I don’t know about you, but I feel as if I’ve missed spring. The last time I went driving anywhere, the snowdrops and crocuses were carpeting the green spaces. Then came Covid-19 and I seem to have missed the daffodils. Fortunately, for my spring challenge was Daffodils, now I can have my fill of spring whenever I want.
With all the challenges, I’ve tried to do something different. There are only so many quilts that can go on display and I like learning new techniques. When I was given my theme I had so many ideas going through my mind. Did I do some foundation paper piecing? Did I do some embroidery? What about appliqué? How am I going to finish it? Will it be a small quilt, or wall hanging, or something else?
Inspiration came in Hobbycraft. Box frames were reduced in price and I thought I’d make something to go in frame. I’d use appliqué using hand stitching. Now all the decisions were made, it was down to getting my daffodil made.
I searched through my fabric scraps for two different yellows, the blue for the background and green for the leaves. Then, from a simplified drawing of a daffodil, I could cut my individual pieces for layering. I backed each piece with bondaweb and then layered my piece ready for stitching.
I could have used the machine to stitch my pieces, but I just fancied some slow stitching. I hand stitched each piece using blanket stitch. Once each piece was attached, I backed the piece with some cotton wadding. This is when I stitched the shaping detail on the petals. The wadding, gave it just a little more depth. Stitching complete, I washed out the pen marking and allowed it to dry before getting it ready to frame.
Before I could frame my piece, it had to be mounted onto some mount board. After cutting the mount board to size, I layered it with some cotton wadding for extra padding. A green border was adding to my mini quilt to allow enough fabric for taking to the rear and to form a frame. From my picture framing days, I had some strong tape to hold the fabric in place on the rear and I ended up with a lovely padded quilt mounted on board. This was now ready to mount in the frame.
Now, I have a permanent reminder of spring with a daffodil that will last all year.
Good idea to mount the Daffodil as a picture, I did that with my Landmarks and I am so pleased with it. Even on the darkest day – your daffodill will shine out. Xx
thank you, I really enjoyed doing something different with it