Pink Tulip Quilting

I paint big flowers in acrylics and watercolor so I was intrigued to repeat the artistic effort in fabric. Additionally, American Artist, Georgia O’Keefe, one of the most significant American artists of the 20th Century, is an inspiration to me.

Above are examples of my painted canvas florals but I also love to work in the abstract and have never really enjoined an artistic effort combining the two. My mother, the ultimate gardener, would always comment on my abstract efforts with the comment that I should paint flowers. She was not a fan of abstract but forever supportive. Below are examples of my abstract painted canvas.

I determined to create an abstract flower quilt project as a tribute to my mom, Mary, who passed in 2017. I selected from my heritage garden, a photo of an Iris and a Poppy both passed to me from my mother’s garden. There are many heritage flower specimens in my yard, all plants from my mother’s garden. The Poppy though was a constant in all her gardens, one I remember from childhood.

My French-Canadian mother worked very hard in her gorgeous garden right up to her 80s. She also brought her garden indoors, with plants in every room of her home; her careful love of florals was passed down to her children and grandchildren.

I determined to use the Iris as a basis for a sampler quilt, to warm up my design skills for the Poppy. Pulling from my purple fabric stash an assortment of scraps and swatches, even abandoned blocks. I first opted to try the circular log cabin which though the technique was new to me, I realized it is very similar to how I work a scrappy quilt. I created my sampler in short order, Iris Four Ways:

• An abstraction of an Iris petal in the circular log cabin using small scraps
• An abstraction version of the petals in the circular log cabin using larger scraps
• An abstraction of the petals inspired by six abandoned fan blocks
• An abstraction of the flower using the braided curves technique.

The Iris Sampler was a great warm-up for me. The Oliso Smart Iron and Oliso wool mat were a great combination to [press all those seams. Remember when working with curved piecing to iron front, back and all over after every seam you sew. In my studio, I like to have a sewing production line: sew a stack, then iron a stack, then trim a stack!

Another consideration, because flowers are so beautiful, our natural tendency is to want to reproduce the flower elements rather than abstract. Abstraction is not easy without a sketch, a sketch is our pinpoint of where we need to be but allowing opportunity to pivot/rethink then on to the creative course. Abstraction “allows its creator to freely communicate visually without the constraint of forms found in objective reality.” 

In addition to the activity of creating the sampler, I also researched types of quilting applications that I could consider using. I pulled about 40 files from the internet: pictures of blocks, block instructions, abstract art, color combinations. I spent a few hours over 2 days determining which would be the final resolution.

The next step was to develop a color palette for each element of my original sketch.

My third sketch for Mary’s Poppy had four elements in need of a palette. As an Island Batik Ambassador, I have a generous collection of batiks which I love to work with especially with nature themes. After some thought, I settled on the following palettes:

1. The Poppy pistil–Island Batik Summer 2024 collection, Midnight Garden, Blue Purple (Dandelion Burst) and Blue Navy (Vines and Sprigs), bright yellow with light and dark purple blenders for contrast.
2. The Poppy petals–red grunge from my stash given to me from a friend plus orange, peach, rose Island Batik Blenders and Magenta Solid
3. The Poppy Bract green leaves–Island Batik dark and light green Basics, Island batik Foundations yellow, orange, teal and Fuchsia solid
4. The background palette occurred after I selected the three above. I realized I wanted some white space as the colors were very vibrant and the abstraction graphics bold. I did not want a solid white or other solid neutral. That is when I remembered a cotton home decor Fabric, I was hoarding imprinted with French postage words. Parfait!!

Unto sewing! I consider the pistil center the most dramatic part of the poppy. The poppy pistil is not shy; it competes with the petals for attention. The petals droop from the pistil’s width and height. So, I had to tackle this element first.

The petals were all braided curves. I alternated the various shades of red, peach, and orange.

The bract or leaves were created from patched rectangles then cut into HRTs using the Studio 180 Split Rect ruler sewing together forming two long strips. At the same time, a strip set of dark green 5-inch strip and lighter tone green 2.5-inch were cut into triangles then sewn, alternating triangles together to form two long strips. I curve cut the Split Rects adding curved cut red grunge to some and curve cut sections of the green triangle strips to others or both.

The Home Decor fabric with the French postage words was a heavier weight then the batik cottons which actually worked out well as it assisted in smoothing out the curves.

I did create a lot of scraps with all that curve cutting and saved those components. I cut those scraps into 2.5 inch squares and rectangles, randomly sewn together in long strips to use in two side elements portraying all the colors used in the quilt. I find those strips quite striking and beautiful. I am a scrap lover at heart!

Here is the finished small quilt

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