Poppy Love {A Finish}

I was just looking through my pictures from the last year and discovered a quilt that I never shared with you all. I created this quilt based on a quilt challenge issued last year by the Swirly Girls to use their collection Poppy Love to create a quilt.  This is what I came up with...

This quilt was such a fun quilt to make.
The block is what's known as a string block, made with differing widths of fabric sewn to a foundation piece.  Either a piece of paper or fabric in the desired size can be used for the foundation where are the strips are sewn together. I chose to use a 10" square of muslin for my foundation.

I wish so much I had thought to take pictures of my steps, but I will try to give you a short description of the steps. I'm sure you can find more detailed instructions with photos online.

Before sewing an strips down I drew a line diagonally from corner to corner to mark the center. Then I lined up the edge of the first strip with this line and used washable fabric glue to hold this piece in place. This first strip is placed with right side up.

The next strip was then placed face down (right sides together), lining up the edges that will be sewn together. Sew through all 3 layers - the foundation and 2 strips - using a 1/4" seam. Flip the 2nd strip over so that both strips are now side by side with right sides up. Press. 

Continue adding strips until your foundation piece is completely covered. 

Once complete trim strip tails and square to your desired size.

My original design for this quilt included an aqua and gray border completely surrounding the heart.

But due to time/deadline constraints and my own boredom with continually sewing the same straight lines I stopped with an off-centered heart. 

I actually ended up liking it off centered more than I thought I would. 

When I first started quilting I always choose a colorful backing fabric. I made this choice for two reasons 1) I loved the splash and surprise of color on the back. 2) the designs and color of the backing served to hide my very imperfect free motion quilting. 

As I worked on the Free Motion Quilting I began to realize that all the strips were hiding the quilting I was doing. I didn't mind this too much and continued to quilt, using it as an excuse to practice and play with my quilting. In the heart I did a variety of quilting designs; feathers, swirls, pebbles, paisleys and more. Now that I've begun teaching free motion quilting it would be great if the quilt could be flipped over to see the quilting better. Now I'm using solids or blenders on my quilt backs so that the quilting I enjoy doing so much can be seen and enjoyed. 

Quilt Details and Stats:

Finished Size: 46-1/2" x 37-1/2"

Quilt Pattern: Heart String Quilt Designed and Pieced by Marcia King (yeah that's me).

Batting: 100% Cotton

Thread: Aurifil Dove 2600 - 50 Wt.

Quilting: Machine Free Motion Quilted on my domestic Husqvarna Sapphire 875Q

Awards: 1st place in the Quilt Division of the Swirly Girls Poppy Love Challenge 

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my quilting adventures with you!

God Bless & Happy Quilting,

Marcia

Update - New Look - Sneak Peak

I've been off the grid and out of the blogging scheme of things for awhile staying busy traveling, working and of course some quilting thrown in there.

First up a sneak peak of the quilt/wall hanging I just finished:
This is a string quilt using only "Poppy Love" by the Swirly Girls for Michael Miller Fabrics.

 

 I really enjoyed doing the quilting on this creation!! It's full of feathers, swirls, paisleys and pebbles.

 A view of the quilting from the back. LOVE the feather swirls! 

Last week just hours before flying off to Missouri I decided it was time to cut off all the long hair, even though my husband dearly loves my long hair. I was just tired of dealing with it. So, without telling him what I was doing I was off to the Salon for that much needed new do!!

After some discussion with my new stylist here's what we ended up with. Much shorter! Much lighter! And much healthier!! 

 

Thankfully my sweet hubby LOVES the new do as much as I do!

My hubby and I spent last week in Missouri doing some work on our house there. We preparing to put it on the market again, hoping and praying desperately that it will sell this time and that we won't loose too much in the sale. 

After having two different renters in the house the cabinets were in need of some deep cleaning. My mom came down to help us and she went to working scrubbing off all the years of built up gunk and then rubbed down each cabinet with Old English Oil. When she was finished they looked like brand new cabinets! Beautiful!! 

While my hubby worked on a variety of odd jobs and helping me whenever I needed, I busied myself laying down new vinyl tiles in the kitchen and the bathroom. Wish I had some before pictures, but trust me both floors look 100 times better now. The kitchen had been carpeted.....we discovered that it was put down in 1997 (way past time for something new)!

Laying tile is a lot like quilting, but like I told Darren, "I would much rather be quilting than crawling around on the floor working with sticky tiles!!"

Created a paper template to be able to cut the tiles to fit perfectly around the curve of the stool.

We'll go back in a few weeks for another work session and to meet with the realtor. 
We're looking forward to a busy and tiring summer, but praying it all goes well!

I'm off to sandwich a quilt and sit down with my sweet Sapphire to create some beautiful stitches! 

I've got Tula Pink's collection of Aurifil thread ready and waiting for this gorgeous quilt.

Many Blessings and Happy Quilting!
Marcia