Bursting Heart and Angel Quilt Coming Along

Honestly, I don't think I have an original thought in my head.  But my...oh my...am I easily inspired.  I can look through Pinterest and my mind is in a whirl wind of frenzied ideas.  You saw from my last post Denim Angel Quilt Block Tutorial how I was inspired for the denim angels quilt block.

Well then I ran across this Bursting Heart Pillow tutorial over at the Blue Susan makes... blog.  And apparently I am not the only one inspired by others because she admits that her inspiration came from an Amy Butler's pattern Alchemy Sweet Slices Pillow.  So I had to try to adapt it to my beloved denim.  And this is what I came up with...

And I have incorporated it and the angels into this quilt that is slowly coming along.

I've also included a couple of my denim hearts and I may try to do a tutorial on those in the near future.

Denim Angel Quilt Block Tutorial

 I cannot take credit for this idea.  I found it on Pinterest and have to give Kudos where Kudos are due.  It started out as X-mas Ornament:Angels at the Selimut-ku blog.  But the denim colored blue angel from El Patchwork De Kris caught my eye and I thought that might make a quilt block.  And it did quite nicely.

I do machine quilting on a regular machine, so I always try to work with a 10-inch block.  It is limiting but just easier to maneuver around in the space on regular machine and so set about trying to increase the size of the angel to fit nicely on a 10-inch block.  So I started by trying to find something perfectly round in my kitchen to use for my circles and I came up with the bottom of a paper towel holder.  I think the top of a whipped cream container would have worked just as well. 

The diameter (measuring across from one side thru the center to the other) of the cut circle was 7 1/4 by 7 1/4.

Next I went to my Photoshop Elements and started with a new document with measurements of 5 1/4 and I chose a heart shape and stretched it to fit the measurements and printed.  I layered Wonder Under and my fabric that would be the wings and cut the heart out.

I cut circles from my denim to make my angels.  All of my denim is recycled and I tried to choose a denim that was faded a bit more than my denim blocks because I wanted that contrast in color.  I chose my 10-inch denim blocks that I had already premade and made sure that I chose blocks that had very little seam to them.  And sewed my circles with a over locking stitch right at the very edge leaving about an inch or two for turning.  Usually a seam is recommended and then you clip the seam to work around the circle but because I was working with denim and denim tends to fray I felt that close to the edge with the locking stitch was called for.  I turned my circles and just my closed scissors to help push the edges out.  I ironed the circle being sure to turn in the inch or so that was unsewn.  And went back to my machine to do a scalloped decorative stitch around the edge. 

When I was done the edges tended to want to curl up a bit probably because of the way that I had decided to do the over lock stitch but I was ok with it.  I just thought we would have a bit of a flirty angel.

Next I turned down the collar or what will make the little cape of the angel and ironed.  I was making 4 for the same quilt so I made sure that they were all the same.

This is where I started playing to decide if my colors were balanced and pleasing to me.  I called on my sister to help me decide which looked the best.

I folded down the collar leaving a bit of a space at the top for the head. 

 I created yoyos from different printed fabrics to see which I thought was most appealing. I tried them with the gathers turned up and with them turned down.

We tried them with little black eyes.

We tried them with a rose embellishment.

And with a button embellishment.



With opposite printed fabrics for the face.

With a pink face.

And a white face.  This is the one that we finally settled on.  I like denim for the dress and I think it shows off the decorative stitch so much better than the others.















At this point I positioned everything on my block where I wanted it to be with the Wonder Under beneath the heart, moved the angel off the heart and ironed my heart to my denim 10-inch block.

I have not been turning the edges of my appliques down and I hope that I don't regret this after the wash but I think the wonder under will hold everything in place.  If you think you would rather turn your edges under just cut the heart a 1/4 inch larger and do that before you iron it in place.

Next I used a decorative blank stitch and stitched around the raw edge of the heart.

Next I moved the angel onto the block and centered and pinned it in place.

Next I opened the collar up so that I could see the crease.

And I sewed along the crease.  The contrasting color will not hurt here as the collar will fold back down and cover it.

Then I folded the collar back into place.

And then tacked the collar to secure.  Not to worry with my stitches because the button embellishment will hide any faults.

Next I tacked the button in place.

Then I used the same blanket stich to go around the head.

I love my denim angel block.  I think she is just gorgeous.  I hope the tutorial was useful.

Wonderful News!!!

Well I feel like I have just left everything hanging here...but really think I had a good reason.  I went for my kidney surgery but when they did it my colon was nicked and they had to call someone in to repair it.  So instead of just the robotic removal of half the kidney, which they did, I had to be opened up for that repair.  I got home and still was feeling terrible and about a week later woke to a pool of blood in my bed and had to go back to the emergency room to be opened up again and all the flood cleaned out and was sent back home with a wound vac.  I am finally off the vac but still have an open wound that has to be dressed every other day.

But the wonderful news is that when the pathology results came back on the kidney it was denign...woot woot!