Dogwood Blossom Quilt

It is with jumping-around-my-sewing-room joy that I reveal my latest finish, my Dogwood Blossom Quilt ...

This quilt top was designed by Rachel Hauser, of Stitched in Color.

I started this quilt top at the end of 2013, before I began blogging. It was my first adventure in applique, and as far as applique goes, it’s very me. I love the bold graphic nature of the dogwood blossoms and the orange and cranberry and pink of the petals that compose them. I wouldn’t say that the applique was difficult. It was, however, time consuming and, as a result, easy to brush off for faster and higher-priority projects. (You know how that goes!)

To celebrate this finish, I’m entering this quilt in the applique category of the Blogger’s Quilt Festival.

If you’re visiting from the quilt festival, you should know that I’m a fairly new quilter, so many of my posts examine techniques I’ve tried out—for piecing, quilting, binding, you name it. In case you’re interested, here’s the nitty-gritty on this quilt ...

Fabrics

Fabric for the petals came from my scrap bin. Perhaps most note-worthy is the two Free Market Fancy fabrics (original run)—my last, last bits of them!—that are used in multiple blossoms. The petals are appliqued to squares of Kona Snow. The sashing and border are a soft cranberry from French General.

I'm crazy about the polka-dot binding. I definitely need more polka dots in my stash!

Applique

I sketch-stitched each petal to the Kona Snow backed with a stabilizer. The chocolate-brown thread and imperfect-on-purpose stitching gives the petals a little character, I think.

Quilting

I started quilting by ditch-stitching in a cranberry thread along the sashing and border. My original plan was to FMQ around the blossoms, but all of my attempts were seriously ugly. In the end, on the advice from someone at my LQS, I used my regular piecing foot to echo-stich around the petals. The lip from the edge of the applique helped keep that foot on track. I really, really like the results. I didn’t really, really like turning my quilt around and around, however, which is why I echo-stitched just once around the dogwood blossoms instead of two or three times. : )

The quilting is best seen on the pieced back.

There’s a lot of inspiration on display during the Blogger’s Quilt Festival—I highly recommend checking it out! To view the other quilts, go to Amy’s Creative Side. Voting opens on May 22 and wraps up on May 29. The other quilt I’m submitting, Oh Christmas Tree, can be found here.

Linking up to Let’s Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, Finish It Up Friday, and TGIFF...