Peruvian Sunflowers

We had grocery shopping to do yesterday morning, which meant I didn't get into the sewing room until around 2:00 p.m. Smitty had already put in a full day's work, and so he begged off. He needed some shut-eye. It looked like I'd be on my own in the sewing room.

So, I worked at it for the rest of the afternoon, taking no pictures until all the applique was finished. I'm calling this piece "Peruvian Sunflowers." 

Just now, I did a search using those terms, and came up with the History of the Sunflower. It was interesting and mentions Peruvian sunflowers specifically, saying, "In Peru, the Aztecs worshiped sunflowers, they placed sunflower images made of gold in their temples and crowned princesses in the bright yellow flowers." So, I think that's a fitting name for it.

When it was trimmed, I noticed right away I had a coverage issue. You can see where I've circled in pink below.

It was easy enough to fix. I just peeled up the applique of the yellow flower a little bit, and then glued a little scrap of the darker flower there. When the thread work is done, it won't show at all. I debated whether to add the yellow of the sunflowers as individual petals or one solid piece. I decided to make them as one solid piece, and let the thread work fill in the details. 

So it was trimmed to size, and then, I think I pulled every fabric from my stash, trying to figure out an appropriate way to finish it off. I've already decided to use half blue and half yellow for the back, like the flag of Ukraine. For the quilt top, I liked this sunflower fabric, but it seemed to distract from the main part of the quilt.

This next one was totally wrong. Too bright and too distracting.

I thought adding a stop border might help, and so I auditioned two different ones.

Unable to decide, I consulted to Resident Engineer. He took one look at it and made a disapproving face, saying something like, "Really?" Okay, so I took that as a "no." Then the two of us auditioned some completely different ideas, and came up with the combination you see below.

That was the best we could come up with. I think that stop border fabric will also make a good binding. So, that was where I left it for the day.

When I went upstairs, I found his majesty outside in his catio. It's one of the first afternoons of good weather since we've been home, and he was taking advantage of it.

Later, he settled down for his evening meditations. He's looking pretty smug, isn't he?

Okay, so I'll need to add the borders and complete the quilt top before I can do any thread work. If memory serves, I believe when I did this before, I did the thread work through a layer of stabilizer and batting. The quilt back was added after the thread work, and then the rest was quilted. I'll have to experiment with some scraps before I start on the actual quilt. I'm trying to avoid puckering when I do the thread work, and so it might be a process of trial and error before I get it right. 

There are several things on today's agenda. There's at least one housekeeping chore, and then I was going to try out a new recipe for some "Jumbo Breakfast Cookies." They're made with peanut butter, raisins, oatmeal, and some multi-grain Cheerios. They sound interesting, and they're intended as a healthy grab-and-go breakfast. If they're any good, they'd make a good item to take along on road trips. Even with baking the cookies, there should still be time for sewing.

The weather was looking more promising yesterday than it is right now. I believe we might be in the phase of weather that begins cloudy and foggy, and then burns off to sunshine later in the afternoon. Possibly, sewing in the morning is the best way to go. I don't like being in my windowless basement sewing room when there's sunshine outside.