TAKING A BREAK AND HAVING SOME FUN!

We all need to do this from time to time.  Sometimes our obligations have a way of getting us stuck down to the grind, and we need to break loose and just play for awhile.

How do you break free?  Or do you break free?

I go upstairs to the studio, rummage around and let my mind take over whatever it wants to do...

I have had a project mulling around in my mind for a long time, after I saw a painting on Pinterest of a sunflower.  For some reason the image stuck with me, and because I don't paint, I started creating my own rendition of the painting in my own style.

Fabric...

To be exact - fabric scraps... the kind and size most people throw out!

I have mine all sorted into bags according to colour, and those bags fill three drawers of a chest of drawers.

So I started gathering my yellow, red and brown scraps, and then I started cutting.  I began laying my scraps out on my cutting board and I got this...  not bad for a start.  After I looked at the picture I took I realized that the center was much to small - easily fixed!

One thing led to another, and the next thing I know I was making this video:
https://youtu.be/B3V9VPnnVko


And after working for awhile longer I decided to pin what I had so far onto the actual fabric of the quilt.  It's going to be a 6 ft wall hanging when it's done - and I have a lot more petals to add before it looks right... but the center is much better!

Then I rummaged some more - cut up a pair of capri's from years and years ago, and made the stem, and pinned that on my piece.

Next I have to add the smaller darker petals that surround the center of the flower.  And make some leaves, and then somehow attach the whole sunflower to the piece permanently and quilt it, and I plan to do a lot of embroidery stitches on the petals themselves to further enhance the piece.  It has a long way to go - but I am happy with my progress so far... and yes, the sunflower is going to spill out over the edges of the quilt- it's not getting trimmed down - it is exactly the way I want it to be!

I have another wall hanging quilt peeking out behind the sunflower one, that one is just waiting for me to get some border material, then I will sew it all together and finish it...

My Play Day turned out to be just what I needed...

And I didn't even make a dent in my scrap stash!

I see another Play Day in my Future!