Journeys and Inspirations - Day 7

I took these pictures in my garden this morning.  We moved to a new house last year at the end of the summer.  The previous owners were dedicated gardeners and it is so much fun seeing what comes up.  Thank goodness my husband has rediscovered his love of gardening because there is lots to do.

 Flowers are a huge inspiration to me in my quilt designs.  When I first see a new line of fabric, I look to the fabric design itself first for inspiration.  I often focus on a particular element in one of the prints and design a quilt around that element.

Very often that element is a particular flower.  There are some pattern designers who do incredibly detailed applique of flowers like McKenna Ryan.  I love her designs which are truly amazing works of art and I used to carry her patterns when I had my stores.  In order to create such detail, the patterns are made with fusible web and usually batiks that do not fray.  The applique shapes are often too small to finish the edges with your machine.

My floral designs tend to be larger which give you the option of turning the edges of the fabric or using fusible, if you prefer that method.

 The quilt to the right is called "Blue Rhapsody".  The applique flowers on this quilt are very large and easy to work with.  This is one of my favorite quilts and it features "Spa" by Deb Strain.

Click here to view this pattern on my website.