Failure

A month or so ago, when the lilacs were glorious, I wanted to try to make a little piece with stylized lilacs. I thought, "The leaf is a heart, and the flower cluster is a sort of rounded cone, so I should be able to do that." So I stamped some heart shaped leaves for a background, and then appliqued one fabric leaf and the cone shape on top. Here is the result.

I wasn't very happy with it, and when I asked the men I live with what this is, they both said, "It's three leaves," and then when I asked why the leaves were purple, my hubby ventured, "Well, I guess it could be some sort of seed pod." My son then added (after reading the label), "The individual flowers don't show up enough to be a lilac." He's right. I tried to suggest the flowers with the quilted circle design, but either the thread was the wrong color, or the whole concept is faulty. The circles show up much better in the picture than in reality.

I like the way I did this, though. I wanted to quilt around the stamped shapes, so I did that before I did the applique instead of after. I fused the lilac shape to interfacing, stitched the circles, and then zig-zagged the shape in place, outlining it with another row of stitching. The border was added last with a flip and sew method. With a busy back, I think this approach works fine, and I'll do it again on something small.

When I make something small, my husband often asks, "Is that a hot pad?" In this case he may be right. But maybe not. It still looks like lilacs to me--sort of.