Sunflower Fun

I finished my sunflower art quilt.  It's fairly large, measuring up at 38 x25."

Back in early June I had several of my sunflower photographs printed onto fabric by the Spoonflower company and bought some coordinating fabrics from a local quilting store.  I wanted to somehow combine the photos and fabrics into a piece that captured the exuberance of summer sunflowers.   

Soon thereafter I saw a quilt made by a local artist, Barbara Olson, and was intrigued by how she made the background by overlapping pieces of fabric.  She had left edges of each piece raw, simply stitching them down without turning the edges under.  I liked the earthy affect and wanted to try it myself.  

Detail of quilt made by Barbara Olson

So I got myself a big piece of fusible fleece batting, pinned it up on my design wall and started laying out rectangles of unfinished swatches of fabric.  Once I had the background somewhat in place I had to stitch all those pieces down which was challenging and time consuming.  In some places I added yarn to fill in gaps I had mistakenly left.

  I had already started to work on how to crop, cut, and place the three photos I had printed, but I couldn't attach them until the background was all stitched down.   

The big flower went into place fairly easily, though it took me a while to decide on how to handle the stem and leaves. 

I cut individual flowers from one of the photos and scattered them across the bottom so the eye would start with the big blossom and then travel left across the piece.  This took a while to finalize, and I was glad that my quilting friends declared the flower placement "perfect" when I showed it to them. 

Once the photo elements were in place  I could begin to add stitching to the flowers. 

I wasn't looking to add a lot of stitching, or what is known as "threadpainting," but just enough to nail the flowers down and add some texture.  Except for the large sunflower, I left the lower edges loose for a more 3-D affect.   

It was a very fun quilt to make and I like the result.  If I do something similar in the future I'll be more careful about butting up the raw edged pieces together, and I'd like to learn more about how to use thread colors to add shading.  But for the moment I'm satisfied and look forward to getting a sleeve on the back of this piece so I can hang it up for the rest of the summer.   After being so absorbed in this project I think I'm going to just work on some scrap quilts I have underway for the next month or two.  I may also make a traditional table runner out of all the leftover fabric I have from this quilt.  Making art quilts can take a lot out of you, and I'm ready for a little break!