I started my quilt when it was published as a BOM and wanted it to show off all the colours I like which is pretty much any colour under the sun, so it includes all possible shades of yellow, orange, red, pink, violet and purple for the flowers. The tone I love most is always bright and light, so I used batik fabrics.  All the flowers produce so much lovely chaos on this quilt that  some element of order had to be introduced which is provided by the dark blue found in the borders and the zigzag.

 

My favourite part was picking fabric but it was also the hardest part because I had to imagine what it would look like in the end when it all comes together and just hope that everything would be in balance. I'm particularly pleased with the lavender-purple/ red-yellow gradation in the third border that creates a pulsating vivid effect.

 

I'm not much of a fan of broderie perse so I spent hours  on research for  techniques that could be used to create realistic looking flowers. I tried a lot of things, I ruched roses in three different techniques, folded calices, frayed daisies etc. LE was a huge playground for me. The wish for realistic flowers led me to change the design in various places, the one that stands out the most is the centre-piece with the four vases which are seasonal vases filled with flowers from my garden.

 

When pieces became too small within the leaf helix of the second border I turned to embroidery and tried different stitches. I decided that the strange shapes at the crossings were butterflies instead of angels which seemed to go nicely with the flower theme and replaced the strange looking bird by a robin.  After the second border I was fed up with leaves and  thought the double bows need loose ends rather than more leaves. I also wanted real tassels rather than embroidered ones so I made them out of wool.

 

After so much appliqué I needed a break and put the top aside for an entire year. With this hand appliqué I wanted to hand-quilt it, too, and after visiting an exhibition comparing quilts I decided on a grid because that's what I think makes the appliqué stand out.

 

I quilted a 5/8th inch grid, I quilted  for 5 months for two hours every day. I chose a leaf design for the green borders and an intertwining zigzag for the blue border.

 

Now that I'm finished I can't really believe it, LE has been my steady company for four years in total. It encompasses all the workmanship I'm capable of, certainly an insane amount of work and displays my love for colour and flowers like no other quilt has done or ever will do again. There's no quilt like it and I'll never undertake such an enterprise ever again. It's unique and stands out amongst all my other appliqué quilts.

 

Thank you for enabling me this journey by making this design and offering it for free for all to embark on their own journey.

 

Chris Endrich