Attempting Applique

Chinese Coins VIII began as a value study for the demonstration I planned to give to my guild earlier this year when life intervened. Originally these columns were to be combined with light yellow columns and dark green/blue columns; that is, until I saw all of these soft blue/greens together. They make a perfect background for appliqued vines so I set them aside for a while.

Chinese Coins VIII quilt background

Especially after working with Circular Anomaly, I knew strong reds would play well with these turquoise shades. Red reminded me of roses but I had reservations about making applique as large as seemed to be needed. At that point I remembered the pieced roses that were so popular a few years ago which always reminded me of crazy quilts and irregular pineapple block. IMO some of the prettiest were made by Tim Russell; I spent a while soaking in ideas from his roses.

QS and I took a crazy quilting class years ago. The teacher {whose name I've forgotten} suggested beginning with pentagons so I made one for the centers of these flowers and then continued around like a log cabin. I wish I'd trimmed the petals more like Tom's; mine got larger and larger as I went around. Still, they look alright.

The next step was determining where to add leaves. You can see my first large leaf on the left of the lower rose in the photo above. Eventually I sewed a smaller dark green triangle on the left. Being a bit unhappy with how it looked, I only pinned the one on the right. Too dark and heavy.

Auditioning dark green leaves near the rose

The odd white with large dark leaves gives hints of leaves in the distance but keeps the rest of the background light. Only a light blue-green triangle needed here.

Auditioning light background instead of dark leaf near the rose

That's how my attempt at applique turned into piecing. Sigh. Now to add more roses.

Enjoy the day, Ann