It is Day 2 of the Stitching Stars Blossom Blog hop, and I get to share with you my project inspired by "Blossom." As much as I wanted to be inspired by Mayim Bialik from the Blossom TV show, I figured showing my blossoming quilting skills was a much better idea. I also gathered inspiration from Cherry Blossoms to have that floral spring touch as well. I started with wanting to create a foundation paper piecing pattern and I somehow thought a 5 petal cherry blossom inspired flower would be the best idea. It takes a smarter person than me to create a repetitive pattern on a 72 degree angle. It ended up being way too complex for me and nothing looked good.
So I decided to do an appliqued piece. I've done plenty of hand applique before so I sketched out an overall look of what I wanted the piece to look like. I thought a mug rug size would be great! I'm in a mug rug swap in May and was told they are typically 8"x8" in size so that's what I targeted.
I forgot to take a photo of the poorly drawn PowerPoint art I did to create a flower petal to confirm the shape that I wanted. But once I got the shape, I traced it to a piece of paper, and you can see the final design layout of what my Blossom project would be. You can also tell which flower I started on and which one I ended with. (Hint: I got sloppier as I went)
For the applique, I used sew-in lightweight interfacing to flip each piece and hand-appliqued them to the background. The stems were made using 1/4" bias tape maker and hand-appliqued to the background as well. I decided to try my newly learned free motion quilting skills by quilting this piece with paisleys all over. This is the first piece I've ever completely free motion quilted, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. It's definitely scary for me to sit down and free motion quilt a project because I'm terrified that my quilting will ruin the piece.
I think this turned out to be a super fun project. The overall size seems to be slightly large for a mug rug, but I don’t think there are any set rules for sizing. This is finish number 6 for the year, and the Completed Quilts page is updated!
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The Stitching Stars Blog Hop group is made up of ladies who all went to Sew Pro Convention last September in Chicago. It's been so helpful to have a network of great people to support each other as we all grow in our journeys. What's even more awesome is this giveaway quilt that had blocks contributed by people participating the blog hop!
Special shout-outs to Lissa LaGreca of Lovingly Lissa for putting the blocks together into the quilt--she is also going to have the pattern for the quilt for free on her blog after the hop--and to Lisa Peterson of Lisa and Lorelai for quilting and binding this quilt!
How to enter the giveaway: You will need to go to a Rafflecopter giveaway and complete the entries to enter. The winner will be selected Sunday April 9.
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I am also hosting a giveaway for everything shown below, open to the US only (sorry to my international friends).
How to enter to win:
- Comment below with which 3 blocks I contributed to the giveaway quilt (hint, check my Instagram).
- All followers of my blog will also get an additional entry to win!
Winner will be randomly selected Sunday, April 9, 2017.
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Here's the Blossom Blog Hop lineup for the week. Be sure to check all these fabulous ladies out with their Blossom projects!
Monday, April 3, 2017
Lissa LaGreca: Lovingly Lissa
Carmen Ross: See Carmen Sew
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Sherry Shish: Powered by Quilting (You are here!)
Becca Fenstermaker: Pretty Piney
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Lisa Peterson: Lisa and Lorelai
Pam Cobb: The Stitch TV Show
Deanna Wall: Stitches Quilting
Thursday, April 6, 2017
Vanessa Behymer: Vintage Barngirl
Paula Mamuscia: Creations by Paula
Friday, April 7, 2017
Andi Stanfield: True Blue Quilts
Nancy Scott: Masterpiece Quilting
Anne Beier: Hudson Valley Quilts
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For those of you who are new to my blog, I end each blog post with my accountability goals for the week. I usually have a recap of progress made within the past week, but I'll continue the updates next week.
4/4-4/11 Weekly Goal:
Available time for quilting:
Friday night and Saturday
Projects I want to work on:
Quilter's Planner Block
MQG Fabric Challenge
Goals for the Projects:
Quilter's Planner Block: Complete this week's block
MQG Fabric Challenge: Finish the design for the text and start applique