Sunday, February 12, 2012

"Flowers in the Forest"

Earlier this year, when I discovered that my LQS was going to have a Kona club (at my suggestion) I figured that I should get my body moving and make something to be used as an inspiration piece and (and I must say AND......that hopefully I might be able to use for some swap too.)  During the Christmas break when I was just playing in Flickr and pinterest, ('cause my machine was packed away) I discovered a black and white drawing of a rug hooking pattern by the famous, Karla Gerard that I KNEW I'd have to do in fabric.   So.... as soon as my tree was down and I was back in business, I got to work.  First I fused some white fabric and cut out my trees.  I thought a blue background might be fun for a change:


I sewed the trees down right away because I wasn't sure how I'd be able to get to all the spaces after all my "flowers" were fused down.  Note the circle flowers starting to bloom.........(I cut three different sizes of circles and a bunch of different colored leaves.)


At this point all my circles were fused down and it was a matter of making my quilt sandwich and getting going.  I loved the clean look of the circles, but thought a different approach might be fun too:



Can you see how I thread painted all the circles to make them look fuzzy?  I thought it gave it sort of an ethereal affect.  Sort of mystical, if you will.......!!  Note that I also quilted the spaces in the blue spaces between the trees in order not to have it gap or wrinkle.  When things are so tightly quilted in one place, anything left unquilted has the possibility to wrinkle so I wanted to squash that in the beginning.  Next was the buttons and french knots:

"Flowers in the Forest"

And a close up:

The flowers in the Forest

I added some hand stitching too just to make it look more colorful!  Don't look at the back though.....not a pretty sight:


That was over 100 buttons, my friends!  I thought I'd never get done!  Good thing this ugly side will be against the wall, huh?  E-gads!!!  It ended up at 14 by about 22 inches.  Now, onto the next!  (Once I get rid of this lousy cold.  Now I'm coughing to beat the band and my nose is running all over the place!  Ugh!!!)

35 comments:

MB in MI said...

Just beautiful--!

Reene@Nellie's Niceties said...

Fabulous as always!

Vickie said...

OK, this totally rocks. I love trees and this one is perfect. Hope you get feeling better! Hugs!

Quiltjane said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Quiltjane said...

Magnificent. I love it!

Elaine said...

Gorgeous work as always!

Nicole said...

Simply gorgeous! Love the colors - so bright and happy:)
Get well soon!

felicity said...

Carol, one of the things I love about you is how your style shines through everything you make no matter how different it is. Love this piece!

Diane aka Nana said...

That is a gorgeous quilt!!! Very inspiring, as in, I want to make one too!

Christine M said...

It was worth sewing on all those buttons. It looks fantastic. Love it!

Terry@ a quilting blog said...

What a beautiful wall hanging...love the colors and all those buttons!! TFS Hope you feel better real soon.
~Terry~

Sonia B said...

I thought it looked lovely at the beginning, but then you always step it up a notch. The end product is, once again, stunning. Love it!

Vroomans' Quilts said...

This has me in awe! Yes, agree with others, lovely to start and then you just send us into a spin with all the extras you add. Just stunning inspiration.

Larissa said...

This is GORGEOUS!!! I am in awe of your creativity!!

Andra Gayle said...

OOH! I LOVE it!

Chatterbox Quilts said...

Wow! This is lovely! I love the embroidery stitches as well - they add so much and are really quick to do.

Kelli said...

Love, love, love this! You have so much talent and fantastic ideas!!! I love all the stitching and the buttons!!! Great job!!

Annie said...

All your added detail is what makes it yours and fabulous! Karla is a great inspiration too.

Apple Avenue Quilts said...

Just plain awesome!!! So fun. Hope you feel better soon.

Susan said...

As always - awsomely artistic!
have you tried sewing the buttons on by machine? - once you get the hang of it - it gets quicker!

Teje Karjalainen said...

What a wonderful tree! So beautiful with all the colours on the blue!

Linda said...

Just wonderful! This would make such a lovely "picture" for a child's room, like an Enchanted Forest. You are very clever!

Linda said...

Just wonderful! This would make such a lovely "picture" for a child's room, like an Enchanted Forest. You are very clever!

Lynne said...

I am a traditional quilter by heart, but I absolutely love this quilt! I may even be lured over to the 'dark side' to make one. Hope your cold is packing it's bags and departing.

Montserrat said...

Fantastisco¡¡ sencillamente espectacular, felicidades por tu trabajo. Me encanta.
saludos desde España.
Montse

Gill said...

Fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Simply gorgeous!

Ursula

Sara said...

You must be all buttoned out Carol...you are just a busy bee all the time. EVEN with a cold---lol:P

We have that yucky cold thing too..isn't it just peachy:(

Cindy Sharp said...

Beautiful! You didn't have an allergy attack from playing in all of those flowers?!

RobinLovesQuilting said...

Gorgeous! What a fun, creative use of solids! I'm inspired :-)

Dianne said...

Lovely, absolutely lovely! Feel better soon.

Mary said...

Feel Better soon! the trees are so cute with your additions. You have been awarded the Versatile Blogger from Me - Check it out!

michele said...

You never cease to amaze me! I think I would have had to use my machine for the buttons! Just wanted to let you know that I listed you on my Versatile Blogger Award. Here is a link to the post:

http://quilting-tutorials.blogspot.com/2012/02/versatile-blogger-award.html

brochure holders said...

Forest flowers designs are look so fabulous.Color combination are so attractive.Buttons are really increase beauty in the fabrics.

Unknown said...

I came here from http://annaslawinska.blogspot.com/2012/04/wiosennie-z-carol-turznik-czyli-mamajct.html

Gorgeous!!! Your patchworks are really great! :)