Peach Rose—In Real Life and Fabric Still Life

I am inspired by Nature.  Earlier this week I captured  photos of my neighbor's peach colored roses in full bloom.  I love everything about those roses – color, shape, texture, smell. 

 

In 2010, I created an 8" x 10" peach rose art quilt as part of a Lincoln Quilters Guild challenge.  I used quilt artist Melinda Bula's (www.melindabula.com)  fusible appliqué technique, which involves developing a pattern from a photograph and then choosing fabrics to approximate (or exaggerate or reinterpret) the colors in the photo.  The pattern looks a little like a paint-by-number picture from the 60s, but the numbers represent fabrics, not paint colors.  It was a challenging but very interesting process, to actually  train my eye to "see" over 25 colors in a "peach" rose.

 

Once I had all those teeny tiny pieces fused (or so I thought) to the light blue background fabric, and began a freestyle machine quilting technique known as thread painting (my first attempt!), some of my pieces became unstuck.  Plan B:  I purchased some water-soluble stabilizer, laid it over the top of all those fragile fused pieces, and resumed thread painting with much better, albeit imperfect, results!

 

I emailed Melinda Bula for permission to show the miniature quilt at my guild's quilt show in 2010, because it was based on a pattern for a much larger version of an appliquéd rose (37" x 34") from her book Cutting Garden Quilts:  Fabulous Fusible Flowers (Martingale: 2007).  I attached a photo of my 8" x 10" quilt with a ruler beside it.  She not only gave me permission to show it, she asked me for permission to share the photo of my miniature quilt with a class she was teaching using that technique!

 

I have photos of some other flowers that I may make into larger appliqué wall art some day, but for now I am content to enjoy the real life peach roses in my neighbor's garden.  

 

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may." 

Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250-1900, Arthur-Quiller-Couch ed. 1919. 

 

TTFN

LeAnn aka pasqueflower

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower

http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com