BLOG 454

Blog 454

 
Firstly, I apologise for the late posting of this week’s blog. We have been away for the WE in S Wales at a ‘house-warming’ party. I use these words with caution as the couple who were celebrating their new home tried to move into the house 7 months ago. They had arrived from Aberdeen with 2 furniture vans and bags of optimism and the first thing they did was put the milk in the fridge and turn it on. 10 minutes later the kitchen was full of smoke with a sheet of flame going up the wall. The fire engine was called and they did what they had to do but not before £125,000 worth of damage had been done to the house and furnishings! Thank goodness they had insured the house and contents from midnight the day before. I gave them one of my art cushions as a cheery gift.

I had completed the painterly background a while ago and needed to add some flowers for interest. I have plenty of ready fused scraps in stock so these became my palette. For inspiration, I turned to art books mainly because they show the structure of flowers which is helpful when I am assembling free-cut pieces.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Palette

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Inspiration

  
I played with some ideas first of all but then decided on Rudbeckias because they were flowering in my borders. I free-cut the parts of the flower and ironed them on release paper. Then I was able to peel them off and drop them where I wanted them on the background.

 

 

 

 

 

         Creating flowers

 

 

          In situ
 



 

Once they were pressed onto the ready quilted background, all I had to do was some free-motion stitching to hold the pieces in place and to add some decorative interest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Thread work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Completed cushion

 

They were delighted with the gift which makes my efforts worthwhile and it will be a constant reminder for them of a lovely garden party.

 

On Thursday I will be travelling down to the NEC with my chums for the Festival of Quilts. Our group quilt was posted a few weeks ago so it will be great to see it hanging in competition and, as usual, we have our fingers crossed that the judges will enjoy it too! I know the viewing public will be amused by it. More next week!