Flower Tower

Yesterday I received back a small quilt (30 cm square) that had been on the road for over 2 years. It's a good chance to take an objective look at your own work and I'm pleased to say that I'm still happy with it. It was made for the Seasonal Garden exhibit by the European Quilt Association (EQA) in which the UK was allocated Summer. The show made it's début at the Festival of Quilts, Birmingham back in 2014.

Since then it has travelled to Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, France (twice in different locations), Italy, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia, Denmark, Finland, and Hungary. Oh that I could have gone with it!

The piece was made out of gelli plate printed fabrics. The background was machine pieced and free machine quilted with a pebble pattern. The flowers were made by stamping on flower patterns (using Hero Arts Magical Flower (CG284) as well as Layered Flowers (CL496), cutting them out, hand stitching on them and then layering them up and attaching them to the background with a large round bead. I also added sequins and beads. The flowers are only attached to the background by their centres so are quite 3 dimensional. I had been a bit worried about how they would stand up to all that travelling and packing/unpacking, but all was well with them.

It's lovely to have it back home again and just looking at it afresh has given me ideas for new work. It has also made me wonder if we will continue to remain members of EQA when the UK Brexits?!