Appliqué progress

We spent a few days in Edmonton, the capital city of Alberta, here in Canada. I did quite a bit of walking...there are some nice trails here. I also explored the Parliament Building...

They gave free guided tours there, very interesting!

But on to the appliqué experience .... I found the ironing board in the hotel room was a great work space!

DISCLAIMER: I don't know anything about needle turn appliqué, so I am only relaying what my experience has been in trying this out! I appreciate any and all help, comments and advice!!

I started by placing the stems, fitting them to my template, and pinning them in place...

My first few stitches were too visible...

so I learned to just catch the edge of the fold on the edge, which made the stitches almost invisible...

For the leaf, I had to clip the inside curve..

I had some problems with the points...they didn't turn out very pointed! But I found if I folded the point over, to make it flat..

then folded both sides in....it looked much better...

I tended to finger press the edges, both to mark where the turn should happen, and also to make placement on the template a bit easier..I think a smaller allowance might be better, 1/4" makes it a bit bulky in some places.

I dont have a light box, which would make using the template very easy, but I found just holding it up gave me a clear picture.

On the outside curves, I learned to only turn under a small bit at a time...turn. ..stitch...turn...stitch..

If I turned under too much ahead, it made flattened, pointy bits to the curve...

with small bits at a time, the curve was much smoother....

I was VERY, VERY  slow ...but here is my first finished  block !! I am so happy !!

I am also hoping that this will get faster with practice......or I might not live long enough to actually finish enough blocks for a whole quilt!!

So I am ...in progress !
and linking up to The Needle and thread Network..

and Work in Progress Wed..