After viewing blooming Red Buds in Virginia in April, I was inspired to make a quilt. I thought I’d have a difficult time depicting them from a distance, so I decided to feature their blossoms close up. To that end, I took a bunch of photos. Gorgeous, right? I think it’s so interesting the way…
My flame vine quilt is now complete. I’ve named it Back Yard Beauty. I’m quite happy with it. Here’s a detail shot. You can see more about how I made it in the previous posts. On to the next quilt, a red bud tree! Ellen Lindner
Remember the “project that wasn’t?” After sketching it I decided not to proceed with it. My issue was that it looked too jumbled, and therefore didn’t accurately depict the plant that inspired me. My inspiration photo: The initial sketch: However, I was slow to put the sketch away so it lived on my design wall…
I have a white “silk” orchid that was very realistic looking when I purchased it several years ago. Over time, however, it has yellowed badly. I considered several ideas about how to best revamp these pretty petals. Eventually, I decided just to paint them, with ordinary acrylic paint. This worked well. I left the fiddly…
Here’s my challenge piece, complete. I call it Fragrant Climb. Detail: In a nod to the small flowers near the stairs in the inspiration photo, I drew on additional open-petal ones (above.) I liked the effect and will use it again. I’m pretty happy with this piece. Especially since I wasn’t that crazy about the inspiration…
Once I had the background and leaves finished, it was time to focus on the flowers. First, I auditioned fabrics. I had quite a big selection of fabrics to choose from, so it was easy to use a different fabric for each petal. Next, I started adding white flowers with open petals. I love these…