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Learning Curve
The previous block took a week, and turned out so nicely, I simply picked the next lesson's block, Cross Laurel Branches. When I started working on the "Star of Hearts" block, I thought I'd four appliqe blocks and make a small quilt or wall-hanging and move onto something else.
To make this challenging, I different colors in the leaves. The tips and center are still red, but the variety of greens for the rest of the leaves makes this block appear more colorful than it really is,
Of course, I back-basted this block. I drew the entire pattern on the back, but only basted 6-8 leaves at at time. After I finished needle-turning those, I basted another 6-8.
This block took a little longer than the previous, but with the "secret" of matching the thread to the applique fabric, I think both turned out better than the original two blocks.
The problem, however, was that when I put the four together, this one was definitely the "odd man out." I couldn't make a quilt with just the four blocks, because this one drew too much attention.
I thought, I'll just make another block to replace the first one.
I really like the way the previous block, Crossed Laurel Branches, turned out, so I started out making this block with as many different, bright reds and greens as I could. As it's me, of course, we're not talking traditional reds and greens.
The name of the block is Crossed Pine Cones and Rosebuds. The pine cones didn't give me too much trouble, and I didn't bother making the rosebuds dimensional (although, I suppose, I could have.) My "problem" with this block is that I reverse appliqued the center part of the central rose and I felt that the red fabric was probably too bulky to do this. I didn't have that problem with the centers of the "pine cones."
I was very excited about the way the last two blocks came out. I thought, maybe I should "scrap" the first three blocks and make a quilt, with the flat, bright, contemporary prints and the traditional Baltimore Album blocks.
I searched through all my (2) Baltimore Album books for more blocks to go with the ..."Laurel Branches" and "Pine Cones"... blocks, but none really appealed to me.
I usually only get to see my parents once a year at Christmas, with my sister and brother, but this past Christmas, I made a mistake making the reservations and only had 2 days with my family. I took my income tax return check and used some of the money to pay for a slightly longer visit in the summer.
As I mentioned before, my mother is the Queen of Applique. She's building a Baltimore Album quilt that is simply amazing. The block she is currently designing shows the Pittburgh Incline and Point State Park. I believe she has every Baltimore Album book Elly S. has published, not to mention the dozens of other applique books, as well.
Late at night, I spent leafing through her books and pulling out (not literally) blocks I thought would go well with the rest of my quilt. This one is called "Tulips and Hearts" or is it "Hearts and Tulips"?
It took me two weeks to finish this block, not because of the complexity, but because of all the other things that were going on, not the least of which was a new term starting at school. I finished it on my birthday.