The latest addition to my BOW Flower Block collection is Edelweiss - a flower that is instantly recognizable for its beautiful star-like shape and its association with the mountains.
When I started designing this block, I turned to a photo from Wikipedia for inspiration since I didn't have a photo of my own to design from. The photo shows the Edelweiss from the side, which is a lovely way to see the flower growing naturally....
.... but for my quilt block, I wanted to do something a little different. Rather than creating the flower as it appears in the photo, I decided to look at it from above - a bird's eye view.
This meant rethinking the design completely. A side-view photo gives you a very different impression of the flower. You can see the height of the plant, the arrangement of the leaves and the way the flower sits above the foliage - this helps to know the order of placement for each element. However, looking at it from a bird's-eye view changes the emphasis to the wonderful star-shaped flower.
That star shape is what really caught my attention and for my block, this top-down view creates an opportunity to emphasize those shapes.... I can also arrange them in a way that works visually as an applique design. Of course, translating a three-dimensional flower into fabric always involves a little artistic interpretation!
With further reading, I discovered those lovely white, velvety "petals" aren't actually petals at all! They are actually modified leaves called bracts surrounding clusters of tiny flowers, creating the characteristic star-like appearance. The bracts are covered in dense, woolly hairs. The hairs aren't just there to make Edelweiss look fluffy and beautiful. They help the plant cope with the harsh conditions of its high-altitude conditions by helping protect it from intense sunlight, cold, and moisture loss.
And there's another wonderful botanical surprise - what looks like one flower is actually a cluster of many tiny flowers surrounded by those star-shaped bracts.
Now, turning my thoughts into fabric: I love the challenge of taking a flower that I've seen in a photo and transforming it into a block.... each new flower presents its own little puzzle of shapes, proportions and details to work out.
Unlike most of my other flower blocks, I felt that with the light fabrics I would be using, the background needed to have some color, even if subtle. This helps the flower really shine. I grabbed a fabric, that to me, represents a rocky mountain feel, definitely icy anyhow.
I chose small amounts of scraps including a graduation fade fabric. This type of fabric is ideal because it gives me various shades for the leaves.
.... and then I began to build my flower block!
Cutting, pressing, and then carefully choosing the threads, I'm ready to start stitching.
Before long, my Edelweiss block was ready to join the BOW Flower Block collection, bringing a little bit of alpine inspiration to my garden of blocks.
I wonder which flower will be next?
