Blooming Artichoke

This is what an artichoke looks like if it isn't harvested for food.  Left to its own device the top will blossom into a large burst of thistle a pretty blue and lavender color.   I had never seen a flowering artichoke until I visited the Denver Botanic Gardens after we first moved here.  They were quite fascinating and I took a lot of photographs.   

Recently I decided to try and capture the bloom in a small art quilt to hang on my wall.  I didn't want to represent it exactly as shown in the photo, but to use the photo as inspiration for a new image made of fabric.  

I selected one of the photos and brought it into Photoshop where I applied various filters that emphasized the shapes within the artichoke and enlarged the image to about 15" square, the size I wanted the finish piece. 

Starting with the main artichoke, I traced pattern pieces from the full size image and began cutting out the leaves from fabrics I had on hand.  Alas, none of them were the right colors, so I got out my paints and painted some plain fabric with leaves until I had the colors the way I wanted them.  Painting isn't my forte and this was the hardest part.  Once I mustered up my nerve and got into it, though, it was exciting and satisfying.  

 

Here's the bottom of the artichoke made of the painted and cut out leaves which I tacked together with glue stick.  

Next up was the thistle bloom.  I painted some "stabilizer,"  a thin fabric made specifically to hold a heavy application of machine stitching without buckling, with blue and pink paint and made sure the shape of the stabilizer fit nicely into the base of the artichoke. 

Then I stitched many layers of blue, pink, and lavender threads onto the stabilizer, creating the blooming thistle that you see in the image below.   I did the same steps for the small blooming artichoke on the side and the two not-yet-blooming artichokes in the background.  All four artichokes were placed separately on the background, varying the positions as I sought the best composition.  In this image you can see how one of the artichokes is missing as I glued down its stem.

The green background was all one piece of fabric, so that was easy enough. 

Everything had to be quilted and a facing put on the top, bottom and sides so cover the edges which would otherwise be "raw."  As a final touch I added some pink and lavender color using Ink Tense pencils to the centers of the top two artichokes  so they tied together nicely with the two blooming artichokes.  

Here's a detail showing the stitching on the big blossom.    

And here is the finished side artichoke.

I liked the whole process and I liked how the piece turned out, but I learned a lot that I want to apply to another version of this subject.  

Now I'm using this photo for inspiration.  Notice the deep pink zinnias?  I love the contrast of those pink flowers next to the purple-blue blooming thistle of the big artichoke.  

I've got another center flower started on some stabilizer and am thinking about how to make a background of interesting greens and that lovely pink against the blooming thistle.  This photo shows "auditioning" background fabrics.  

Did you notice the little bees in that blooming thistle?  They still need wings and some little legs, but I think I'm managing to incorporate them nicely into the bloom instead of just setting them on top of it.  I wanted some bees in the first artichoke piece and found some bee buttons, but when I added them they didn't look right just plopped down on top of the bloom.  For this new piece I tried a different method, stitching the bees onto stabilizer, cutting them out, and nesting them into some of the stitching for the thistle.  I think this is working out better.   

We'll see what happens!