Fishing with Tula - Sister's Oregon Outdoor Quilt Show 2015 block contest entry 2

This is my second entry in the Sister's Oregon Outdoor Quilt Show 2015 block contest.

As before I started with the following fabrics.  We can ONLY use those fabrics + embellishments of choice to make a 9.5" block.  

This time I wanted to piece the small blocks and see if I could do something similar to last years block I made with a North West theme.  Organic curves seemed to be a good start.

Love how the curves looked like sunrise or sunset on water!

 Then I had to decide on the applique.  Last year I did a tribal style salmon - this year I decided to focus on the human side of the fishing.  A commercial fishing boat, which we see hundreds of in the Pacific waters, seemed like a good transition.  I come from a family of fishers so this is a lovely personal art as well.

I found a good silhouette of a boat I liked and created a cartoon image from it.  Then traced that onto wonder under.

Then iron it onto the fabric and start cutting!  Very sharp, very small scissors are a must at this step.

More cutting...

...and more cutting...

...and more cutting... and done cutting!

Iron the cut fusible to the background.  I lined up the mast with the stright sewn line in the middle of the block.

Next - add layers of tulle.  When I sew around the image the tulle keeps it in place.  It also adds a shimmer of color.  I used a dark blue overall, and layers of green, blue and white for the water.

Then, FMQ around the image and all cut outs.  This is a bit tedious, but the image starts to really pop out.

Then, cut away all the tulle.  THIS is tedious!  Very easy to make a mistake and catch a bit of tulle within the image.  I leave the tulle over the applique and cut it from the background.

When tulle is cut away you have a stable, lightly shaded, silhouette!  I love using this technique for extremely detailed applique with tons of little bits.

A friend wants this image on a tote.  For now, this is going to Sister's Oregon, and my brain is thinking about a NorthWest series of intricate images.  hmmm.

Part of my Q2 finishes while participating the On the Windy Side 2015 Finish Along

Happy sewing!