Bramble Blooms 1 & 2 Completed

If you regularly read my blog, you’ll be familiar with the Bramble Blooms Quiltalong that I’ve been joining. You can read all the prompts and details at Quiltyfolk.

Over the last month I finished quilting my first two quilts and now I’m so excited to show you the beginnings of my third one.

But first things first, above you will see my first one complete.

And next is the second one. The basic premise is that we were supposed to pick out a big stack of underused or less loved fabrics from our stash. We would be making three different quilts with some loose prompts. I divided my large stack of fabric into three different piles, one for each quilt.

I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed making these quilts, but they are very bright fabrics. This is because I was picking less than favorite fabrics, so I was using up the most bright pieces in my stash. The fact that I was doing appliqué and spending time on fabrics I didn’t love as much was the biggest conflict I faced. On one hand it gave me freedom to try things because I wasn’t afraid of wasting my favourite fabrics. But I also didn’t want to spend a bunch of time on needle turn appliqué when I felt mediocre about the fabrics.

In the end, I like both the quilts I made. They’re just a bit brighter colored than what I’d generally choose…That’s why with my third one I decided that I would add in a few more muted vintage colors if I felt like I needed them to make it more what I’d love.

As you can see, I used top stitching on my sewing machine to do the appliqué. This is a very quick and simple method, and I quite like the raw edges once it’s washed.

But now let’s go on to the third quilt. The prompt said that we should use at least two elements from the previous quilts that we liked and sketch out some options. I knew right away the two elements I wanted to include.

Scallops, and patchwork squares.

Here’s my first idea I sketched. In the top left is the overall quilt design. The rest of the doodles are options to put in those blank ‘stripes’. I adore this layout and fully plan to make it at some time. But in the end I’ve decided on a different layout.

Here is what I decided on. A square in the middle, with appliquéd scallops all the way around. Next would be patchwork squares, and then who knows for sure after that.

I thought for awhile what should be in the middle. A flower? A vase? A house? Finally I settled on what I actually felt like making at the moment. Pieced house blocks!

You’re not surprised, are you?! This is a safe and happy spot for me to land on, but that’s ok. I know I’ll really like it.

This is the stack of fabrics I ended up with, after culling a few that I just did not like at all. I also gave myself permission to add a few more, and I already did. The dark warm orange and also the green of the sashing were two that I added to bring a bit more muted vintage feel. Who know, I may add more yet, but now I’m going to piece the squares for the next border on, and then hand appliqué the scallops around the house blocks. I’m thinking I’ll do all the scallops in red.