Heart Applique block

I am determined to get some of the works in progress moved forwards over the next few weeks as they seem to be breeding every time I turn my back. 

First on the agenda, the quilt,  which only has three blocks left to complete.  This is the block I made today. 

The pattern came from Shining Star Quilts by Judy Martin and is extracted from a larger design.   I am not totally sure I picked the correct fabric for the outer heart, I had planned to use black but it didn't work with the spotted leaves; and I wanted the spotted leaves because all the floral blocks have these spotted leaves so it brings a cohesion to the quilt top (I hope).  Despite the background appearing to be a dirty lemon in the photo, its actually a very pale pink.   The design was totally sewn by hand.  All the pieces, including the two large hearts, were cut using the freezer paper method.  The smaller heart is attached to the larger one first, then the inner part of the large heart is cut away afterwards.  Getting the two hearts to line up evenly was actually the most difficult part, and I can now see why the instructions say to do it that way.  It is very wasteful of fabric, but I'm not sure I could have got things lined up properly if I'd used a bias strip around the heart as I'd planned to do.

 I also cut the four corner blocks, which are plain black, and added the borders to those.  These will all be hand quilted and I've traced the design onto three of the blocks already.  The last one is very dense and complicated, so that's a task for tomorrow.    I'm using Burda carbon paper to transfer the designs onto the fabric.  I'm not sure if this will work but figured it was worth a try.  It certainly looks as though it will stay put long enough to quilt it, and it can be seen easily at present.  So here's hoping it works (and comes out afterwards). 

  If all goes to plan I'll get that last corner block marked tomorrow, have another finished block to show you, and at least one more block started.  In theory, all the blocks could be done by next weekend if I get a move on with them this week and am not distracted by other things.