Orange Peel Applique Blocks {Midnight at the Oasis QAL}

Welcome to the second installment of the Midnight at the Oasis QAL. I hope you've all had fun making your centre block - I'm really enjoying seeing all the different versions popping up on Instagram and Flickr. There is a linky at the bottom of this post if you'd like to link up your centre block or any other progress you've made. You can find Sharon's post on how she approached this border here.

So, this week I'll be talking about different ways to tackle the second border, the orange peel blocks. These blocks are applique blocks - and there are a whole lot of different ways you could approach them. I haven't had much experience at all with applique methods, so I've provided links to some tutorials written by other people that I think look good. It's worth keeping in mind that each of these methods will look slightly different when done, and require different amounts of time; both factors will probably play a role in which method you decide to do. You can find Sharon's post on how she approached this border here.

Needle Turn Applique:

A couple of days ago, I wrote a tutorial explaining how I'm doing my needle turn applique using Sarah Fielke's method. Straight up I will say needle turn is enjoyable - but slow. I've only done three of my blocks so far, but I really love the way the applique shapes pop up from the background so I will persist even if it takes me the next six months to get them done ;o)

Machine Applique
Appliqueing all the orange peels by machine will be much, much quicker than any of the hand-sewn methods. You can find a tutorial here for machine applique. I haven't done a lot of machine applique - but for the bits I've done I used vliesofix fusible web and machine blanket stitched around the edge of my applique shapes. This method makes the shapes a little stiff, but it's a pretty quick method which is a bonus!

Freezer Paper Applique
There is a great video tutorial on this method here. This definitely a method I'd like to try - Heidi has used the freezer paper method for her applique and it looks fantastic.

Blanket Stitch Applique
My friend Adrianne (of On the Windy Side fame) is using blanket stitch to applique her orange peels - she has very kindly written up a tutorial on her blog which you can find here. I love the way these look - and Adrianne's stitches are just perfect!

If you would like to link up your progress so far, you can do so below. It's always fun to click through and visit other people's blogs and leave a comment - my favorite thing about QALs is encouraging and supporting each other and seeing how different people interpret the same pattern :o) You can link up from your blog or Flickr - if you have any problems please let me know (I don't host linky parties very often!!)