"Please, No More Fertilizer" A Quilt

As I have mentioned here before....I do not have a green thumb and tend to kill plants rather than grow them. I can make flowers all day long, as long as they are appliqued or embroidered. I regret this fact, but own up to it. So, that means that I LOVE to applique and embroider the things I cannot grow. And, here is an example...a 36" square wallhanging I made several years ago.

And, yes, it leaves the quilt closet once in a while to hang in various places...just as my other quilts do. This week, the quilt will hang in the Nest, as I am being visited by a fellow Arkansas blogger on Wednesday. We have never met and I am looking forward to the visit. I thought this quilt would look great in here for the visit, as, for sure, there isn't much in the way of flowers growing in our very hot yard...we've had no rain for way too long.

I designed the center square for the guild, many years ago, when I was presenting a block a month, with patterns, as a little 'special interest' thing. After making the square, I decided to make this wallhanging, and it sort of just 'appeared' one little bit at a time. During that time period, I suppose you could say I was in a 'leaf frenzy' as everything I made seemed to consist of various leaves and lots of them. I'm still kinda crazy about them! I had a problem finding the 'right' red for the flowers, so I took the print you see on some of the flowers and turned the fabric to the backside for the other flowers, including the buds. I like using fabrics like that....giving you two fabrics for the price of one, so to speak. Can you tell I love doing applique?

The center of the quilt looked rather bare to me, so I found a verse I really liked taken from a vintage valentine card and designed a little floral motif around the writing. I LOVE doing this, and I think it made a pretty nice addition to the quilt. And, you also know I like writing on fabric very much.

As you can see, the quilt is hand-appliqued and hand-quilted....one of my friends said I was 'archaic' because everything I do is 'old-fashioned' and I'm not very 'up-to-date' on quilting methods these days. Well, who cares? I love what I do and will continue doing it....shouldn't we all do what we love to do? Fortunately, for me, having people like what I do makes me feel good (them too, I hope), but, I don't feel the need to impress or 'keep up' with others...thank goodness!

So, now we come to the quilt naming part of making this quilt. It is always difficult for me to name my work, so sometimes I enlist a friend or family member to help out. Often, we don't reach an agreement and I just stick with my own gut instinct. On this quilt, however, I was stumped...so I asked the old navy man if he could help with a name. "Sure", he said, "but you won't use it." I brought the quilt and placed it in front of him so he could get a good look.
Now, this is the part when I say...I should have known better. I had assured him that 'this time' I would actually use the name he came up with...and I did (it's on the label). So, as you can guess, after reading the title of this post, he chose - "Please, No More Fertilizer." Well, I had to use it, after all, I promised. Usually when I tell people the name of this quilt....there is laughter. And, I don't mind a bit, but, can you see why I don't ask for naming help these days?

This quilt was fun to make and I enjoy showing you some of the contents of the quilt closet from time to time. I hope you enjoy it too! And, by the way....here is the verse:

"May flowers of love around thee be twined,
And the sunshine of peace shed its joy 'ore thy mind."

Just lovely, isn't it? You take care out there. pat