Hellebore "Lenten Rose"

Finished quilt top, glued together, no stitching yet.
Center seeds in progress
Pen Sketch for pattern
Original photo, "Lenten Rose"

Another photo project, I decided to make a large flower quilt from one of my photos. I picked about a dozen possible pics, closeups mostly, I narrowed that down to four choices, an iris, clematis, poppy and the hellebore. I traced each 8" x 10" photo onto a clear plastic sheet protector, basic lines and details for a pattern. I blew each photo up into a 2 page x 2 page poster. I decided I liked the iris, but it will be a challenge, the clematis was too simple, and the poppy's been done to death by others. The hellebore was my favorite from the start, the bold colors of burgundy and white, with lime green center and peach seeds. The 4 page poster had some pretty small pieces still, so I decided to go larger, a 3 page by 3 page spread. This is a nice size, it takes up my whole desk space for working on, and is still manageable. I think if I do the Iris photo I will go even larger! Finding several shades of white for the shadowing and shaping of the petals was a challenge, some "Fairy Frost" fabric was the answer, and two pale multi color pieces. I have a huge supply of lime green batiks, and lots of burgundy prints, but I did choose regular patterned fabric instead of batik for the burgundy. I used a fusible backing for the fabric pieces as they are intricate, and needed clean edges. After that it was just like doing a jigsaw puzzle, cut out pattern pieces, iron fabric, cut out again and glue in place. It got rather boring, after the creative part was over. I assembled the center seed area separately, and put it over the center. A deep blue batik was chosen for the backing, with lighter spots like rain, the batik green leaves were cut free hand, and veins were glued in for more detail then just thread veins. It will look stunning when quilted!