Oiyi's (Melody's) block

Oiyi asked us to make a heart block for her daughter, Melody. I started to sketch out some ideas right away, but had a hard time with this one. Because this block was really for Melody, I took more time wanting it to be something that really made me happy. Oiyi, I hope it makes you happy too.

After many failed attempts at pieced hearts and "a piece of my heart" designs (the latter kept looking like broken hearts), a friend from my quilting group suggested a heart with a swoop. That lead to an applique design. With that idea in place, I made a patchwork background that had a 70's feel to it. Those fabrics made me think of my childhood just like some others in our group. I had visions of Little House on the Prairie episodes and Holly Hobbie in my mind as I worked on it.

Applique also let me use the embroidery I had envisioned from the beginning - a red running stitch on the larger heart making reference to a Chinese saying that there's an invisible red thread that connects those who are destined to meet. That saying is very popular with families who have children born in China as I do. The smaller heart was meant to be the daughter heart to the larger mother's heart done in applique. I love how the tails of the hearts nestle into one another.

Proof that I worked back and forth on this one. And I've not even shown you the sad "broken heart" sketches that wound up in the trash.

Monster Catch Up!

Ok I am finally caught up! I have blocks for Carissa, Amber, Nadia, Oiyi and Jenny! Sorry for the delay. They'll be in the mail tomorrow, I promise!

For Carissa's car quilt I made a road (with crosswalks) and an intersection:




For Amber, two log cabins (LOVE the fabric, by the way).




For Nadia, I couldn't quite make it to the 15x15 inch size. It's about 13 inches square, but I felt like if I added anything it would take away from the block. The embroidery was fun too:




For Oiyi (and little Melody) I made a patchwork heart block complete with a couple log cabins. I took apart and sewed back together this block SO many times, but I like how it finally turned out:


And last but not least, Jenny's block. I was planning on using the block from Denyse Schimdt's apron in her book, but I couldn't find my book! This one was free pieced. Fun, and I really like how it turned out. The colors are not sad at all. In fact, for my month I think I'm going to do another gray and orange quilt...


Thank you all for being so patient with me!

Two Hearts

When Oiyi posted her idea for Melody's quilt, I was so excited. Loved the idea, but I had so much trouble thinking of what to make. I went for a traditional heart block. I played with the idea of lots of one inch strips because of the small scale of the fabrics she sent. This is the final product. A big heart for mom.

Since I did so much experimenting before I made the block I had lots of sections of strips left over. This was one of the practice hearts, so instead of letting it go to waste I made it into a smaller heart for Melody. Most of these are fabrics I had in my stash. I didn't dare cut into hers until I knew I could make this idea work. I had some of the same ones that Oiyi sent, and I tried to stay small scale, so I hope this works too. Oiyi, maybe this could go on the back?

It'll be in the mail tomorrow. Sorry it took me so long.