Quiltingboard Forums - Fun Fish and Spiky Poppies!! (Be careful...these fish are addictive!)

The first mini, Fun Fish, came together in a few hours! You can't make just one block! You'll be well on to making lots of them! They are fun to do! I made the blocks reversible so when you're finished, you can make the head the tail and vice versa if you don't like the fabrics you picked out. I did that on one of the blocks. The fin blocks are reversible too! Just by moving the top block to the bottom and the bottom block to the top, the outer fin then becomes the inner and the inner becomes the outer! When you're done sewing, you can change the whole look of the fish!! This becomes possible because of placing the fabrics in opposing positions in the 2 fin blocks. No seam ripper needed!! Talking about a versatile block!! I call it Fun Fish because ANY combo of fabrics works best! Another reason is that the stamen of the hibiscus flower became the eye for the bottom fish much to my surprise! I didn't notice til all the borders were on. Another surprising element to Fun Fish! Have fun and swap fins with body blocks for a real scrappy look!

The 2nd mini is called Spiky Poppies. We always bought the plant called "Spikes" and planted them in the large yard containers among the annuals. I used vintage prints for this mini and I marbelized the fabric for the inner border which I love! Been wanting to do this for quite awhile. Finally, got around to it. I just mixed my paints, painted on muslin and threw the piece in the microwave for 1 min. exactly. It set the paint perfectly and eliminated all that required 36 hr. drying time when using fabric paints. It may have stiffened the fabric, but ironing it later softened it and set the color. I first designed the block with a longer petal, but changed the pattern to a shorter design as I wanted to emphasize those big centers! I might add this was extremely challenging and I was glad to be done with it (although I love the great big centers so I achieved the look I was after). Hope you enjoy these 2 minis as much as I do! The patterns are included for both. ;) Thanks for looking!!

Spiky Poppies mini

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early stages

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Fun Fish

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rainbow hearts, rhinestones and pearls were glued on

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among the seaweed, this fish has dragonfly fins

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I handpainted the border fabric

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I wanted to show the look of Fun Fish before the glitz was added

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