For a fresh look, why not mix it up with piecing and appliqué together in the same block. You’ll get an interesting variety of shapes without knocking yourself out with complicated piecing or fussy appliquéing.

The diamonds in the corners of the Sakura block are quick and easy to appliqué. Each corner would need 5 separate pieces if they were paper-pieced and custom templates would have been necessary for regular piecing. The blossoms dancing across the block add movement to an otherwise basic 9-patch variation.

The gentle curves of the flowers and leaves in the Tulip Basket block are easy to appliqué and contrast nicely with the angular pieced basket.

Here are some tips for you if you’d like to try mixing appliqué and piecing together in your quilt blocks:

• Simple pieced blocks with fewer rather than many pieces work best for appliquéing on top of.

• Pressing the seams open for pieces that will have appliqués on top will reduce the seam bulk and help your appliqué stitches to be smoother.

• If you prefer to press your seams to one side, just appliqué slowly and carefully over the bumps.

• Simple appliqué shapes will show up best on pieced backgrounds (and they’re the easiest to sew too!)

• Bright, warm colors (think hot pink, orange, yellow, red) will help the appliqués pop into the foreground.

• Light, cool colors (think aqua, blue, green, purple) will help keep the background in the background.

• I used fusible web on my blocks, but there’s no reason you couldn’t try needle-turn appliqué over a pieced block. Just needle through the top layer of the background only, avoid appliquéing all the way through the seam allowances.

happy quilting! =(^_^)=