New Project--Love Entwined (The Compass)

Esther Aliu (Australia) has just made patterns available for her reproduction of the 1790's Coverlet called "Love Entwined".

Over a year ago, I had a very bad fall and have not been doing applique since.  I thought this would be a good quilt to get me stitching again. 

We have started with the central compass.  One would tend to stitch this by machine, but I decided to applique the compass. Below are the steps I followed (in case anyone is interested):

The compass work completed so far.

I started by enhancing the pattern by drawing with a black pen on a copy of the initial compass.

I wrote the colors I thought I might use for each section, rather than take the time to color it.

On the back of a piece of background fabric, I drew the pattern with soft pencil (#4).

After drawing the pattern with pencil, I stitched large basting stitches on the drawn lines, using a dark colored thread.

I only cut out one of each of the templates I needed, using freezer paper.

Using the one template for each equal section, I cut out the fabric pieces. I did not iron the freezer paper to the fabric, since that process slows me down.  I drew around the freezer paper template, then cut approximately 1/8 inch for a turn under line. (One could cut 1/4 inch and trim back as the fabric is applied to the background fabric.)

I started with the greens, because I didn't want a darker color showing through the light green. None of the greens were turned, but rather, just basted to the background fabric.

Then I applied the dark rose fabric, turning under the fabric as I stitched.

Taking a contrasting thread, I re-basted the turn under line for the gold pieces, then stitched them down.
After I finished stitching the gold pieces, I re-basted the design I would need for the light rose colored pieces.

I stitched down the lighter rose colored pieces, then re-basted the lines needed for the light colored pieces, using a contrasting thread.

After stitching the 4 light colored pieces, I trimmed the center part to make it look more manageable, then re-basted the center circle line.

Following the standard techniques for making a circle (cardboard cut to size, fabric cut 1/4 inch larger, running stitch through the 1/4 inch, draw up the running stitch tightly, then continue with additional running stitches to hold it, spray with water, iron, clip a thread or two, remove cardboard), then I stitched the dark green circle to the center.

Using contrasting fabric, I appliqued the outer circle to the compass (smaller circles around this area will be added soon).

I thought that maybe that cute little flower which goes around the compass (not shown) would look nice in the center of the inner green circle, so I added that.

  If you have any questions, please ask. This may be clear as mud.