A Posy in Spring

It was a stormy spring, that spring of 2010.  And that rainy season became my personal inspiration for many things that year.   To begin, I wanted to make a  drawing that would be suitable to turn into a pattern and become ‘the big picture’ so to speak! To see if it would ‘bloom’ … into a quilt.

That spring I was also home, recuperating from my first-ever surgery that June.  And I was limited in mobility, so sketching was a good thing… as it rained and poured… and poured and rained! 

“Peachy Posy”

I hand-cut a bunch of wool circles, fusing them on, and added little yellow circles, and then a french knot in a black thread.  Beads were sewn on by hand, but not before the black lines of the stamens were quilted first.

And, as some of you know… one of my favorite things to do is free motion couching to frame the edges of the petals.  I used several different techniques, free motion and traditional.  First, the yarn was laid down around the perimeter of the flower petals, with the Bernina #43 free motion couching foot.  

Once that was accomplished, I added an additional visual element of with silver  Razzle Dazzle, just inside that yarn border, using my Bernina #39 clear embroidery foot, which is a traditional couching foot and allows for exact placement.  I added free motion applique stitching from the petals, going in soft curley-q’s from the petal’s edges, and also in and among the center of the flower’s small woolen circles, in a soft, swirly line as the stamens of the flower. Love the black drama and visual interest this brings to the center of the flower.  I see it as beckoning, as if to say “come – take a closer look!”

The pink beads were hand sewn on this time.  Love the pinky-purple tone with the peachy-pink of the flower!

The beads lend themselves, ever so slightly, to a rain-shiny look.  I also free motion stitched, using my favorite #29 clear foot, around the little woolen circles, to help them ‘pop up’ just a bit, using an orangey-yellow color of thread so it would not show too much.

The picture below, reminds me of how excited I was to add the angelina – both fibers and textiva film.  This was the perfect touch in my eyes, to emulate the rainy puddles that seemed to fill up my garden flower beds… and I was delighted with this look.  It’s so easy (and really fun) to do – I pulled angelina fibers out of the package, chopped up some angelina/textiva film, and then fused them using my teflon sheets.  I laid them on to of the fused grass blades, and then added free motion couching with more yarn to add texture for the green lawn, and the blades look (to me anyway) like they are really wet.