Penny Haren

I recently took Penny Haren's workshop on Pieced Applique. Her technique is to use a simple block, like a 4-patch, then add some shape on top, to make the block look more complicated. Each applique shape is cut out using a iron-on freezer paper template. Then she has you fold the edges and glue them down.  After the block is made, the applique needs to be machine or hand stitched.  After it's stitched down, you have to wet the block to get the freezer-paper template out. 

Too much work for me!  And I hate soaking blocks like that.  (Mine shrunk by a quarter-inch.)  I don't think I'll be using this technique myself, but others say they like it for Dear Jane blocks.  I learned that fussy cutting certain pieces can make a block look more complicated.  I  had more pictures, but I lost all the ones I had taken in the class that day - bummer!

For this block we made half-square triangles for the center, then pieced squares and rectangles to form the block.  Added fussy-cut triangles (from templates) for the flying geese.  It's not pieced - it's appliqued on.

This is the back of the same block. See --No pieced flying geese.

This is a square-in-a-square block, with a fussy cut template shape on top.

These are the four blocks we made in the workshop. The bottom left started out as a 4-patch block.