211. Night Blossoms

I 've been fortunate to be friends with Amy Friend since the early days of blogging, so when she asked if I would be interested in participating in the sew-along for her new book, Petal + Stem, I said yes right away.

The quilt she chose for the sew-along is Whimsy Garden, a row quilt.  The thing I enjoy most about the book is that it can be a "choose your own adventure," because the blocks are easy to mix and match.

I have long been intrigued by "night gardens," gardens planted with flowers that bloom at night. A lot of the flowers chosen for night gardens are white, but not all. These were some of my inspiration photos.

For the background, I chose Blossom by Christopher Thompson (the tattooed quilter), navy with white, as it mimics the look of a star-filled night.

While used solid fabric for nearly all of the flowers and foliage, I decided to go with a little "glitz" for the white flowers, as if the moonlight was particularly shining on them. "Fairy Frost" in white by Michael Miller and another soft very subtle white pearly metallic-on-white fabric make the flowers look moon-struck.

Then, since we needed to buy some tomato plants, I took it to the local nursery for some beauty shots.

When the quilt was completed and quilted, we went back to the nursery for some more photographs.

The backing is one of my favorite floral prints by Maureen Cracknell.

Our friend, Caitlin Friesen, suffers from a severe heart condition and spends much of her time at home. It seemed like if she couldn't go outdoors to enjoy the flowers, maybe she could wrap herself up in a quilt with flowers.

Title: Night Blossoms

Design by: Amy Friend

Date Completed: 2020

Size: 60" x 72"

Quilted by: Darby Myers

Gifted to: Caitlin Friesen