Patchwork Breeze: tulips

3/24/2020

Making Us Laugh Blog Hop

Today I hope to make you laugh, or giggle, if just for a moment.

First the joke:

What flower grows when you plant kisses?

(Find the answer below.)

A big thanks to Joan, at Moosestash Quilting, who came up with this blog hop. Also, to the many designers who decided to join in. So far it's been fun to see what they have made.

For me, this was a challenge to come up with a design. I usually am the last one to understand the joke. I am not quick witted to say something funny (and when I do, my friends are surprised, to say the least.) After Christmas, Joan had an entire post about laughter-the health benefits, the interaction between mind and body, and its contangiousness and asked quilters to join the blog.

I took the challenge and searched for "children and humor" on the internet. I figured I'd be able to find something in that catagory that made me laugh and would be easy to sew. I found the joke (above); and, the answer is in my quilt!

I titled it, Butter Flies and Two Lips.

I made it with cottons and felt, a few beads and some hand stitching.
I sewed the sky and grass together.
I cut out the sticks of butter, lip shapes, tulip stems, and leaves from felt.
The butterfly wings were scraps of Island Batik cottons.
I sewed the raw edges of the stems and leaves by machine.
White fleece was topstitched behind the lips (after a slit for the mouth was cut in the lips).
Lips were zigzag stitched onto the stems.
The sticks of butter were pinned in the sky, one wing placed behind the stick and two on the front. All were topstitched (with raw edge stitching).
The beads were sewn on by hand and the mouths and antenna were hand stitched.
I quilted the layers, working around the appliques.

I had never made a split-binding to match the background. I got it done with a little re-working (ripping stitches) and it lined up well. The back is a fun floral from my stash.