My Best Enemy

Winter Rose Quilt Pattern

 

Purchase Winter Rose Pattern

 

It has been often said that your enemies define you.  “My best enemy” is also my best friend.  She has always been a stubborn little thing who can be very distant at times,  but her sweet nature can also cast a charm that is very hard to ignore.   We had a rocky start because of our hotheadedness but our relationship evolved into a strong bond over the years.  We have been known to annoy each other the most and also to love each other equally.  I have found my biggest strengths through her and utmost weaknesses because of her.  To me, She will always be a Winter Rosebud trying to bloom amidst snow.

 

 

Universe And Us Quilted in Gallifreyan

 

 

If you haven’t guessed it already, this wall hanging is about our friendship.  I mirrored this photo to show what the quilting looks like from the front.  I started with quilting our initials – S and P – written together in the centre.  I am glad of the hourglass shape, which was a complete coincidence born from my doodling, adding that extra touch of everlasting friendship through time.  The stars in the night sky also seem to last forever, and I have always dreamt of seeing them a little closer.  So I quilted the circles around our initials as though she and I are travelling together through the stars.  Finally, I added “Universe and Us” in Gallifreyan within our initials.

 

 

Tardis In Flight Quilt

 

 

Since travelling through space requires a ship,  I borrowed the idea of The Doctor’s Tardis.  It is so much more romantic than any earth-rocket!

 

 

Universe And Us Quilted in Gallifreyan

 

 

I can take on the Universe with her beside me and she would come along just to be with me!!

-Soma

 

 

Update – I got a few enquiries about the Winter Rose quilt pattern.  The pattern can be found in my shop.  Thank you so much!

 

Credits – “My Best Enemy” is the title of a musical piece composed by Hans Zimmer.  Tardis is the spaceship used by The Doctor in BBC’s television show Doctor Who.

 

 

 

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Flowers Of The United Kingdom

Flowers Of The United Kingdom Quilt Patterns

 

Purchase Stained Glass Flowers Pattern

 

I started working on this set of quilt blocks depicting The Flowers Of The United Kingdom early in February.  I wanted to design these blocks to have an old-world stained glass window pane look.  It is very unusual for me to take six months to finish a set of four quilt blocks, but I wanted them to look exactly as I envisioned them.  So I let this wall-hanging take its own course and time.

 

 

Welsh Daffodil paper piecing quilt pattern

 

Purchase Welsh Daffodil Pattern

 

Welsh Daffodil was the hardest one for me to design but the easiest to stitch.  I wanted a symmetrical design for these blocks and this little flower put up a good fight.  This design went through a few iterations before I fell in love with this one.

 

 

Scottish Thistle Paper Piecing Quilt Pattern

 

Purchase Scottish Thistle Pattern

 

Having visited Scotland twice very extensively and having fallen in love with it,  I really wanted to make a thistle quilt block.  This wild flower instigated the idea of a wall hanging in my mind.  Unlike the daffodil, I knew exactly how I wanted to draw this one.  Because of the nature of the thistle flower having a lot of corners, this one is the most complex of the four designs.

 

 

flax_bag_front

 

 

Flax for Ireland was the next one I worked on.  I didn’t want a to make a shamrock for Ireland.  After asking a couple of friends and looking up reference material, I came up with Flax.  This flower was the easiest to draw.  You probably already saw this one where I used this block for the first tote bag I ever made.  I removed the yellow parts in between the petals from the original design since that was causing the block to have too many points to line up when stitching the two sections together.  I wasn’t ready to give up on the original design yet, so I used this extra block for the tote bag and went back to my drawing board.

 

 

Irish Flax paper piecing quilt pattern

 

Purchase Irish Flax Pattern

 

I ended up redesigning the block using Y-seam even though  I didn’t know how to stitch Y-seam before I worked on this block.  I looked up how to stitch Y-seam and trusted my ability to draw a pattern without ever having sewn using that technique before.  Y-seam is really not as hard as I thought it would be and it worked out exactly as I envisioned.  I couldn’t be happier with the result.

 

 

English Rose paper piecing quilt pattern

 

Purchase English Rose Pattern

 

Last but not least came the English Rose because I had absolutely no idea how I wanted to draw it.   The daffodil was a little easier to draw because of its limited number of petals, whereas I had to work with the shape of the rose.  I like what I have here, it was easy to sew and I love the little gingham fabric I used for this one.  It was a lucky find!

 

So there are my four Flowers of The United Kingdom, finally finished.  Now I need to hit the quilt store to find fabric for sashing.  I want the grey stony look of a castle or an abbey, and I currently don’t have anything that would work.

 

I added the extra piecing on each side of the blocks, but they can easily be substituted with a single piece of fabric for simplicity.  Each center flower blocks are 6.5″ x 8.5″ with seam allowance and the overall block measures 10″ x 10″.  All of these patterns are available individually in my Shop.  I have included both of the Flax patterns, so you can pick which one you would like to make.

 

 

Wonderful Amy at 13 Spools is doing a paper piece meet ‘n greet.   My day was last Sunday and I talked about my designs.  I was going to make a post about it yesterday, but bathing a few rambunctious kitties took a lot out of me.  There’s a giveaway too which ends very soon, so make sure to visit her page to take part in that.  Giveaway or not, her blog is well worth a visit!

 

Have a wonderful week!
-Soma

 

 

 

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