Sunflowers and Mushrooms 1 – 6

What if I mix up some fairly simple applique blocks featuring sunflowers and toadstools?

What if I vary the sizes and add stems to the sunflower heads, and vary the orientation of the toadstools.

What if I add a pieced block and more variations of the toadstools and sunflowers.

What if I add another pieced block and a shaggy daisy flower in several sizes and orientations as an alternative to the sunflowers, and mix and match them.

The answer to all that whatiffing  – I have a new series of virtual quilts to show you.

Hope you will enjoy them today and in the future, because there are more to come!

I usually try to make the series name short, or abbreviate the name when saving virtual quilts from Electric Quilt as picture files to upload here, and the name of this series started as Toadstools and Sunflowers, but eventually became Sunflowers and Mushrooms so the abbreviated name became SAM.

Once upon a time I would draw up a simple flower, then have to redraw the flower until I was happy with the shape. Then take it to a photocopier and enlarge or shrink it, probably several times to get the size right.

Then I would do it all again to be able to use the same flower on point.At this point it would still be just a few lines on paper, with a colour scheme in my head, but I only rarely added colour to the drawings. Then I would make the blocks before tweaking the setting.

With Electric Quilt it is so easy to vary a simple applique design, making it bigger or smaller, using multiples of it within a block, then rotating them to use on point. I add fabrics to the blocks as I go if I have a colour scheme in mind. Each block variation can then be quickly added to quilts, in a variety of settings, the fabrics cn be modified, and I can present a multitude of variations as virtual quilt designs on a website which is neat, tidy and in full colour. All without touching a needle!

When I am going to make one of the virtual designs I go shopping for the fabric, looking for fabrics which are similar to the ones I have used in the virtual designs. I can usually rely on my stash to provide smaller pieces for applique and some of the piecing, but usually have to shop for the background and border fabrics.

I have never scanned fabrics or tried to find the exact fabric I have used in a virtual quilts, as the colours on my monitor do not always match the real fabric. I recognise some of my fabric stash in the EQ library, but the colour match is better with some than with others. Fondling and playing with fabric is still an important part of making a quilt top and will never be totally replaced by technology. However, the more I play with virtual designs, the easier it is to visualise what will happen in real quilts. The more I use it, the less I need it …… but I will never part with technology now, because it makes drawing up pattern sheets a breeze.