Spring in the studio has been in full swing for some time. I'm working on a couple of patterns, starting with a bi flower. "In Full Bloom" rattled around in my head for a couple of months this winter. Last month I decided to let it out and drew this flower.
Since I wanted it to be finished while I'm still middle-aged, I decided it needed to be fused.
I didn't even consider hand appliqué, which I actually enjoy, because even if the heart says, "yes, yes,yes," the fingers say, "forget about it."
Then it's time to meet with my fabric stash. Fabrics often give me good guidance when I'm trying to decide on color. This batik really spoke to the daisy-like design, so that's where I started.
The background needed to be fairly subtle with being boring. So I gathered up light aquas to mix up and create interest without fighting with the flower.
Now it was time for the flower petals. I started with the oranges of the daisy batik flowers and added both lighter and darker values, keeping in mind that some of the petals would be in direct sun and others in shadow.
And then, of course, some brown for the center and greens or the leaves and stem.
Fusible web can be an interesting challenge. For a long time I used light Steam-a-Seam for projects like this that would ultimately be sewn and/or quilted over. From that point of view, Steam-a-Seam Lite was a really good fit. The problem with it is that once pieces of web are cut, the glue tends to fall off of the paper. For me, this was really annoying and for new fusers, it's incredibly frustrating. For the past few months, I've been using Pellon Wonder-Under. The fused pieces still have a soft hand and are easy to sew on and the glue stays with the paper until you pull it off.
With the original drawing under my Applique Pressing Sheet, I started with the petals on the underneath and built up to the top.
Because you can fuse as you go, it's easy to stay on track and the finished flower can be moved to the background piece as a single unit. I added leaves and stem and fused it all to the background at once.
Then I added the borders cut from the daisy fabric and quilted to create definition within the petals. To get additional shadows and highlights, I used acrylic paint thinned with a little water.
Here are a couple of closeups to show quilting and paint.
Now I'm just waiting for nature to catch up with my vision of summer. The pattern should be up on the website in a couple of weeks. It seems that the boss sort of likes me to show up at my day job so creating the pattern takes a bit longer than I'd like.
My new goal is to blog more often. Now that I've gotten to know my new computer (who apparently likes to be referred to as "Big Mac") blogging is SO much easier. I also comment from time to time on my Facebook page - Mother on a Broomstick Designs. Please visit and "Like" us. I'm still kind of struggling with the new look of the page; I'll figure it out eventually.
Happy Quilting
Candy
