Flowers I Can Grow

Title: Flowers I Can Grow
Finished: 7/31/11
Techniques: gingham, machine stitches, grass stitch, wobble stitch
Size: 11 x 14"

This mini-quilt was the first one I did in the 2011 series. It was done in the Karen Linduska style as was the Grandpa's Sunset Roses in the 2012 series.  I used two different gingham check fabrics: a colorful large check for the background and a smaller light green check for the insert, which was appliquéd. I wasn't sure if the two checks would work together, but I think they do. The light green check was also used for the binding and backing.

The flowers, stems and leaves were made with a variety of machine stitches, widened and/or lengthened to create different kinds of petals and leaves. A single circle stitch made nice centers of the flowers.

The insert was made to not be a perfect rectangle, and the purple flower "grew" beyond the insert, which was also intentional. A grass stitch makes a border, and the quilting was done in a simple wobble stitch.

#24 Venus Voila!

#24: Venus Voila!
Finished: 6/16/12
Techniques: Around the World design, appliqué, Grass stitch
Size: 20" x 20"

Description: Well, this mini-quilt went on quite a journey! Just like Venus, I suppose. It was mid-week and I hadn't had an inspiration for a new mini-quilt, so I was going to fall back on doing a color collage in orange (similar to the color collage in green - see #15 "Spring Has Sprung" from April). I started by pulling all my oranges from my stash and wanted to experiment with creating an illusion of a spherical shape. I started with a light orange center and, using the "Around the World" design, put in progressively darker oranges for each round. Unlike the "Around the World" design however, I made the widths of the pieces incrementally smaller with each round. I was hoping to create a spherical illusion, but it didn't work. However, it struck me that the piece I  had cut into a circle did somewhat look like the sun, and I was still remembering watching the recent transit of Venus on June 5th. Then the inspiration hit me to appliqué the piece onto some outer space fabric I had, and add a black button to represent Venus! Voila!

Watching the transit was fascinating!  I especially liked seeing it through the telescope with the hydrogen filter which made the sun look red and you could see the "solar hairs"  - that's what the astronomy students were calling the active solar surface. The grass stitch I used to appliqué the piece onto the background is an uneven satin stitch which I really like, and it simulated the solar hairs.

The picture above is a closer shot of the mini-quilt that better shows the details of the grass stitch and quilting, as well as the variety of orange fabrics. The picture underneath shows the mini-quilt in its entirety, but once again the camera had difficulty with the brightness of the oranges. Another serendipitous discovery is that the picture above is actually a more interesting composition that the full sun picture below.  Hmmm. Something to think about for future artwork.