Monday 10 August 2015

Sunflower Mini Quilt

You might remember way back in February, when I made my hanging Bat Mini Quilt, that I mentioned I had started the year wanting to add some variety to the shape/size/design of my Mini Quilts (if you're interested, find all the ones I've made so far at the bottom of my 'My Quilts' page). My bat quilt covered most of my aims on this front, but I still felt the urge to make a mini quilt which was long and thin in shape. At the time the obvious subject matter for such a quilt had seemed a giraffe, but that idea wasn't really inspiring me, and so it's been in the back of my mind ever since. At some time in the last couple of months the idea of a Sunflower Mini Quilt popped into my head instead - probably at about the time that we finally gave up on any of our real sunflowers growing this year!

And I finally got round to making it last week.



I made it on a long, thin, vintage table runner. So that I kept the lace edging, rather than binding it in any way, I 'backed' it with a covered piece of wool, the exact size of the main runner fabric.

Here's the long, oblong wool piece in the centre with a larger linen piece underneath...


Then I just folded in the corners...



And ironed all the edges over, using a little spray basting glue to help hold them down (pins would do too!)



Then I used more basting spray to stick it to the back of my runner before quilting this fabric sandwich and adding the applique sunflower.


I did think about making the sunflower as a 'dresden plate' rather than applique, but I loved the wools in my recent sunflower cushions so decided to stick with them.


And, of course, all my Mini Quilts have some words or a quote on them. A sunflower gave me lots of possibilities here, but after browsing various quotes associated with sunflowers, I decided on this...


If you do a Pinterest search for advice from a sunflower, you'll see various gems of advice that a sunflower might give us! These were my favourites.



The advice also got me thinking - what else would give good advice? Maybe a tree? Or a cloud, rainbow, bee, butterfly, dinosaur, mermaid, the sea...? Or maybe a real person in history? It feels likes there's a child friendly art/writing project in there! What thing/creature/person do you think would give the best advice?

And speaking of advice, gardening advice this time, if any of you were looking at my tomatoes in my last post and thinking I really needed to cut off masses of those leaves then you'll be pleased to hear I have.

Thanks Emma!
Basically I had been growing a lot of beautiful tomato leaves rather than tomatoes! I usually 'forget' about pinching out the side shoots on tomatoes, it seems to be a blind spot with me. Not helped by the fact that my general style of gardening tends to be plant it and then let it do its own thing! And I always lack confidence in which shoots need the pinching out. But as with lots of things in life, gardening related or not, once you start doing something you find you can figure it out better than maybe you'd anticipated, it's just a matter of diving in and giving it a go. Perhaps that would be the advice of a baby penguin?! And hopefully I'll be more likely to get a better crop of tomatoes now.

Sally.







10 comments:

  1. Sally I love the quilt, it is gorgeous! The sunflower is so happy looking. And the words you choose are beautiful. You are so right, there are so many things that could give good advice. Can't wait to see what you come up with next :)

    And your tomatoes, yes, it is hard to know exactly where to pinch, but once you get the hang of it, it is easy. My tomatoes are in need of a little TLC at the moment, it has been a week or two since I have given them the attention they need, and they are just a little bit out of control.

    Hope you are well. Wishing you a lovely week.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful sunflower and inspirational words. I imagine old trees to give really great advice. Near us we have the Bristlecone Pine trees, and I expect they have a thing or two to say that would be good for me to hear. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Am officially middle aged now I have been sourced as a gardening guru!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So, so creative, Sally!!! I love how you think outside the square - using a table runner and turning it into a mini quilt. I love how you've kept the lace and you know I love your sunflowers. Will it be in the same room as your sunflower cushion?

    I think a tree would give wise advice, especially an old tree that had seen and survived so much happening to its environment.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your quilt is just wonderful. I love the quote.
    It can be very hard to keep the tomatoes at bay. I have about 50 plants right now and with all the rain, they are a big tangled mess. Good luck and trust yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your mini looks so romantic with its lacey edge! I do love how you pull inspiration from Pinterest and use it in your own way.
    Maybe you've mentioned this before and I missed it - how do you print your words? Did you use an inkjet ready fabric? I like the phrases you chose and the way you arranged them by size on the quilt. They come together an read like a poem!

    ReplyDelete
  7. How lovely is that! The lace is a wonderful touch against the sunflower.
    Amalia
    xo

    ReplyDelete
  8. That is a really beautiful quilt Sally, and I just have a feeling this is the start of a theme from you, with lots of 'advice' quilts. I can imagine a very old, large tree with the advice 'take the long view' x

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, I love your quilt!!!! The sunflower is beautiful...and, oh, those words of wisdom! I think a tree would be great source of wisdom as well.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I just love that Sunflower quilt! So delicate and dreamy - would look gorgeous in a country cottage setting. And I like the way you've hung it at the top. Really lovely. xCathy

    ReplyDelete

Please post a comment, I love to hear from you!