Go Green!

As usual I spent most of the two months time frame given for 'Green', to brainstorm, doodle and sketch out ideas. Then once I made my decision there was no time for turning back or making additional quilts as some members have done! And as usual, no matter how much planning goes into the quilt there is always so much more time needed to make little decisions that crop up unexpectedly. For example, I had made a gradation run of ten greens but only needed five of them ..... how many hours should it take to pick out the five I want to use and the order I want to put them in? Well, finally I made that decision and here is a photo of step one completed.....

 Thankfully I had sketched out umpteen variations of where to place my flowers and had chosen the placement I wanted. So I cut out and stitched on the green tea wrappers.

 Then I added something I hadn't planned for; I decorated my flowers pots. I had planned to make pots from used coffee filters but at the last second I decided to add flower petals and seeds, held in place with tulle and stitching.

 Flower petals came from Tazo's Wild Sweet Orange tea wrappers. I like using Tazo wrappers as they have a waxy backing which irons nicely onto the fabrics, holding it perfectly until I get it stitched.

 Pounding the beer caps flat was not as easy as I thought, but once I ruined a couple I got the hang of it. A few hammer holes made it easy to stitch the caps in place; then some satin stitching around the edge and the addition of fuzzy green yarn (another not planned for addition) to add the feeling of grass or simply some textural interest. I had planned not to do free motion quilting but I missed something in those open areas so played with the idea of writing (Go Green, Live Green, Eat Green) or adding some quilting but finally.....

 I finished my Green quilt with some simple lines of heavy stitching which I felt tied the sections together.

Thanks Lisa for a fun challenge!!!!!! And don't forget, "GO GREEN"!