Plenty to Go Around: Part 5

Plenty to Go Around: Part 5
project: approximately 80" x 80"
follow progress on Instagram with #plentytogoaroundquilt

Yep, this is going slow, so slow.  And partly because I haven't worked on it as much as I would like to.  Lots of life happening over here, which can also be a good thing.  From life comes inspiration.  

As promised, here is a shot of the whole quilt from 3 months ago, and one from yesterday.  I can't believe it has been 3 months already since I started the appliqueing!

The great part is being able to see some of the design elements come together and create the symmetry that I was craving.  Also, blue, I was craving blue, and this satisfies that too! 

More things to show you today, the parts that deviate from blue.  There will a few little pops of yellow, orange and pink.  Perhaps you can see the little pink above?  If not, here's a closeup:

I was surprised that I have no photos of the hummingbirds in process.  I got so engaged in the making of these little guys, that I forgot to engage in the documentation of their creation.  However, it resembles a hummingbird, and that pleases me! Also, this is the first pop of color deviating from the blue palette, a tiny pop of intensely bright pink!

Next: the California poppies.  I started with white fabric, and batiked just a short section on the outside of the stem.  When I get to the part of sewing these on, this will become more apparent as to why.  Then, I dyed the fabric this beautiful and intense blue.  The last step for the photo below, was adding the wax as just an outline of the flower edges.

The next step is color removal.  This is done with very dilute bleach and sunlight, and then lots of rinsing with clear water and drying in the sun.  If it still smells like bleach, it's not done yet.

So VERY pleased with how this is coming along!  Next step is adding the orange dye.

These will be individually cut out, and then have all their outer orange edges turned under, all the way to the blue outlines.  The only part that will be orange is the inside of the flowers, and they are pretty small.  So, what looks like a massive amount of orange, will actually be just a small pop.

The last pop of color is yellow, and it's tiny, just a small section inside the irises. Wax on:

You may be able to see the faint bleeding of the yellow onto the lower petal.  This is not a problem. It will be dyed navy and will completely cover it up.  Though, there is also something to be said for happy accidents when it comes to dyeing.  I could imagine a scenario where the bottom petal could be dyed a light color and the yellow would add a small amount of interesting color variation. 

One fat quarter accommodates only 2 irises.  It is funny how much I love the way these look! When I started them, I couldn't imagine anything but green for the leaves.  But now, I really love the blue leaves and they look really good with the overall quilt design.

And now, we have come to the end of all the process shots I took while making the batik elements for the flowers.  There are 2 others, but I didn't take any pictures of those.  One is the stems for the spiral flowers, and then there is one more blue flower I didn't photograph.  All will be revealed as I slowly work my way through stitching all the pieces onto the quilt top.  

And there's always more to show when I get to the back of the quilt....stay tuned!