Big-hearted Blossom

I had to drop in today and tell you about one of my latest creations: "Big-hearted Blossom" (a quilted wall hanging or runner). Recently, my dear friend Mary was celebrating a birthday and I thought I would go through my fabric stash/scraps and pull her favorite colors to make a beautiful bloom as a gift for her special day. This project was aptly named after her HUGE and loving heart.

I am always looking for alternate ways to use my AccuQuilt GO! cutting dies, and that is exactly what I did with the GO! Orange Peel-4 1/2" (55455) in this project. Instead of using it for the popular traditional Orange Peel 4-Patch quilt block, I decided to use it for appliqué leaves along with a GO! Fantasy Flower. I purchased GO! Fantasy Flowers by Robbie Joy Eklow cutting die quite some time ago and I was excited to put it to good use!

The orange peel "leaves" were super easy - I just ironed fusible web on the back of eight assorted charm squares from the Sunkissed Collection by Sweetwater for Moda (the GO! Orange Peel-4½" die works perfectly for charm squares!). Next, I went through my fat quarter stash to find fabrics for the stem and flower petals. The stem was originally cut with the GO! Strip Cutter-1" (1/2" Finished), but I thought 1" was a bit wide, so I trimmed it down to a ¾" width. After seeing the approximate size of my Big-hearted Blossom, I cut a piece of neutral fabric (Natural Kona Cotton by Robert Kaufman) approximately 18"W x 35" H. I was able to easily center, fuse, and machine appliqué my flower on my neutral background - I used a blanket stitch for the machine appliqué, but a zigzag stitch, blind hem stitch, or satin stitch would work very nicely. Once the quilting was complete (I simply quilted about 1/4" out around the perimeter of each shape), I trimmed the piece to 15"W x 34" H and added a pretty floral binding that coordinated with the backing fabric.

The GO! Fantasy Flowers die is quite versatile with multiple fun petal shapes included. Plus, it was fun to dig through my fabrics...I just used what I had on hand, giving it a scrappy look. If you are anything like me, you have a scrap bin (or two or three) filled with fabulous floral colors perfect for this project.

This entire design truly came together in one afternoon and I was extremely pleased with the results! It could be used as a wall hanging or a runner...and additional flowers could easily be added...I can see it with a patchwork border too....hmm, I can certainly see more of these fabulous flowers in my future...

Visit the AccuQuilt blog later this week to read my guest blog post about this project...