Inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe

Left, inspired by "Sky Above Clouds". Center, inspired by "Spring". Right, inspired by the roses from "Cow Skull with Calico Roses"

Last year I was asked to construct a queen-sized quilt inspired by the work of Georgia O'Keeffe in celebration of a special birthday. Several of O'Keeffe's paintings were referenced for inspiration, and from them I developed three different design options using Adobe Illustrator (pictured above). My first concept (left) was designed with a traditional patchwork piecing method in mind, and the second (center) was intended as appliquéd orange peels. However, it was the roses from O'Keeffe's piece, "Cow Skull with Roses," that reminded me of so many of her floral studies and paintings, and it seemed that an inspired flower patch would be a good option. Coincidentally, the recipient had a love of gardening, so the flower patch was chosen as the preferred design.

Photo taken at New York Botanical Garden, 2018 exhibition, "Georgia O'Keeffe: Visions of Hawai'i."

I drew a cluster of flowers and then cut, pasted, rotated, and overlapped within Illustrator to create my flower patch.

An important element in the quilt was giving the flowers a painted quality. In my rendering I picked colors from Jennifer Sampou's "Sky" fabric line in "Mist." I was able to use its gradations in the flower petals. I also used shades of Moda "Grunge" in "Harbor," and "Storm" for the flowers, along with a Kona solid in "White." For the flower centers I used "Grunge" in "Paper Bag" and "Harvest Gold," both metallics, giving a sunshine quality to the piece, along with Alison Glass's "Kaleidoscope" line in "Pencil," a beautiful woven texture.

Jennifer Sampou digitally printed "Sky" fabric, in "Mist."

From left, Moda "Grunge" in "Harbor," "Storm," "Paper Bag," and "Harvest Gold." Alison Glass "Kaleidoscope" in "Pencil."

To make my pattern, I used my Illustrator line drawing and printed to scale, at 96" x 96". This was printed onto six 36" x 48" sheets of paper, at my local print shop. I then needed templates to make my flowers. I traced all of my flower petals, centers, and background pieces onto freezer paper, section by section on the reverse side of my printout. I put corresponding numbers on all of my pattern and template pieces. I then ironed my freezer paper tracings to create a triple layered template. These rigid templates gave me beautiful, clean edges for my pattern pieces.

To cut my pattern pieces I laid my template on my fabric, paying attention to color placement on my gradient fabric, and traced around each template giving myself ~1/2" seam allowance. I used a layered piecing method, where sections of my petals were wrapped around the templates and ironed in place with starch, while other sections were left unwrapped, allowing the petals to be machine appliqued on top of one another. All of the flower centers were completely wrapped around the templates and were placed on top of the flower petals and appliqued in place (the freezer paper templates were removed before stitching). I used Wonderfil 80 wt. Decobob for my applique, matching colors to my flower petals and centers making my applique virtually invisible.

Once the entire quilt top was pieced, I added 80/20 cotton/poly batting and a 108" Hoffman wideback batik in "Hydrangea." All layers were rolled around pool noodles for pin basting, which was an all-day project with over 500 safety pins used!

The project was then free-motion quilted on my HandiQuilter AmaraST. Quilting was hand guided with the same design used for all flower centers, and a variety of designs used to quilt the flowers.

The project was finished with a facing to give the illusion that the flowers would extend off the "page."

All totaled, from initial drawing concepts to completion, the project took ~8-1/2 months, interwoven with other life activities.

I hope this project gives you ideas in seeking inspiration and developing your own designs as you continue your quilting journey.

Happy quilting!

-Liz