The applique factory

Before I left for Birds of a Feather I got one if my borders prepped for applique. 

This is pretty much how I left my cutting table.

The ironing table is not much better. I need to get the other 3 borders prepped so I can get this project out of the way and start something else. I figure it's going to take a couple of years to do all of the hand stitching but I want it all ready to go so I don't have to think about this project again until it's read to sew on the borders and applique the corners.

I started by getting the rest of the vines cut.

The Clover bias tape maker is a miraculous little tool and turned those strips into vines in no time.

I have a paper mock up of the half a border on my cutting table and I start by marking the center and bottom with basting lines. I drew the curved border with a pencil since that's a cutting line. I use this to position my applique pieces.

I have another mock up of the layout on fabric and I use that one to steam press my vines into shape. Once it's shaped I move it to the border and use the paper guide to position it.

Next I glue baste the vines with tiny dots of glue. The glue is watered down Elmer's Washable School Glue. My friend, Becky, turned me on to it. She says it works just as well as Roxanne's. I have to dilute mine a bit because my glue dispenser is extra fine. As soon as this one is empty I'll switch to the new one I got at Bird. After I glue bast the vines I glue on the petals and pick fabrics for the centers. You can see the current border that I'm working on in the top photo.
I'm also picking the corner blossoms and centers for those too.

Each border has 10 long vines, 2 short vines, 10 blossoms and 11 centers. Then there are 4 corner blossoms with 4 centers.
I have 1.5 borders glue basted. Once those are done I will clean up this mess and work on making the centers - 48 of them if I did the math right. I'd like to have all of this done by the end of the weekend but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. I'll try.

Meanwhile, this is all of the stitching that's done. That top curve smooth. It looks wonky because the way the fabric is laying.  If I measure my completion by blossoms I'm 2% done with the borders.
Maybe I won't track progress that way.

But today is dyeing day, not applique day so I'll be in the basement if anyone is looking for me.