Wild Rose

I learned a lot about the effect of color on me during this challenge. I always buy the same bag of corn chips. However, I bought 'the other one' recently so that I would know which was the freshest. It stunned me. I do NOT like or am at all attracted to the dull yellow and green package. I really love the blue! As the colors began to change, I went through my cupboards and freezer in search of some color package that would match my 'new colors'. None did. I also noticed that all of my impulse purchases had this electric blue color with some shade of yellow. WOW! I never knew I was being influenced before this challenge. I am the type of person that reads the ingredients, the nutritional value, the fiber and salt content. I consider myself an informed, careful buyer. I didn't know that the simple use of color was such a big influence. Quite an awakening.

I really love these challenges. I learn so much. I don't think I could have made this much progress without them. I started sketching a yellow rose in a vase, then gradually I eliminated the vase and blew the rose up. I only had this tiny bottle of yellow dye, so the colors changed during the development.

I used a piece of white sheeting, dyes, and paints. My original thought was to just paint the yellow tones of the rose and leave the white for the highlights. That didn't have enough depth for me. So I just kept painting until I got some shapes I liked. I found the painting so relaxing and exhilarating and challenging all at the same time. Obviously it was fun!

The background seemed rather uninteresting so I remembered the month we experimented with stamping and mark making. I scoured the house for things that would leave some texture. My problem was stopping because I was having so much fun.

Although my yellow rose gained a lot of other colors during the process so that it doesn't exactly match the predominately blue and yellow of my chips package, I'm thrilled with the result. It is the most colorful thing I've ever done.

I've also been admiring those interesting borders that many folks use on their quilts. Mine never really called for that. However, as I made the rose larger, I realized it might be more dramatic with the bottom border following the lines of the rose and leaves. It does! I struggled with this border for over a week. Finally I stitched it by hand on the back to hold the facing in place. Any and all advice about doing this would be appreciated. I got it done, but it did involve a lot of angst.