Friday, August 3, 2012

Selecting Fabric for Flower Centers

      Selecting fabric for an applique design is one of my favorite parts of the process. I make it a point to indulge myself with a generous allocation of ''fabric playtime''. It's just so much fun trying out different fabric prints with the same design element. You just never know what you're gonna get! 
      Here, I began with a simple flower design. I knew I wanted a yellow flower so I prepared the petal appliques with a tonal yellow/orange fabric and they are ready to stitch. I placed the petals on top of the printed pattern.



     Next, I began the search for a variety of fabrics which might suggest the look of a flower center. It gave me an opportunity to come up with some creative and unexpected results. First, I pawed through my scrap bin to find possible ''centers'' from past projects and then I raided my stash looking for large florals with appealing centers. After auditioning lots of potential flower centers, I made up appliques for six of the most promising ones. I usually only cut out the fabric bits to try them out, fussy cutting the part of the fabric I think will work, but since this is my first blog I wanted to make them look all nice and fancy for you to see! 

  

     Here's how the various centers looked when I auditioned them on the flower. I get the biggest kick out of this. It reminds me of playing with Colorforms when I was a child. Anyone remember those? I tried out all the centers before settling on my final choice. Which one would you pick?

A.

    
B.

C .

D.

E.


F.

          Don't the centers make the flowers come alive?! And, each one is so unique. Guess which one I chose...

         Thanks so much for stopping by. I'd love to see your flowers with jazzy centers. Please share!

All the best,
Jeanne

copyright Aug. 4, 2012 Jeanne Sullivan

2 comments:

  1. All look good, but it would depend on the look and mood that you are trying to convey. I like D, but A and F are more playful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good pick! I did choose D for my project and plan to keep the remaining centers for another design. I'll post the finished small block when I get a chance. I added some embroidery to pull it all together.

      Delete