Desperate Housewives Block

When Jane leaned on very kindly invited me to create a block for the Desparate Housewives quilt-a-long, I responded saying I am not very good at creating pieced blocks, applique is more my thing. To which Jane replied that applique was fine and I wasn't getting out of it that way...

To me, there is a Desperate Housewives image that is missing from the quilt thus far, and that is - can you guess?

The apple.

To make the apple, you will need:

just over 8" square of background fabric
scraps of fabric
- red, green, white and brown (I used three browns) for the apple
- a flesh colour for the hand and a darker shade for the shadow on the hand

Doublesided paper-backed fusible applique paper (vliesofix or similar)
Applique sheet or baking paper

Print out the templates. The placement guide is the same way around as the photo, and the tracing guide is reversed. I have drawn the pieces out separately (note, I managed to miss the green shine on the left side of the apple, so feel free to use it or not in your own block!) if you prefer.  This block comes out at close to 8", so if you want to add borders to the block, shrink it slightly so that the 1" mark is less than one inch in length.

Trace the pieces onto the vliesofix, ensuring that there is at least a quarter inch between them and roughly cut around each.

Iron these to the WRONG side of your chosen fabrics, then cut around on the line.

 Place your applique sheet or baking paper over the tracing guide.

Peel the paper backing off your pieces then place all the apple pieces together on the placement guide and iron down. You should then be able to peel off the whole apple.
Do the same with the fingers part of the hand and the shadow.

Then, carefully place all your pieces together. When you are happy with them, iron them together. Iron one last time, then iron them down onto your background fabric. Ta dah!!! Trim back to 8", or less and add a border.

There are numerous ways to finish off raw edge applique. You can hand stitch using a blanket stitch, you can blanket or satin stitch by machine (use a stabiliser behind), or you can free-motion embroider them. I'd tend to join it to the other blocks unfinished, then freemotion quilt the pieces in place.

Hope you enjoyed your apple!