World War I Challenge

Yikes!  It has been a while since I posted here.  I have gotten wrapped up in  the World War I challenge piece that I mentioned previously.  The challenge is a poppy themed quilt, inspired by the poem, "In Flanders Fields."  Here are some in progress images:

First, my initial idea involved rubbings from gravestones in a nearby cemetery.  I only found a metal medallion indicating the grave of a World War I veteran.  In my collection of fabric collage stuff, I found a vintage hanky with some red poppies on it, and a felt tobacco premium flag  (Belgian flag, of course) from the World War I era.  I wanted those two items to be a part of the collage.

Image and design copyright RPS

Adding the flag and hanky would be the last steps in the collage, at this point I really needed some poppies.  I free-motion quilted the outlines of the flowers and leaves:

Image and design copyright RPS

Then, I colored the poppies with crayons, and heat set them by ironing.

Image and design copyright RPS

At this point, I wanted to add some detail with hand stitching, so I auditioned the flag and hanky again, changing the planned locations for them.  I didn't want to hand stitch where the extra pieces would cover my hard work.

Image and design copyright RPS

Check back on Thursday to see how the hand stitching and additional quilting turned out.