Starburst Blossom and Deco Garden needleturn projects

Deco Gardens needleturn applique project

Reeze Hanson's "Deco Garden"

Back in 2015, Reeze Hanson of Morning Glory Designs  released an applique BOM, which she titled "Deco Gardens".  This was a collection of (12) 12" blocks of Art Deco inspired flowers and plants plus border blocks.   Art Deco has always appealed to me so I began collecting the designs. 

Mind you, I said COLLECTING the designs, not making them.  The thing about designs and patterns is that, many times, if you don't grab them when they first show up, you may lose out entirely.  I knew that if I had the designs, I could make them at my leisure.

first block, "Columbine"

It wasn't until February 2018 that I made my first Deco Garden block, a Columbine. 

By that time (three years later), Reeze had explanded the Deco Garden blocks to many, many more than the original 12.  I decided that I would make a LARGE quilt and started to plop pictures of the Deco Garden blocks that I liked into EQ to give me a layout. 

my king-sized layout

We have a king-sized bed.  I don't have a properly sized quilt for it (even after all these years) and decided that THIS was going to be the quilt for our bed.  My layout ended up with  (49) 12" blocks plus border blocks.  It's going to be HUGE.  But .. hey ... I'll call it my current Forever Project and just plug away.

I had decided that I wanted the same mottled black fabric as the background for the entire quilt.  To that end, I bought an entire bolt of Moda "Marbles" and prayed it would be enough.  A very rough estimate assured me that a bolt would be enough.   Surely a whole bolt would suffice  (cross fingers).





Needleturn applique technique
I used to not like applique.  I don't like the look and feel of satin-stitched edges.  I *REALLY* don't like the look of a looser zig-zag.  Most of the time, a blanket stitch isn't appropriate for the design.  And I HATE fused applique.  Now there are times and circumstances when any of those techniques are applicable but I just don't like them.

"Magnolia" - a finished block

I also had not (yet) discovered a hand stitched method that I liked .... so ... I just didn't DO applique.  Which was perfectly fine with me, as I had a tremendous backlog of pieced layouts to create!   BUT, in 2007, I found a technique that finally resonated with me.  It's a front-basted method which I learned from a Pacific Rim Quilting Company pattern, Peace, which you can read about on my web site here.

Much later, I was fortunate enough to actually take a hands-on class from Nancy Lee Chong, of Pacific Rim Quilting Company, who promotes this technique.   I was IN LOVE with this method!  From then on, I was a needleturn applique fiend!

It is this front-basted method that I use for my needleturn applique projects.  I'd say that 99% of the pieces were able to accommodate this technique but if the piece was really teeny-tiny or had impossible edges, I then used a fusible, water-soluble stabilizer as the base for just that small piece, which was then appliqued down.

current Deco Garden block in progress

Today's date is July 2, 2019; I am still working on the applique blocks for Deco Garden.   This is the current block I'm working on.  It's called "Blue Rose", so as to distingish itself from all the other rose blocks.  :-) 

You can easily see the finished, turned edges. The red dotted lines show the basted, raw edge, where I am currently turning the edge under.

If you look at the green stem in the lower right corner, you'll see the purple basting thread holding that piece down and showing me where the finished seam line is.






Starburst Blossom, a pieced & applique project

Reeze Hanson's "Starburst Blossom"

In March 2018, Reeze started her 2018 BOM, Starburst Blossom.  It is a 12 block pattern with a delightful, easily pieced background (which remains the same for all the blocks) with a varied applique floral design in the middle of the pieced block. Although the pieced block is the same, the colors of the block are all different.

The basic BOM was one block a month but if you subscribed to her newsletter, you had access to another block.  I did subscribe to the newsletter and I ended up with a quilt top of 20 blocks plus the borders. At 16" square, the blocks are HUGE but that makes the quilt assembly go quickly.

my finished Starbust Blossom top (Jan 2019)

What possessed me to work on TWO concurrent applique BOM collections is beyond me, but I did.  Starburst Blossoms, having fewer blocks, would finish sooner than Deco Gardens ... mainly because there was a Facebook group specifically for Reeze's BOM blocks, which gave me the push to stay on top of the block construction. 

In January 2019, I completed my Starburst Blossom top, which finished at 82"x100"  As of June 2019,  it is still unquilted (that's a different project!).









Back to Deco Garden
All during 2018, as the Starburst Blossom blocks were released, I'd drop whatever I was doing and make up not only the basic BOM but the extra, newsletter BOM.  In between the Starburst Blossom blocks, I'd be working on the Deco Garden blocks.

For my Forever Project, my typical "rule" is that it was for me to work on when I was away from home .. on road trips, on vacation, at doctor's offices, or Little League games.  I wouldn't work on it at home because, at home, I'd be using my sewing machine to work on yet a DIFFERENT project.  A Forever Project is simply there allow me to creatively and productively occupy my hands  when I can't be machine sewing.  It usually doesn't have a deadline and I can take however long I need.

However, I have given myself permission to break this "rule" with Deco Garden.  I am now steadily working on it at home (taking a hiatus from machine sewing) so that I can reasonably expect this project to reach completion.  I do have an incentive to do so ... I have another needleturn applique project waiting for me!  :-)

As of today (July 2, 2019), I have 39 completed Deco Garden blocks and 12 completed border blocks.  That leaves 10 Deco Garden blocks, 16 border blocks, and the 4 corner blocks to finish before assembly.  The Light at the End of Tunnel is in sight!  :-)

a border block

EXCEPT ... (can you hear the shoe dropping?) ... I was looking at my EQ printed layout of the final version of Deco Garden.  Then I looked at my pile of border blocks .. which have ALL BEEN PREPPED for needleturn.  OH. MY. GOODNESS.  A *major* problem. 

In my enthusiasm to get the border blocks prepped for needleturn, I was on auto-pilot.  I never stopped to check what I was doing against the final picture.  I didn't realize until recently that the border blocks ON THE SIDES are DIFFERENT from the border blocks on the top & bottom.   AAARRRGGGHHHH.  Take a look at the king-size layout above ... you'll see the side borders are different.

Well, tough luck.  I am NOT going to undo all my prepped needleturn.  I'm not even sure I have enough of the green left to DO the side border blocks now.   AAAARRGGGHHH. 

However, in the Grand Scheme of Things, if you didn't have the original layout out look at, you'd never realize that the side borders were supposed to be different.   After all, most quilts have symmetry and consistency on all sides for the borders.  And that's how my quilt is going to stay.