Making Poppies quilt

My friend recently asked how do I add small slivers of fabric to my curved pieced quilts. I thought the best way to tell and show would be by starting a new quilt. This was a reason for me to start Poppies quilt. I wanted to make a poppy quilt anyway but I thought I would make a small quilt first.

When I curved piece my quilts I add a lot of narrow opposite value slivers between strips of fabric:

I think they add interest and movement.

I was going to make 12×12 inches quilt. I’ve already made my log cabin blocks for poppies and now I was ready to sew them together. I also wanted to make them not as square as they are by adding small slivers of fabric.

I started by taking one block and sewing on a narrow (about ½ or ¾ of inch) strip of a green fabric like this:

Then I pressed it opened:

Then I squared the block:

I added one more green strip of  a different color and value and finally pressed it opened:

Now I can sew few blocks together:

In wider spaces between poppy blocks I would go like this: take a longer strip of a green fabric and make a free hand cut with a rotary cutter:

Sew a narrow, different value and color strip to the cut:

Press it open:

Again, cut free hand the way I would like it to look:

Sew another strip to it:

Open and press it:

Where I am going to use it in my quilt?

The poppy blocks are arranged like this to fit into 12×12 inches square. I’ve already added some greenery earlier:

I think the green strip with a sliver that I’ve just made will go there:

I am taking those two pieces out and sewing them together, then I cut the excess of greenery of but I will use it somewhere in this quilt later:

Now it goes back into the quilt:

I worked further adding more greenery into empty spaces between poppy blocks. I realized that I needed more poppy blocks so I made three more.

I must say that this is a rather slow work as every time I cut a new piece I must get up from my sewing machine, go to an ironing board, then to cutting table, back to sewing machine, sew it on and do the same procedure for every small piece, even for the smallest one. As I move around my studio, the studio manager Albinas is watching me closely to see if I am going to miss something. This time he didn’t want to get into the mess I’ve created and stayed in his bed:

It only took me two days to finish this quilt.  Here is the finished top:

I made it 13.5×13.5 inches because it will shrink a little as I quilt. I will also need to square it to about 12 and 3/4 of inch to 12 and 3/4 of inch as I want it to be 12×12 inches finished. It worked!

Here is my quilt already quilted and faced:

And few detailed images:

It was fun making this size of quilt. I will make few more before I start a larger project again. Feeling relaxed with the start of a New Year.