Sunflower Fields

Sunflower Fields

When I was a kid, every summer was spent at my Grandma and Grandpa's farm in North Dakota. Back in  70's I remember fields of sunflowers and wheat. It is burned into my memory how golden it was. It was a golden time in my childhood.... lazy mornings waking up to the smell of bacon and eggs, homemade sweet rolls,  4th of July fireworks, family barbecues, kittens, homemade cookies and grandma's apples and banana salad. I can always count on inspiration from my childhood and memories, so I have yet a new pattern, capturing the golden fields of sunflowers and the waves of golden wheat fields. This pattern has been a long time coming. Somehow I stalled out at the editing phase and this project has been in the works for a couple of years. So over the last couple of days, I finished it, sewing on bee wings and doing the final edit on the pattern. I also need to thank my testers! You guys rock and I'm so sorry it took me so long to finish this project.

What I love about this quilt is that you can have fun and make it scrappy. You can work out of your fabric stash or go run to the quilt shop and buy a bunch of fat quarters in both light and dark fabrics. (Light-cream for the background, Dark- the chevron stripes and sunflowers) I made mine using all yellow and gold fabrics, and then a bunch of cream fabrics. This quilt is done in all pinks, or blues or whatever  your favorite color is. Sunflower Fields would also be adorable made scrappy with all sorts of colors. To give it a retro feel, 1930"s fabrics would be fun to work with.

I love embellishing my quilt with these sweet little bumblebees.

The wings are 3D... I love the added touch!

I didn't want to wings to be 'flapping' so I stitched them down using a blind stitch.

I also had fun doing a running stitch using #12 pearl cotton to make the 'flight'

of the bumblebee. I also embroidered the bee antennae using the pearl cotton.

My new design seems to also be Maddie approved.

Yes, silly girl, you look adorable sitting on the quilt...

No, it's not for you.

I wrote this pattern in three sizes... Pattern includes directions to make a

lap (50" x 65"), twin (65" x 75") or double (80" x85") sized quilt.
I hope that you enjoyed my little blog posting today. Give my Sunflower Fields quilt a try. It does go together pretty quickly and would be a great retreat project. I just love making quilts that have that scrappy feel. I also use flannel for the backing to make it extra snuggly.

I'm off to organize my office and studio, it looks like a bomb went off in there since I've gotten back from quilt market. It's so much more fun to make a mess....

Happy quilting,

Cindy

July's Prize

Quilting in the summer is sometimes a challenge. There's so many distractions, like vacation, baseball, gardening... sometimes the only way that I make it down to my sewing room is a rainy day, or it's so hot outside that there's no way I would go outside. With that in mind, I thought I would need to present an extra special prize this month. It's also a bigger section of the quilt so I thought an awesome prize would help to keep us all motivated. Oh it's an awesome prize! I would like to thank Scott from Studio E for donating this month's prize! A wonderful fat quarter bundle from Henry Glass.

Isn't it pretty! The perfect set of blenders. A total must have for any quilter's stash. Remember to enter the giveaway for this awesome prize, post your pictures of your finished Quilt Doodle BOM 2014 blocks or sections to the Flickr Group, Blogging about the Quilt Doodle BOM 2014 and send me a link for a chance to win this beautiful bundle of fabric. Links to all of the past patterns can be found HERE. It's been fun to see the completed blocks and sections.  Here are some of the pictures that have been posted so far....

Happy Quilting