

    Place your canvas block on the fabric. Centre vertically and allow for 2” of the bottom fabric to appear on the front of the canvas. Mark the corners of the block with your temporary fabric marker. This will enable you to position your design correctly. The background fabric has to be quite a bit larger than the actual front of the canvas block to allow it to be turned to the back and stapled into place. Now is a good moment to turn it under the sides of the
    block and trim so that you have the correct amount of border to do this.

  3. 3

    Transfer the lettering to the top of the background fabric, positioning it about ½” below the top edge and in the centre vertically. Stitch the lettering using back stitch and 2 strands of your dark green floss.

  4. 4

    Trace the shapes for your eggs onto the Bondaweb. The template is given at the exact size. The dotted lines on the template show where you should cut to allow for overlapping of pieces.

  5. 5

    Now build up your applique picture. Peel the paper backing off the Bondaweb, then start with the bottom pieces and work upwards, ie
    for the outside eggs, position the egg and then the egg cup and for the middle egg start with the yolk and work upwards to the egg cup. Trim the short ends of your “toast” finger so they are a little ragged, not square and geometric before positioning.

  6. 6

    When you’re happy with the positioning of your applique shapes, press into place. Don’t press too hard or you’ll flatten your felt - and if
    you’re using acrylic felt be careful not to scorch or melt it!

  7. 7

    Now for the machine applique. Fit the embroidery or darning foot. With dark grey thread in your needle and cream in the bobbin stitch around the edge of the egg cups. Go around twice - don’t be too neat, and on the second way round make inward loops to represent the shading on the egg cups.

  8. 8

    Go once around the egg with the soldier (see picture for guide) Stitch twice around the soldier making zig-zags at either short end to represent the ends of the soldier. Stitch twice around the discarded top of the egg, exaggerating the broken edges with zig-zag stitching.

  9. 9

    Press on the reverse. Using the marks you made earlier as a guide, position your picture on the canvas block , then turn the edges underneath. Use your staple gun to secure the sides - secure the two short sides first, working from the centre outwards and then the long sides to within 2” of the corners. Fold your corners carefully, trimming excess fabric then staple into place at the back. Trim any excess fabric away from the back