Fun Making Pieced Poppy Art Quilts

As May turned back into March these past two weeks I decided the outdoor gardening would wait and I’d spend more time sewing.  I decided to focus on exploring some new designs and piecing for my poppy motif.  This is one design that is a bit complicated to piece.  It kind of feels like I must figure it out each time I decide to make a poppy quilt so I thought, why not make a bunch of poppy quilts while I know what I’m doing?!!!  The pictures here are of the pieced tops as I haven’t done the quilting yet.

I will do future blog on the actual process of how I make these quilts but today I want to focus on a few different layouts and designs and colors  

I’ve said this before but I get bored easily!  So, instead of making more quilts of a similar design as in the past, I decided to move those poppies around and try some different piecing.  My first quilt was a design of two poppies facing upward so there is no middle black and white section seen.  It was a more simple piecing and definitely more abstract.  I added some green curved pieces for abstract leaves.

My second poppy quilt used the grey/beige mottled background fabric (Stonehenge) with the red poppies and the grey/brown stems.  I usually make this design with a tall poppy in the middle and two poppies slightly lower in the design on either side.  I decided to move the layout around some with the tall poppy on the left, the lowest poppy in the middle and the far right poppy sort of between the other two in height placement on the quilt.

My last quilt I pieced this week is simply three red flowers on my favorite blue/green background without stems or leaves.  

For all the quilts except the first design, I piece different fabrics together before cutting out different shapes for the petals.  This approach to design means every single petal in every quilt is different.  These approaches make the design and piecing fun, creative and always a bit of a surprise.

I hope you get some ideas for some of your own quilt projects.  Stay tuned for some blogs on the actual construction of the poppy quilt design.