Second block is ready for the sewing machine!

The second block for the Welcome to the North Pole block of the month quilt was more complicated than the first.  So naturally I cheated.  The pieces have been bonded to the background fabric and the block is ready to be machine stitched down.  Here's what it looks like without the stitching or embellishments:

The plaid roof was to be created in two pieces.  My version has the roof in one piece.  The side wall, wall with door, and the piece above the door were to be three pieces.  To make life easier these walls were cut as one large shape.

The plastic template is to be laid on top of the background for placing of the pieces.  Black lines on top of a black background makes that difficult.  So the reindeer barn was put together as one piece (minus the roof). 

Making the walls one piece worked well.  It became the background for placing the sign above the door, the window, window frame, the door, the trim around the door and above it.  Then this part of the barn was positioned onto the background and secured with the iron.

Next came the roof which fit like a jig saw puzzle, no need for the plastic template.  The iron secured only the lower portion of the roof to hold it to the background fabric.  Next the weather vane was placed with the bottom of the rod tucked under the top of the roof.  Then the whole barn was ironed down.

The plastic template did need to be used for the placement of the trees.  Dark background did not make this easy.  But with the trees in place the iron went back to work, but only the top half of the trees.  With the trees secured in place, the top of the tree trunks were tucked under the bottom half of the trees.  Iron, and then the snow was added.

Everyone making this block met up at the quilt shop yesterday.  Several had been working on their blocks already.  They seemed to be attempting to place all the pieces onto the backing and then ironing everything in place at one time.  All had complaints about fabric shifting under the iron. 

Working a bit at a time as the block above was made, eliminated this shifting.  Also checking to see where a larger shape can be cut out instead of several smaller ones made life a lot easier.

Anyone ever done paper tole?