Sarah Lizzies: Springtime in Tassie

It seems to me it is time for me to grow up. It is time for me to join the big girls and design and stitch a truly grown up quilt. You know the girls. Those whom dream up, design and stitch the most amazing quilts. Those quilts that when you look upon them rather nonplussed, your mouth drops open with drool uncontrollably dripping from the corners and as you scratch your cranium, wondering "how on earth did 'she' make that"!! For me, now is the time to fashion a quilt that is just a little out of my comfort zone. For a while now I have felt it is time for me to "begin the beguine".....to begin the dance of the quilt that has been gliding and swaying and twirling around and around in my brain pan for a very long time.

I mostly stitch quilts that really do not overtax a lot of brain cells, in the designing and then making that design a reality. Don't get me wrong, I adore quilts spilling over with scrappy loveliness. Indeed, I am at my happiest when I am stitching a quilt oozing with scrappylicious delight.

BUT.......for my next quilt I want to try something new. I want to push myself. I want to learn and discover new things that challenge me along the way.

This quilt has been in my imagination for a very long time. I have dreamt about it for so long now that I can see it in my mind's eye. I have been day dreaming of fashioning a quilt with blossoms flourishing all over. I want it to be a wild garden where flowers of each season dance together in one quilt. This quilt is one where I will applique all the flowers by hand. I know........what am I thinking!!

These two fabrics are what I will use for the grass and the sky. Both fabrics evoke an impressionistic feeling, perfect for my vision for this quilt. The green is a soft one with just the hint of smudges of tiny watercolour flowers and the sky is a soft batik dancing in pastel shades, reminscent of those soft, whispering, early morning misty skies that greet me on my walks as the sun rises.

I have been hunting and gathering oodles of Kona solids for a while now and other hand dyed fabrics for the flowers, leaves, birds, butterflies........in readiness for my hand applique pretty.

I want this quilt to be dancing with flowers evocative of those that flourish in the garden outside my windows....Daffodils, Tulips, Bluebells, Foxgloves, Pansies, Magnolias, Forget Me Nots, Roses, Hydrangeas (though these could prove a bit tricky)......Lilies, Irises, Hollyhocks, Lilacs, Cosmos...............flowers that gift me with their beauty and delight me each season. I want this quilt to celebrate the magic my darling husband has created on our little plot of earth these past ten years. He has dug, toiled, sweated, laboured........plodded on and on, sprinkling beauty from his magical gardener's wand everywhere. He has transformed a patch of earth that was once an altar to the 'junk god' and created a garden of beauty, tranquility and stuff of dreams. His garden is my inspiration. This quilt is the packet of mixed seeds that were planted many, many moons ago in my dreams and are now beginning to germinate.

All washed and ready to go. Hues with scrummy names.......Poppy, Mango, Cantalope, Cerise, Candy Green, Papaya, Kumquat, Bubble Gum, Azalea, Morning Glory, Bright Flamingo, Noble Purple....so many gorgeous hues to bloom in the garden of my dreams.

As it is Spring and everywhere I look I see a "host of golden Daffodils" sashaying in the breeze, illuminated by the soft, Spring sunshine; they are the first flowers I will applique.

I am going to experiment with different methods of applique and see which method works best for me. For inspiration, when compiling the pictures of the flowers, I will use the many garden books that line the shelves here in my library, colouring pages sourced from the internet and my own sketches. But....I suppose the greatest inspiration will be the beauty outside my windows.....the flowers that smile at me each day, here in the garden.

I am quite certain there will be many new concepts I will encounter and learn as I stroll along this new flower-lined path. I am so excited about this quilt. There will be moments of joy, probably more moments of sheer exasperation and frustration, but you know what, I am skipping with delight at the thought of this quilt and discover if what is in my imagination looks equally amazing in real life. Why oh why is it that everything looks better, more grandiose in one's head?? As it is me, I will have no planned overall drawing to guide me along the way. This quilt is drawn in my head. =) I seem to work best when I make it up as I go along.

I won't be stitching my flowers onto the background for a while yet as there are so many flowers to design and stitch before the overall stitching begins. There are much too many flowers to be 'growed' before I begin to arrange and stitch.

Of course, the walking along the path for this quilt is going to be a very slow, but contented stroll. This quilt will not be finished any time soon but I don't mind in the least as I rather love slow hand stitching....I am a patient gal. In between the stitching of this pretty, I am sure I will be distracted by other imaginings, other tarted up pretties, other scrappy quilts, one-of-a-kind bags....dare I say, the odd cushion of baskets overspilling with ribbon flowers. I am a gal whom never has one pretty in the creative pipeline at any one time. Having several pretties jostling for attention at any given time is what makes the creative life so terribly interesting, don't you think??

As always, thank you lovelies for popping into my place. Thank you for reading my "stuff and nonsense" and humouring my rather fuzzy dreams of my big girl quilt; my grown up quilt. Your sweet visits always delight my day. Each one of you makes me want to skip through my flower-filled day. Welcome too, all you lovely ladies who are new to my little blog. It is a most beautiful thing to have you visit. Sending you all a little posy of Love, this beautiful Spring-time day.♥

Until the next time...........

Linking up this week:
Finish or Not Friday at Busy Hand Quilts
Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts
Wandering Camera at Soma's Whims and Fancies

I don't know why, but I am always amazed at the beauty of Spring. Year after year Spring never fails to delight and astound me. I suppose, because I find Winter rather tedious and ho hum and the long months of dreary and frigid landscapes rather bleak, I wonder if Spring will ever visit these shores once more. Just as I begin to think Winter will last forever, Spring magically appears and begins to dust the landscape with beautiful colour. Down here at the bottom of the world Spring is sprinkling new life and beauty to the landscape. Spring is weaving it's colourful magic with cheery profusion.

In our little plot of earth the Daffodils and Jonquils pop up with cheery abandon. Year after year the Spring bulbs multiply with very little effort from my green-fingered gardener. =) Every year each bulb gifts me with another and another and another bulb. 'Tis magic really.

Sweet, sweet Maisie......doesn't she adorn the countryside beautifully! She is incorrigible, always ready to smile at the camera.

Whilst Spring has been doing it's thing outside, I have been doing my thing inside. I have been whiling away many Spring moments stitching my hexie flower quilt. Each hexie flower reminds me that Spring kisses the earth with sweet flowers.

I have bordered each flower block with strips of fabric to give the quilt a scrappy aesthetic.

In each corner I appliqued the smaller hexie flowers onto polka dot fabric.

I was going to applique each small hexie flower onto white fabric but I thought the dotty fabric would add a sense of fun and cheeriness. I love these little hexie flowers. I think the addition of the snippets of embroidered doilies in the middle of each flower adds a touch of whimsy.

The quilt top thus far is the size of the top of a queen bed. Now I have to decide how I will border the quilt. I like the thought of fencing the flowers in with scraps of fabric. I am thinking of incorporating some small hexie flowers; how, I am not quite sure but I am hoping something brilliant will metamorphose. =) I will play around and see what imaginations my muddly brainpan will conjure up.

It is school holiday time down here at the bottom of the world so I am going to spend the next couple of weeks stitching this pretty quilt......amongst enjoying other pastimes. I can see in my crystal ball, the enjoyment of many a country drive through this beautiful Spring paradise, drinking in the glorious sights and scents that Spring always magically gifts us. Tassie in Springtime is truly a sight to behold.

Now that the days are getting longer and becoming warmer I might even find myself in my garden, sitting amongst the Spring bulbs enjoying a cup of tea.