Sunday, May 27, 2007





A rose by any other name...

~Or a bit of an attempt at free-piecing one anyway!

I have a long way to go on this but these are a few early plays. It is trickier than you think if you want to get curves and the shading similar to a real rose. I have collected up a few rose pictures and am using them for ideas. I think I need more shades, I may have to reach outside the stash.
I have always been very surprised that there aren't a bunch of patterns for roses like this, now that I'm trying to make one I can see why! If anyone else decides to have a play, drop me a line so I can look at yours.
This is one of the green and pink ones I did at last year's quilt retreat, pure free-piecing. No picture, a pair of scissors and a machine, it was great fun! I made three that day. You have seen one in a cushion last December.
About to have a present making week, I am way behind and need to get a good few in the mail. I was waiting for some special material so now you winners should be in luck!
This is a bag for my birthday buddy at quilters, it's from the Moda faded memories range.
I have once again retired from teaching. I ended up working 7 out of the last 10 school days and with a sick daughter that wasn't easy. On Friday I actually felt tired down to my bones, I then arrived home to find her crying from the tummy pain and her father almost beside himself. This irritable bowel business is the pits! The most incredible thing about it is that she can be crying from the pain, you put her in bed with a hot water bottle and she goes to sleep within a minute and sleeps soundly all night. She very fortunately woke up just about perfect on saturday morning and spent a beautiful autumn day playing. It once again got worse as she got tired but asleep again as she hit the pillow! At least we had 2 months in between bouts this time and we are hoping this bout is almost gone but surely there is some long term treatment-we've done 4 doctors, naturopath, QX10 machine, Bowen technique and chiropractor. Chiro and QX/naturopath have helped- Bowen is ongoing.
Anyway, that was my little rant for the day, loved the actual working though; it's like with anything when you actually think you might be good at something, it's great to get a chance to do it, -just far too hard to fit it in! Cheers, Tracey

20 comments:

  1. Oh Tracey, that rose is superb. How gorgeous this would be on a set of cushions for the couch perhaps. You are very clever!!!

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  2. Your roses are soooooo cute. Please make more and show us. Maybe you can make a pattern of them.

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  3. These roses are really beautiful! I might have to try one.

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  4. Oops - that 'Jen' is me, Hedgehog!

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  5. Love the little bag Tracey would you be my birthday buddy too????? lol.
    I feel for your daughter and for you this must be very frustrating for all of you.

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  6. Tracey that first rose is just perfect! Love the black too - really brings out the contrast, just like a real one. Well done!

    Oh god Irritable Bowel is just terrible. My mother has it not so bad, but an ex-boyfriend of mine used to get it badly. We worked out after a long time that it was ice-cream that really set him off. He wasn't lactose intolerant, so it must have been something else. He ended up in hospital a couple of times due to the pain, but no one could help him. It was horrible.

    I hope you can find a solution for your DD.

    Good to know you can get lots of work if you need to!

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  7. The free pieced roses are fantastic! I especially like the red one. I have been thinking of flowers next but wasn't sure I'd be able to do them. Now I am going to give them a try for sure. I was thinking of Hollyhocks last night and if Roses can look that good can Hollyhocks be far behind?
    I hope your daughtre is feeling better soon.

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  8. Your roses are coming along great. The more you practise at it, the more you will get them to look like you want them to.

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  9. The roses are neat! such detail... I've been into bags lately-- I've working on one for a gift-- can't wait to share....

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  10. Tracey, the roses are superb ! You're sooo talented ! Keep doing !

    So sorry for your daughter, my best wishes for a prompt improvement !

    Hugs & smiles !
    NADINE

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  11. We can almost smell the roses! I like the top one most and I am looking forward to seeing more of them and what you will make out of them. Take care.

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  12. Tracey, I love the rose blocks!!! I haven't tried paper piecing yet but now I might after I've seen yours.
    I'm so sorry about your daughter!!! It stinks when they are in pain and there's not much we can do about it.
    Sending hugs your way today my friend!!!
    dawn

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  13. Hi Tracey,
    So sorry to hear your daughter is feeling so bad again. I know how helpless that can make one feel.
    Your rose is lovely..
    :)

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  14. Ohhh, love the roses. The only place I've seen something similar is in Jan Mullen's book Cut Loose Quilts, but those don't have stems and don't look very realistic. Yours look fantastic!

    Sorry to hear your daughter hasn't been feeling well -- how frustrating!

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  15. Love that red rose! Kudos on your originality!

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  16. Nice job on the roses. Take a look at my blog when you get a chance--I have a photo of a quilt with similar roses that I appliqued on. They're awfully fun to make, aren't they? I kind of like doing them the random/free method and being surprised with the outcome!

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  17. Your roses are really great - I can see where it would take a good amount of fabric stash to accomplish just the right shades.
    Hope they soon come up with relief for your little one.

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  18. Those roses are just brilliant - I can't wait to see how you put them together.

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  19. Love the roses - have emailed you direct with details of things that helped our daughter with IBS - any questions by all means email me back

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Thanks for finding the time to comment, I'll try hard to get back to you!! Sorry, have had to add word verification step due to comment spam!