Standing Tall

These are delphiniums that I had in my Georgia garden.  They do not like the heat & you have to really nurture these flowers.  They are actually high maintenance.....sort of like Divas of a Garden.  Actually quite worth the trouble because of the beauty that they bring to a garden.  They bring height & almost purple blue color that not many flowers have. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Sometime before I got to plant these flowers, I made a sketch of delphiniums & the following 26"wide x 23" length wall hanging was born.  This way I could have them to look at during anytime of the year.  I'm planning on making this one into a pattern but, I need to make some of the shapes a little larger so it's easier for handling. 



Below are some closeups of very small butterflies & the quilting.  All inspired by the garden.

Wish I could just magically snap my fingers & create one but, like all other quilting it takes time......



From Tuscany to Texas Hill Country

This photo was taken during the spring when my husband & I traveled to the hill country here in Texas. Since I haven't lived in Texas for years, I was pleasantly surprised to find red poppies blooming in the hill country.



                               


This red poppy quilt was made a few years ago, inspired by a trip to Italy.

Earlier this year I decided that this flower need more depth & highlights & shading.  It was already quilted & if I ruined it by fusing on top of it, I would not be too concerned.  I'd take this as a learning experience & make another poppy quilt if I needed to.  I fused more fabric to it & quilted these pieces down.  It worked out just fine. 

Sometimes you simply have to live with a quilt for a while before you develop of sense of how it should be completed.  This happens thru developing your skills & wanting to challenge yourself to improve your techniques.  It's exciting when this happens.  I recently did a demo for one of my minigroups with a much smaller poppy by demonstrating how to take a drawing......

   and creating a thread painted image.........

This little 5" x 7" image is nothing more than a white muslin fabric, spray starched several times to avoid hooping, & then simply thread painting.  Thread painting is simply filling in the shape with several shades of thread.  It's a lot of fun to do.  This little piece is not quilted & I haven't decided if I will quilt it.  I may just mount on painted canvas. 

Inspiration from Nature...

 The photograph below is from my mother-in-law's bougainvilla bush from a few years ago.  I decided it should become a quilt when we relocated to Mexico City, Mexico & found a home on a street named Bougainvilla Street (Paseo de Bugambilias).  I drew a pattern by looking at this photo. After several changes & additions, my drawing turned out the exact size of my quilt.  This was a really good exercise in drawing from a photo.  I added an additional butterfly due to the fabric I had. 



Bougainvilla Brilliance 2007 MSB Designs





Stretching Your Skills.....

How do you begin?  You might get started with a photo that just begs to be made into a quilt.  It may be the colors that inspire you or possibly the shapes.  The point of stretching your skills is not only to learn & improve but, to keep your quilt making exciting.  This photo of pansies was the inspiration photo for the drawing that follows.

I decided to make these pansies with mainly white since I had already made a quilt of purple pansies.  So now for the drawing.

I've colored in the drawing to see if it comes to life a bit before the fabric.

The other idea was to use the fabric in my stash....oops!  I meant to say fabric collection. Saying fabric collection sounds a little better.  Because I didn't have the above colors exactly, I used other colors that worked out nicely.  Some of the shading is done with fabric & the flower's centers have a small amount of purple & yellow paint where needed to help blend the colors.   Quilt size: 36"w x 41 & 1/2" l.

Copyright MSB Designs

From My Garden

I fell in love with flowers with the first bouquet of roses my husband, CB, gave to me.  I wish I had captured that first bouquet in a photo.   Flowers are a wonderful subject for recreating in a quilt or painting.  Below is a photo of pansies that I planted in my garden followed by the quilt.

Below is the quilt that came about from this photo.  Sometimes the actual quilts turn out a bit differently from the photo, once you interpret in fabric.  This can be quite exciting as the image comes to life.  This quilt's title is "Purple & White Blooming Bright", & was in the Dallas Quilt show March-2011.