Hearts & Wreaths, Blocks 3 & 4

 Block 3 of Hearts & Wreaths has been appliqued! It's so relaxing to applique these leaves in the evening. I'm getting into the routine and they applique fast!

Block 4 has also been finished. The darker hearts in the center of this block slightly overshadow the leaves. When all the blocks are sewn together into the flimsy, they will look fine though.

Some people like to see what the back of applique looks like. You can't really see much, just the colored thread. I haven't cut the background fabric out behind the hearts. As of now, I'm planning on stitching in the ditch around the hearts, not in the hearts. I'll have to decide for sure before I put the quilt in the quilting frame. If I would decide to stitch inside the hearts, the extra layer of fabric makes small stitches challenging.

I've said I know how I want to quilt this quilt eventually when it's finished. All the leaves, hearts and black embroidered circle will be stitched in the ditch. It's the space where the four corners meet that I'll quilt some special designs. I see some feathers happening in those spaces.

If you look at the circle embroidery of the top two wreaths and compare them to the bottom two, the top circles are slightly more bold. Those two were embroidered using a chain stitch. This was an experiment to see if back stitching showed as well as the chain stitch, it doesn't. The rest of the blocks will be embroidered using the chain stitch. 

I had planned on appliqueing 4 blocks then deciding if I want to make a larger sized quilt. I enjoyed appliqueing the first block so I went ahead and purchased all soft yellow fabric I'll need for the rest of the quilt.

It will be awhile before I have block 5 completed. I want to cut the background fabric into squares for applique and then zigzag the edges to keep them from fraying. 

After that, I need to mark the circles for embroidering and then the hearts and leaves.

I'll keep on appliqueing 4 blocks at a time but I'll also need to cut leaves for those 4 blocks. My friend Elaine is also creating this same quilt. She suggested it would be a good idea while prepping the leaves for the wreaths, to also cut leaves for the outside border. Those leaves are a different size than the wreaths.

There are also small leaves in the border but many of you gave me the great suggestion to embroider those when I first showed this project which is what I plan to do. 

The only problem with this project is I'm enjoying myself so much that I've been neglecting my hand quilting! I'll have more time to quilt Welsh Beauty until I get all the prepping completed.

Here is a link to more information about the Hearts & Wreath pattern.

Linking to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching,  Oh Scrap, Show & Tell Monday, Monday Making, Handmade Monday, Design Wall Monday, BOM's Away