Sunday, August 18, 2013

Serendipity Sunday–Protea

222px-Protea_cynaroides_5

Isn’t this an interesting flower?  It is found primarily in South Africa although apparently some can be found in Australia.  There are many different species of this sugarbush plant, but more than 90% of them are found in a small area of South Africa (according to Wiki.  Click on the picture to read more.)

P8180003a

The fabric flowers are very stylized, and I may have taken some liberties on color choice here!  Sateen ribbon is placed in tucks of fabric.

P8180004a

Then tucks go across the other direction.  I was half way through the second flower when I noticed I had skipped over two words . . . “then stitch.”  Such small words!

P8180002a

The area where the two sets of tucks cross is quite a handful, especially when I was trying to hold it all together with pins!

P8180005a

By stitching the ribbon into the tucks, that intersection was a lot easier to handle.  Well, not really easy, but I was feeling a little less fumble-fingered – and pin pricked!  These flowers will be appliqued onto the background, but for now I basted the edges under.  Hopefully that will make the applique go smoother, too!

P8180006a

Here are the three flowers.  By this stage, those two little words don’t seem to make much of a difference.  Whew!

P8180007a

And the Summer garden is coming along nicely.  Lots of color!  There will be even more when I applique leaves in place, too.

I wonder where the flowers will take me next week.

1 comment:

Gina E. said...

Look forward to seeing the completed Protea. There is quite a large group of Australian wildflowers that are related to the South African Protea. The most notable of ours is probably the floral symbol of one of our states - New South Wales, and is called a Waratah. Similar in appearance to the Protea.