3-D Flower project finished

It's done! That was fun.

I did make an iris for the lower right corner. It was an adventure. I decided to try one of Allison Aller's techniques that she published in the CQMagOnline, April, 2009 issue: making millinery flowers. Actually, I can't claim to have used her technique. I modified it to use the materials I had. I made ovals of white silk charmeuse. Then, not having the glue Allison used, I sprayed the ovals heavily with starch and pressed. I used three for one flower. On two ovals I streaked yellow pastel on the center end of the oval to about the middle. Not having a ball-shaped tool to shape the fabric, I used the tip of my iron on a cloth bag of rice (not having any sand.) Then I gathered the center end of the ovals with a few stitches. The two lower petals needed a row of yellow fuzzy stuff, stamens with pollen? I made those with Ghiordes knot or Turkey rug knot. using one strand of DMC floss. I found the starch didn't completely prevent ravelling of the silk, so I used fray check around the edges. Then I sewed the petals onto the block with the bottom two skewed to the side. With ribbon stem and leaves added, the iris is done. I'm sure this would have worked better if I had used archival bookbinding glue, a millinery tool and a sand bed, but who could wait to get those things.

So here is the finished block. It has another flower added besides the eight Allison taught and the iris. Notice some sweet William's in pink fused angelina fibers. I traded this color with Robin Atkins for some of the orangy color I had in my kit for the dogwood. And, Susan, I did make the waste canvas based butterfly. It's cute and I did want to use all the techniques Allie taught. That was a great workshop. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.