Reintroduction And Appliqued Poppies!

I thought it would be a good idea to start today's blog with a reintroduction of myself. That way, if someone is tuning in for the first time and doesn't want to scroll all the way to the bottom they can know what this blog is all about!

My name is Kimmel and I am a now 36 year old (I just had a Birthday, yay!) mother of four who is teaching herself how to sew. I have been utilizing the amazing tools from Sew Very Smooth and any advice I can get from the experienced seamstresses and quilters out there! This blog is the journey that I am going on. It's been so fun and I can't wait to continue on and learn more!

This past week I've been working on applique stitching some poppy flowers for a table runner I'm making. I practiced my stitching last week and decided to tackle the real thing this week.

These are two of the four poppies I'm doing. The one on the left is pretty good. The one on the right has some flaws. From far away they both look great, but if you look too close at the one on the right the imperfections start to show. 

To prove my point, here is the bottom of the stem. I don't know why the stitch decided to do a random straight stitch.

Another example of a mistake is this leaf. I miscalculated how long the leaf was and did one stitch too many which made me have to backstitch a bit.

Overall I'm happy with how these turned out. I like the zigzag stitch. I think it brings some texture to the block and helps distinguish the two colors of blue that make up the poppy. 

I am also currently working on a block of the month quilt. My second block should be in the mail today or tomorrow. I'm excited to finish another block for that quilt and start assembling my table runner next week!

If that wasn't enough on my plate, I've also decided that I want to start a new tradition next year for Valentine's Day by hanging heart stockings on the first and then letting my kids write notes to each other to hide in the stockings the two weeks leading up to the holiday. My husband and I will also put a few little goodies and notes in there as well. They can then open the stockings on Valentine's Day and read all their notes from their family. I'm really excited about it, but I need to make six heart shaped stockings now! 

I have some ideas on how I can do it, but I would love any suggestions or pattern ideas if any of you have something that can work! I have all year to get them done, but I'm excited to start planning and working on them when I can.