Some months back, I mentioned that the Cherrywood Poppy Challenge quilts would be displayed at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England, meaning I would have a quilt in FOQ…
I had originally thought about traveling over to see it, but we ended up with TOO many other things happening at the same time!!
I emailed a friend who lives in that area, hoping that she would be able to send me a photo, but she was on a family holiday and not planning to attend.
I figured that I would never get to see it hanging there.
THEN….. I ran across a Facebook post from Cherrwood Fabrics that showed it hanging……
HOW EXCITING!!!
This is the final stop for the Poppy Challenges, so I expect it to show up at my doorstep sometime in the next few weeks.
After 2+ years of traveling, it will be wonderful to have it home again!!
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Back in October, when I bought my fabrics for the Cherrywood Challenge….
I had all sorts of ideas about a pieced background (maybe a Storm At Sea block), and some weird fish taking center stage.
But, as often happens during that time of year, I had no real time to think about it or do much work on it.
So, as I arrived at my Guild Retreat, I was ready to make a start.
EXCEPT….my heart wasn’t in it!!!
The thought of piecing all of those tiny pieces for a S-A-S block was completely overwhelming and trying to figure out some great threadwork for the weird fish was doubly overwhelming!!
So…. I decided to improvisational piece the background and then go from there.
Now….I DONT DO IMPROV PIECING…..PERIOD!!!
I am not sure exactly what got into my mind but not only did I piece it without a plan, but I used CURVES too.
I started out with a practice piece to see if I remembered how to cut and piece curves….
That looked okay so I grabbed my rotary cutter and dived into the precious fabric!!
By the time I left the retreat, I had put together most of the back but still had to finish one corner and figure out exactly how to attach the other corners…..
At some point, I will show you more of this piecing process, but suffice it to say that I finally came up with a background that I could square to 20-inches…..
The next step was to quilt the background….
I saw the center of this as a type of drain so it needed something being sucked into it.
HOW ABOUT CIRCLES?
I spent a lot of time playing with various sizes of circles, but finally decided on an arrangement that I liked….
I was using Wonder Under to fuse the circles in place and was worried that they would “fall into the cracks made by the quilting lines so I added a circle of batting to the back of each circle….
After quilting down all of the circles, it was time to make the harrowing cuts to trim the quilt to an exact 20-inches!!
I took my photos showing the exactly size……
….and hurried to my computer to enter the quilt (an entire TWO hours before the deadline)!!
Then I saw it…..
In the advertisements about the challenge, it specifically says “Creatures from the Deep”
OOPS….. nothing about circles or vortexes or anything that my quilt has!!
SO….. I entered it anyway…..
and named it “DOTS DOWN THE DRAIN”….
….because that is kind of how I feel about it!!
Who knows….maybe it will get in for originality!!
And before you get worried about me, I don’t really feel like it was time wasted. I had fun doing the piecing and I might even try it again!!
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Do you struggle to decide what to quilt in your blocks? If so, check out my FREE series…..
Yesterday, we took a look at the top winners of the Cherrywood “Poppy” challenge, and most of the Honorable Mention winners. Today, let’s finish up the HM’s and see a few other of my favorites!!
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I love this “art gallery” idea……
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Now let’s move on to a few of my favorites!!
This cat looks so quizzical……
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The piecing is very stylized in this next one, but is accomplished perfectly!!
The addition of a “big stitch” line running down the center of each strip adds so much to it!!
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This quilter has had a quilt in each of the seven Cherrywood challenges…..
Those are some VERY tiny Log Cabin blocks!!
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The “mosaic tile” background is so effective……
I really want to try one as a background one day!!
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The simplicity of the circles in this next one is appealing to me….especially the background ones….
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Come back tomorrow and we will finish up the Poppy challenge quilts!!
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