Sunday, June 23, 2013

Serendipity Sunday–Magical Flower

One of the side effects of my working through my books is that occasionally I learn something not related to fabric or stitching.  Today’s flower is called The Magical Flower of the Incas.  I had not heard of this flower before so I turned to the trusty Wikipedia.

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I learned that the Cantua buxifolia is the national flower of Peru and grows in the valleys of the Andean rain forest.  How interesting!  If I had done the research before I started I would have used red and orange fabrics.

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Instead, I started with four circles with blue on one side, and green on the other.  These circles are smaller than the ones I made last week, but this flower starts out the same way.

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Next, I rolled each one up into a spiraled tube.  Getting stitches in place while keeping the roll intact was probably the trickiest part!

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Wired ribbon makes up the leaves.  I had this gauze/chiffon ribbon, but I do think silk would look better.  This seems to be fine, though.

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In no time at all I had these two clusters done!  They actually look a bit like the real thing, too.  Except for color, of course.

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And the Spring panel is off to a good start with about one third of the flowers pinned to it.  I can’t wait to see what next week’s flower will be. 

I think I’ll research the flower before I choose fabrics though!

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