Folded Flowers

Asian quilts attract me with their intricacies and unique techniques.  I found a pattern for this little quilt at Shibori Dragon, a quilt shop in the Seattle area.  I do not know to whom to attribute this pattern and can no longer find it in my files or on the Internet.  It was a fun project to take on a weekend, winter junket to Lake Wenatchee, WA, where I knew I would spend a lot of time indoors watching the unfolding beauty of an icy lake.  The flowers are made by folding fabric in ways that are similar to origami.

The background is made of square blocks pieced together.  The folded flowers are stitched onto he quilt by hand.  You can learn how to do make folded, fabric flowers in Rebecca Wat's book "Fantastic Fabric Folding."  I used antique buttons for the flower centers.

 The floating, green twigs are made with 1/8 inch silk ribbon.  I ran long, running stitches with ordinary thread and then wove the ribbon through the first stitch, then back the other direction through the second stitch, and so on, back and forth.  Finally, I turned the end under and blind stitched it down.  In the next photo you can see them more clearly.

Within the second border I did Sashiko embroidery.  It was fun to do a different design in each of the blocks.  You can use traditional designs found in Asian quilt books and magazines, on the Web, or make up your own.  The second photo shows a small bit of the sashiko.  Again, this quilt is in storage and I can't plow through the snow to pull it out for clearer photos.  

TIP:  Don't be afraid to try something new.  Quilting is an art that uses so many wonderful techniques.  Break out of your rut.  Try a new type of pattern or idea.  What you learn you will be able to use in future quilts.

If you can't figure out how to quilt your quilt, be sure to check out Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project.