Thursday 25 March 2021

How many tulips make a bunch?

I have been plugging away making tulips - boy are they fiddly!  I have a nice little pile of them now, though, plus a handful that are half-made.  I decided today that I will finish the ones I have started and then maybe think about starting to sew  some of them into bigger chunks.

Mostly when I lay them out on the floor I have been thinking about using the tulips singly, mixed in with the string blocks but I also like them in little rows

and in fours.
If I kept making them for long enough this might turn into a tulip quilt with strings, rather than a string quilt with tulips.  More likely I will run out of beige fabric and that will be what decides how many flowers I end up with.

Actually, I realise that's a bit misleading.  I have two beige fabrics.  Mostly I am using shirt, but there is also a biggish scrap of what might be an Oakshott cotton.  Today I have also used the light, almost white shirt with a tiny, probably red, design (yellow flower in the top right above), plus a very, very pale yellow-y scrap and another left-over piece which is white with a little beige design.  I'm just mixing all these extras in here and there for now, but by the end they may well be all I've got.  

I reckon this is the most I've made for a quilt without sewing anything other than the basic building blocks.  It means that this still feels like a project full of potential, but I also know that if I don't move on to the next stage fairly soon I may end up making bits that are not what I need.  Not enough fabric for that, so decision time is looming.


12 comments:

audrey said...

These are so sweet looking! Love the scrappy bits. Makes them so much better than absolute repeats!:)

Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl said...

I was noticing that you have been making a lot more blocks without puzzling them together for this quilt. I hope that they all play together nicely, but my guess is with how happy you were with the stripe blocks on their own and now the tulip blocks together that there will be a happy mix.

Robin said...

The tulips look so cute together. They are so creative and so you. I look forward to seeing what’s next. .

Clarelou said...

Your tulips are lovely! Are they foundation paper pieces and is there a pattern for them please?

Cathy said...

Cute little tulips like my little species tulips. I like the tulips in bunches and think they stand out more. In one of your previous posts they seemed to get lost in the strings but together in a bunch they stand out and are outstanding!

Jocelyn is Canadian Needle Nana said...

Oh, you are turning scraps and strings into such pretty things! Love these tulips!

Linda @ kokaquilts said...

I love that... a project "full of potential"! The tulips will add a very real focus now in your decision making I'm sure.

Kim said...

I like the thought of a tulip quilt with strings. Those tulips are gorgeous!

Quiltdivajulie said...

I'm doing my tulips without the string blocks - those may appear at a later date (or not). LOVE the mix of your tulip blooms.

Ann said...

These are so lovely and look even better in a bunch like this. Who says they have to go with strings? Whatever you do will be wonderfully you and we will all admire the result. They are just great.

patty a. said...

You are sewing a whole garden of tulips! They are so sweet and I know you will end up with a fabulous quilt once you start putting all the elements together.

Mystic Quilter said...

Oops - missed this post Kaja! You're brave working with those small tulip pieces, but well worth the effort!