Best of Houston : Quilts With a Floral Theme

If it's cold, rainy, or snowy where you are right now, here's a breath of springtime from the 2011 Houston International Quilt Festival.  Join us for a look at some great floral-themed quilts !

Another Whimsical Garden by Tina Curran , Studio City, California

Tina says,  "I wanted to make a garden quilt. I like the mix of the styles of the flowers in this composition-with some more realistic, some quite cartoonish, and the rest somewhere in between. I also looked for a mix of colors ( as in my favorite real gardens) and a variety of sizes of flowers to add to the visual interest.  Yellow fabrics between wedges of light blue fabrics suggest the rays of the sun. For the stems, I used a mix of mid-to-dark green fabrics, including stripes, checks, and paisleys. " With its highly effective use of complementary and split-complementary hues, this was one of the happiest quilts we saw at the Houston Festival.

 Spring Gift by Ann Fahl , Racine, Wisconsin

Here's a lovely eye-catching original design of welcoming icy blue, lavender, and white flowers against a sapphire blue patchwork background. Ann used commercial and hand-dyed fabrics, along with hand-painted fabrics for the flowers. She notes, "The flowers and leaves are machine appliqued using a stitch that I have developed called tri-step applique. It is based on free-motion embroidery and creates an extremely wide and soft subtle stitch that covers the edge on each oversized shape. Machine quilting this piece was a joy."

Camelot Country by Liz Jones, Leominster, Herfordshire, United Kingdom

 Liz Jones, author of the Flowers, Hearts, and Garlands Quilt book, has created a fabulous applique of a garden bursting with flowers and trees loaded with fruit. Two enchanted castles peek out of the background. Her quilt is an original design, done with cotton batik fabrics and cotton threads. Liz writes, "This design is inspired by the medieval "Devonshire Tapestries" in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London." We love the intricate and careful detail that went into this delightful and almost magical scene.

Beautiful Japanese Lily by Naoko Hirano, Komaki-City, Aichi-Prefecture, Japan

Two gorgeous lilies, serve as the focal point of this magnificent machine appliqued and quilted artwork,  inspired by the flowers in Naoko's garden. The centers of each flower petal are decorated with stunning gold metallic fabric, which really makes the lilies pop right off the bright red background. The quilter writes in her description,  "Philipp Franz von Siebold was very impressed with the Japanese lily and brought bulbs back to his country, Holland. The climate in Holland wouldn't allow the Japanese lily to grow. It became a popular flower, and everyone hoped to have them. I like the Japanese lily very much. I accomplished his dream by showing the Japanese lily in bloom on my quilt using Japanese vintage kimono and obi fabrics. "

Liz's Giant Poppy by Elizabeth Driggers, Reston, Virginia

This vibrant, dynamically colored machine-appliqued quilt made with cotton fabrics and varied threads, will blast you right out of the winter doldrums. Elizabeth says, "Inspired by painter Georgia O' Keefe, I used French Fuse techniques to construct this wall hanging using the "Poppy" pattern by Carol Morissey . The appeal of colorful, large scale designs and challenging applique has led me into the world of art quilts. I love it more every day !"