Mystical Mermaid {Adventurous Applique}

For April, our Island Batik Ambassador theme is Adventurous Applique!

I'm very excited to be sharing all about the my applique project. I shared the beginnings of this project all the way back at the beginning of March! This week I'll be sharing all about sewing the top and preparing my applique. Next week I'll be sharing about machine applique and quilting this project.

I used the base of our Ready, Set, Soar! pattern as my starting point and pulled some fabrics that had an "under the sea" feel. These fabrics came from the 5 inch x WOF strips included in my goodie box. I cut them to 3.5 inches as the pattern directs and saved the 1.5 inch cutoffs for a future project.

Here's my base top before I added any applique:

And what might the perfect thing to add to a under the sea color scheme? A mermaid of course! I found mermaid clip art online, and enlarged it to my chosen size (approximately 8 inches tall and 24 inches long). I printed it out in banner format (so that I could tape multiple pieces of paper together) and traced the design onto my fusible web.

Normally I try to conserve my fusible web as well as limit how much fabric I sacrifice in the process, but with the detail of this piece, it was easier to give myself a little bit of extra wiggle room as I ironed the fusible to my navy solid and cut out my applique shape. I highly recommend using small snip scissors for this process! Hello, Ariel!

Isn't she beautiful? To finish up for today, here's the lovely lady ironed on to the quilt top base.

Next week on Friday, I'll be sharing about my machine applique process for this quilt as well as quilting and finishing!