Category Archives: flowers

How to Make a Poppy Quilt

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poppyflower3A favorite flower blooming in my garden right now is the poppy. Delicate crepe paper-like petals top long stems that then turn into attractive seedpods. I really like seedpods! Inspired by these extraordinary bloomers, I’ve come up with a new stitch-along tutorial for you called Queen Poppy.

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Queen Poppy is a fused art quilt that measures about 11″ x 14″ and is hand embroidered. (This is a small wall quilt so machine quilting is optional.) My version of Queen Poppy is made with hand-dyed fabrics on a green batik background. But you can use any fabric you like as your canvas (See a Note about Fabric Choices below).

Note that directions are first given here and then will be added to the Queen Poppy Stitch-Along page as we go.

Ready to start? Great! Here’s what you need to begin:

poppykit

Click here for a Queen Poppy Stitch Kit. Both the pre-fused fabrics for the quilt top and the pearl cotton threads for hand embroidery are available.

Or assemble the following items:

  • 11″ x 14″ green batik for the background
  • 2 1/2 ” x 5″ turquoise for stem
  • 6″ x 6″ orange to red for bud parts
  • 2″ x 4″ turquoise for bud crown
  • 2″ x 1 1/2″ yellow for bud top
  • 2″ x 2″ purple for leaflets
  • 4″ x 8″ red to purple for left and bottom leaf centers
  • 5″ x 8″ green for left and bottom leaves
  • 1″ x 9″ yellow for dots
  • 1 yard of fusible web  (Pellon Wonder Under paper backed #805, Soft Fuse, or Misty Fuse (used with parchment paper) are recommended. Please note that some other brands of fusible web are tacky and will be difficult to hand embroider.)
  • 11″ x 14″ batting (Hobbs Heirloom Premium 80/20 Batting or wool batting recommended)
  • 11″ x 14″ backing fabric
  • Size 12 and 8 pearl cotton embroidery threads
  • Size 3 and 5 hand embroidery needles

A Note about Fabric Choices Fabrics with no finish like 100% cotton hand-dyed and batik fabrics work best for raw edge fusing because the color goes through the fabric. (Fused elements from printed fabrics with a white back will show a white edge when cut.) Fabrics with a higher thread count fray less when cut. Wash your fabric to remove any starch or sizing before fusing and do not use fabric softener.

Other items needed:

We Interrupt….

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springblooms10

Spring Blooms #10 by Laura Wasilowski

OK, a quick interruption of the improv on wool project I’ve been showing you. Why? Because my progress is being interrupted by that four letter word- WORK.

springblooms11

Spring Blooms #11 by Laura Wasilowski

Yes, I’m off to teach my Woven Flower Basket Quilts class in several locations and I’ve discovered that I don’t have any examples to show my students. Well, I have the step-outs, examples of the process for making the quilts. But I don’t have any finished pieces to show. (Happily all the finished work has been sold!)

So we interrupt our previous wool stitch project to create more flower basket quilts. These two are hot off the press and I must admit I enjoyed making each one.