Inspiration to Interpretation to Reality.

When I saw the cover of Quiltmania No. 118 I knew I would have to buy the magazine.  My maternal grandparents were born in Holland and Tulips have always been a favourite flower of mine.  About April 18 I started choosing fabrics for the flowers and then the stems and leaves.  I prepped them making Mylar heat resistant templates for the tulip pattern provided and decided that it needed leaves which I sketched and also made of Mylar templates.

I flipped the templates of both the tulips and leaves so I had reverse images to work with and decided on some blue prints and some black and whites for my backgrounds.

 Last night I finished stitching the last of the leaves and flowers.

 I had fun mixing and matching my stems and leaves.  I cut 5 sizes of tulip tops each in the same fabrics.  I think I made 21 fabric choices in the end for the flowers.  For the leaves I mixed and matched to the stems and didn't cut leaves to match all stems.

 These were hand appliqued, I have the callouses to prove it!

 Late in the game I realized I needed a few more flowers as some had disappeared so I chose two orange prints as I had a heavier pink and purple range.

 This black and white print seemed like they were birds when I first chose it but now realize they are mystery critters.  We had a lot of rain this Spring so the umbrella print seemed appropriate.

 It was fun playing with placements of the flowers, Living on the Quay there are breezes that shape the angle of the the tulips.

 Sometimes I placed similar prints close to each other as we all know not every bulb grows to their true height.

 I love the yellow to orange prints in this picture.

 This mix is one of my favourite flowers and petals.

I took this picture at the end of April.

Then on May 2 I took this one from another angle, remind you of the quilt.  They weren't even in bloom when I had chosen my fabrics!

Now to prepare a backing and get ready to quilt this piece.