Oma’s Blues Center Motifs

Time to get to work on that gorgeous center with the lovely vase and flowers. If you have been following along, I am making a (free) BOM with the Esther Aliu FB group and detailing my progress. Last week, I made the circle for Part 1 of the BOM and now it is time to make the blooms.

I think that I could make Esther’s vases every day and never tire!

When starting a block, I think about what my focal point will be. Sometimes it is the Lucious blooms, often it is the exquisite vase. But this week, it is the bird. We have two cockatiels and a bird friendly yard and I do love birds. What this means is that I need to use a bit of restraint on that breathtaking vase, however. After 4 iterations, I finally found one that works well with my colorful bird.

Stems first! I am using a Stonehenge fabrics fat quarter bundle, so everything comes these pieces. One of the wonderful things about Stonehenge is that you can find both light and dark sections flecked with lots of color and texture in just a small group like the one I purchased.

I know that I want a blue flower, a yellow/coral flower, an aqua flower and a purple flower. Do florists have this much fun? What a wonderful way to brighten these gray, rainy winter days.

Breaking News! Remember that lavender background? Well it is gone. The vase and stems were done, but that fabric was giving me fits. Although I am picky about my fabric and always buy from quilt shops, that fabric was not up to par. It was flimsy and started gathering in between stems. I ironed, I repositioned the stabilizer. In the end, the best place for it was the waste bin. Yes, binned the applique and the leftover pieces of that dang fabric. I could see it getting more and more crumpled as I continued and being very unhappy with it in the end, so time to cut my losses.

Rummaging through my Grunge, which is never flimsy nor uncooperative, I found this (bought for another project) and started over. Thank goodness my circle is unattached!

Yes, the vase background is cut in one piece and the vase spines and base is also cut in one piece. As I continued, I swapped the embellishment motifs for a brighter, light green/blue to contrast more with the bird and flowers/vase.

I loved my new leaves so much, that I couldn’t cover them with additional components and went for stitching in veins instead.

Yet to do:

1. Apply dots to circle. I have media under the triangles and am stitching the dots prior to adding the circle to the background.
2. Stitch the circle down. I plan to stitch the white side and then add the corner motifs so I can tuck them under the circle.
3. Add the corner motifs.
4. Stitch the outside of the circle.

I have some FMQ to catch up on, so putting this aside for a bit and I will update the blog when it is all stitched.

Happy stitching! Lennea