Winter Sun

Now, this may seem a bit out of season, but I think it only makes it more welcome:

A bit of history first. Last year I made a storm-at-sea bed quilt for my brother- and sister-in-law, and used the scraps from it to make a small wallhanging to match:

This winter "landscape" has been on their living-room wall since, and every time time I saw it in person or in Skype I thought they need something more summerly for a change. What with one thing and another, I only got round to making it in December, in time to make it a New Year's Day gift. My sister-in-law loves sunflowers, and what could be more summerly than that?

It's machine curve piecing, one of my favorite techniques that works so brilliantly with oversized flowers (if you haven't tried curve piecing yet, check out my butterfly block tutorial and pattern - it's really easy!). Here is the finished top:

In case anybody still needs proof that quilting texture is responsible for about half of a quilt's appeal ;)) I used very simple quilting on the flower - pebbles for the middle and "vein" curves for the petals.

At the last moment I decided to play with my beautiful variegated YLI threads on the black background, where they would be more prominent, and added a kind of "halo" around the petals. The rest of the background is quilted with the same pattern in black, which is almost completely invisible.

I really enjoyed working on this bright project, it really seemed to add sunshine to the room when it was on the design wall. I hope it will add some light and warmth to its new home, too.

Linking up to Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts