Love Always 9th May

Hi Everyone,
Well, this year life has got in the way of my blogging. Have been meaning each week to write my quilting diary and each week I say I will do it next week so lots of catching up to do.
This week it is Love Always as it is fresh in my mind as have been working on part 5 this week.
In my last blog, way back in Jan I had just finished my center block.

Very happy and thought my colours for this quilt are set and know where I am heading with it.
Had an idea what I wanted for my vases, a sort of oriental look using fabrics that some metallic on them for an extra bit of bling along with my metallic thread.

Part two is tulips and I had a lovely mottled peach/pink fabric that was ideal for it.

Part 3 I loved making, it is much busier  and reminded me of Love Entwined with the tiny stems and little berries.

The stems were very narrow so used a variegated thread and triple stitch on machine to thread painted them in.

Finished and I think my favourite of the four vase blocks.

Part 4 a vase of carnation and wanted to use a sister fabric to the first block, pink with a bit of blue. This block had lots of twiggy stems to deal with first.

They were a little larger than in the last block so used a very small zigzag stitch to stitch them. 

Next was the flowers, tried the oval base to them in the pattern but couldn't get my colours right so opted to use part of another pattern of Esther's instead.

Very Happy, they look how I picture carnations to be.

Now to have the blocks so far together.

Very soft and romantic

I carried on with other things during the month but the more I looked at my blocks something was wrong, it was lovely but where was the pop?

There are still elements to add around the center but they can't be the pop so I started to play with my center flowers, making new ones that were darker and also introduced a bit of orange, to give me more options for my border flowers

With two made and pinned in place I liked the look, more so when placed with the completed blocks.

Felt I was on the right track but decided to leave it until the last block was made

1st of this month part 5 came out and was keen to make a start.

Decided on my vase fabric and carried through the gold I have used on all my vases.

Didn't want a solid colour for my star flowers so tried a little japanese print that is for my Queens Garden quilt.

It is a beautiful fabric with a wonderful sheen, had my blue that I wanted but also gold and green.

This is where the wheels fell off as when I put my vase up with the other blocks the balance fell apart and nothing gelled together.

My deeper center was going to work as it was drawing the eye in but  only my latest vase stood out and all the flowers were there but doing nothing. 

It was time for some serious reverse stitching so took all my blocks to quilt group last Friday and unpicked my center flowers and the two tall vases, felt they were the ones that would be easiest to alter, changing my block flowers was not an option LOL 

First for new fabric was the tulip block

Wasn't sure about this fabric but it brought my flowers to life.

Loved my original blue vase but it didn't have any variation in it even though it had lots of swirls, this is not my favourite fabriv but it brings out the colours in the flowers.

New Center Block

Like the first one I used a limited number of fabrics and changed their placement for each flower. Decided I didn't really like the way the center petal overlapped the side ones with these fabrics so put it underneath instead, strange because I was very happy with it on top in the lighter flowers.
Now I could finish my last block.

I wanted more gold tones to balance the yellow in my tulips so decided to go with an earthy look heading into orange and finish the star flowers with bright orange centers.

To stitch those tiny flower centers I reduced my inwards stitch width to 1.6 instead of my normal 1.8 but left the length between stitches at 2. You are turning your fabric every stitch on such a small circle, if the stitches are too close together or too long they will stitch over each other instead of being seperate.

With my block finished and all my changes made it was time to put them all back together.

Set out like the pattern with the similar shape vases opposite each other the vases look good but it is unbalanced

A change around and it all flows and is much better on the eye and

the flowers take center stage.

Hope you have enjoyed seeing how Love Always has evolved into a totally different quilt to how it started. Going to link with Esther's WOW on Wednesday now and head back to some stitching.

Enjoy your week everyone,

Cheers Jenny