You Say Vase, I Say Vase

Get it. Well, I try. This is another quilt I have up in my office. I was once in a quilting group that kind of sank of its own weight when it turned out only three of us ever finished anything and the rest just bought a lot of fabric. But, one thing we tried were little quilt challenges. This was for a flower and vase challenge. It is one of the few needleturn applique things I've done. It just takes too darn long.



I am particularly fond of the vase fabric. I had it in at least three colorways and worked it in tons of projects. It's so perfect! I combined several different elements from an old Brannock and Patek book to make the flowers, vase, and star corners. If you're very observant, you'll recognize some of the checkerboard border fabric from the sashing on the strippy star quilt. If you're not, you won't. The quilt is heavily stippled around the applique pieces--even at this distance you can see it. I quilted the vase along the wavy lines in the fabric, which added a nice dimensionality to it. I like that I chose yellow for the background. The real yellow is a bit more acid and brighter than the way it looks in the photo (kinda mellow gold). Just a few months ago, I found a set of wool flowers on eBay that look just like this design, and I arranged them in the dining room to go at all cock-eyed angles so that I have somehow reproduced my quilted still life in reality. Freaky!