After a week of sticky summer weather, it is now quite comfortable outside. The garden enjoys the hot days more than I do. This year we have an abundant crop of raspberries which are best plucked warm with sunshine and eaten right in the garden. The bee balm has just opened and the clematis are very happy. In the evenings the fireflies are like golden stars floating above the cornfields. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are plentiful, too.
So this week we are featuring a perfect little summer quilt project. It is constructed in the broderie perse technique. This simply means that you are fussy cutting characters from printed fabrics and rearranging then into your own creation. In this case we are using the Pink colorway of the Petunia fabric from the new Wild Child collection for FreeSpirit.
I especially designed this fabric so that each flower is whole… without overlapping any of its neighbors. This way each flower can be fussy cut and applied to any number of crafting projects. In this quilt the entire bouquet is a single section of fabric. Here you can see the design in the Blue and Pink colorways as well.
The frame (Gaillardia in the Pink colorway), background and flowerpot were constructed first and then the bouquet was appliqued on top. The black background square matches the floral background so they blend easily together. I also added some extra leaves for interest. There is a detailed description of this technique in Patchwork Sassaman Style.
The black background was quilted with a decorative stitch to suggest wallpaper, thus putting the flowers in a domestic location.
This is also a nice project to practice your free-motion quilting skills. The finished piece is 24″ X 26″, a perfect scale for home display.
So until next week… don’t forget to take some time to fondle your fabric.
