Spring Blooms Applique Wall Quilt

 

Spring Blossoms Wall Quilt

"I want to do with you what Spring does to cherry trees."

                                              --  Pablo Neruda

"Let blessings fall like blossoms all around you."

                  -- Rumi

This is the Spring Blossoms wall quilt pattern by Toni Whitney.   I've had this kit for probably close to 10 years, and finally put it together this spring.  I suspect it's in honor and the absence of the 2 lovely old crab apple trees we has to cut down last fall.

Here is it BEFORE I decided to dive in and do the stitching this afternoon.    Already, it's a work of art that I could frame and finish with out stitches, but I don't think I want it to be hidden under glass, suffocating.  A quilt needs to breathe, to be flexible and supple.  ;-)

Here is the palette of threads I used for the top-stitching / thread painting with a size 14 top-stitching needle and the free-motion embroidery foot.  Not as many thread colors as you might expect with the variegated threads to add more colors.  One of them is a pink and blue variegation -- which works because one of the pale fabrics in the flowers is a very pale lilac.   I didn't have one that was just pale pinks.    The stitching idnt take nearly as long as I thought it would -- 1 petal at a time, and it was done!

This afternoon, I added those golden threads for stamens.  Kind of fun when I started doing the free-motion stitching.  I used 2 golden threads. 

 

Thread painting from the back side.  This way, you get a better idea of just how much thread goes into some of the embellishments. 

I don't always take time to make a "real" quilt label when I finish a quilt, but I do at least add a tag with the required info, so that when I do get around to making a batch of quilt labels, I know what to write on them. 

And the hanging pocket.  In this case, 2 6-1/2 in. squares folded in half to create triangles sewn into the corners where a flat stick can be nestled for hanging.  I also added a string that acts like a picture wire for hanging.  This way the stick just keeps the quilt flat.

This is the pattern, which I purchased as a kit (with the fabric) direct from Toni Whitney, the artist.  She even autographed it for me.  ;-)