Sunflower Setting

"Sunflower Setting" was my second quilt. This is just a small portion of it. In my frazzle frenzy, I've managed to wear it down so much that many of the seams are ripped and patiently waiting for repair. Since then I have learned to allow bigger seams and double stitch to prevent ripping. It sports hand-designed sunflowers and leaves pieced from a variety of fabrics and laid upon a sunset background. The sunset includes lavender, deep purple, electric blue, and a black night sky print with white stars. Sections of the sunset include a 3-color pattern called "Evening at the Lily Pond." The borders are two forest green prints with golden sunflowers, lined with lavender and deep purple oblong triangles. The majority was hand-sewn, but the time pressure to complete the quilt by Christmas led to the borders, rough appliquéd sunflowers and backing to be machine sewn. There was not enough of one broadcloth color to cover all the backing, so I cut four broadcloth colors (lavender, deep purple, light green, and forest green) into large triangles and machine-pieced them together. I had made several trips to the fabric department to acquire more broadcloth, but the hues of each bolt were drastically different. I'm sloppy about doing the math BEFORE I start a project, and often suffer the consequences later. This quilt was originally planned to be a wall hanging, however it grew into a monstrosity that ended up being a queen-sized bed cover. Gold metallic thread was used to tack down the sunflower petals, and at the same time quilt a satin stitch through the three layers, which created sunflower outlines on the back. Green thread outlined the large leaves in the leaf stitch. It was started around July of 2000 and completed by Christmas of 2000.