Quilt Finish – Floating Flowers
This Floating Flowers quilt is a quick sum of all its parts that only a mother would love. And honestly, I don’t really love it all that much. It was born out of me making a few tester blocks for my Grandma Sparkles Quilt Block pattern. Rather than having those tester blocks languish in the scrap bin for ages, I threw them up on the design wall and started to fill in the background. At the time–early 2019–I was really starting to explore improvisational piecing, so I used the opportunity to combine it with the traditional piecing of the Grandma Sparkles Quilt Block.
I dove deep into the white on white and green scraps to create odds and ends that would fill up the negative space. Sew, cut, slash and dash was really the motto, and as you can see it’s a whole hodge podge of scrap for your life realness. I think–I’ve had way too much champagne to remember correctly–I was wanting the green to be representational of thorns and vines and the like. In retrospect, it just feels like a hot mess. Like, what is the white fabric even supporting? Floating on a cloud?
Regardless, I had a good time just letting my hair whip back and forth with selecting fabrics from my stash for the central flowers. Alison Glass, Anna-Maria Horner, Kaffe, batiks, solids, nothing was out-of-bounds! But who do you think you’re following? In the words of J.Lo, “Let’s get loud!” My whole fabric journey has been about combining the crazy with the ridiculous and then blowing it up before the dust settles! And then when the dust does settle, get the leaf blower out and stir that shit up!
For the backing I finally got to use a big swath of one of my favourite fabrics ever from a collection called Oh My! by Sanae. I’m not sure why I was attracted to it besides its bold colour, but it’s been in my stash for way too long. I side-swiped it with a stashed piece of Architextures Crosshatch by Carolyn Friedlander. I love when I can use large pieces from my stash as efficiency runs deep in my bones!
Ultimately, Floating Flowers allowed me to explore my interest in combining multiple construction methods in one quilt. As they say, practice makes perfect and this is definitely practice! Not every quilt is going to be a stunner, and as artists we need to realise we’re gonna make some awful choices. But it’s what we learn from those choices that will create a magnitude of successes. I can already look at this jumbled business and see the progression between then and now. That’s real progress, and I’ll take it whether the flowers are floating or growing from the ground up.
Grandma Sparkles Quilt Block Pattern
Title: Floating Flowers
Size: 54″ x 54″
Pattern: Grandma Sparkles Quilt Block combined with improv
Fabric: Kaffe, Alison Glass, Anna-Maria Horner, and various scraps of green and white-on-white fabrics
Piecing: Machine stitched on Juki TL-98P with Aurifil 50wt, White 2024
Quilting: Long arm quilting, by Mount Vincent Quilts
Binding: Hand stitched with Aurifil 40wt, Shining Green 5017
Backing: Architextures Crosshatch in Creamsicle by Carolyn Friedlander and Oh My! by Sanae
Timing: February 2019 – September 2021
Favourite Part: Saving tester blocks from the ever growing scrap bin!
I see the chainlink fence motif emerging again, your old life you locked away. But your grandmother, giver of all love in the world, will get through any fence to get to you.
I remember when you started playing with this–“way back when”. I like the finish. Thanks for jogging my brain to dig out the pattern I printed “way back when”
I love them both (Gramma Sparkles quilt and this) because they are so same/same but different. So of course I had to go back and see the original and I’d love to see this done shaded so you can really see the interior shapes as well. Always love seeing your work.