sunflower quilt – tierneycreates

Flowers of the Sun

Sunflowers are my favorite flower and they actually spark a sense of joy inside me when I see them. Currently I am waiting for the sunflower seeds I planted in my yard to mature into sunflowers.

So far I have sunflower plant stems sprouted from the ground with their leaves and hopefully soon I will have the flowers themselves. I’ve spotted a few sunflowers in full bloom in around the neighborhoods I walk and bike. The feature photo on this post is from such a flower.

Sunflower Obsession

I think my obsession began with a lovely gift I was given by my friend Michele many years ago – an artificial potted plant of sunflowers (that looked quite real). That potted plant began my collection of sunflower related items.

My sunroom is decorated in a sunflower theme (I tried not to overdo it and it keep it semi subtle) and here is the plant that started it all along with a couple other sunflower themed items in the corner of my sunroom:

Here is the sunflower themed quilt in my sunroom – it has sunflower themed flannel on the back! (You can read posts about this quilt – Ugly Sunflower Fabric Challenge and Ugly Sunflower Fabric Challenge” Part II):

Cozy Sunflower Quilt – designed/pieced by Tierney Hogan, quilted by Guadalupe Designs

I also have sunflower art around the house. Here is a sunflower vintage style piece of art in my sunroom:

And a sunflower wallhanging which I made from a painted fabric sunflower panel which I machine quilted:

If You Plant Them, They will Come

I am thinking of the line from the movie Field of Dreams (1989): “If you build it, he will come”. I am patiently awaiting the arrival of the sunflowers I have planted including those I planted in the raised beds that surround the outside of my sunroom!

I will have sunflowers peeking into my sunroom and not just sunflower themed items around the sunroom!

Postscript

I was luckily enough to discover the blog of a talented painter who has a lot of sunflower themed art: Brush of Dawn Oil Paintings. Her sunflower paintings make me smile whenever I see them.

Here is a bonus sunflower, from an old post, in an unusual color!

Of course I could not refuse sharing a quote about sunflowers:

I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that’s such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life.

– Helen Mirren

An update to my post Progress and Fear about the 5 quilts awaiting completion:

Finally, I finished binding all 5 quilts back from the long-arm quilter! I have listed 4 of them for sale on the tierneycreates Etsy shop.

I still need to master photographing quilts as they are much prettier in person than my photos seem to reveal.

Designed by Tierney Hogan, pieced by Terry Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne Guadalupe

Designed and pieced by Terry Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne Guadalupe

Designed and pieced by Terry and Tierney Hogan, quilted by Betty Anne Guadalupe

The 5th one, the “Ugly Sunflower Fabric Quilt” I wavered on and was going to keep, then was going to sell on Etsy, and now I am completely undecided.

I might just hold onto it until the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show entry time next year to decide.

Perhaps I will put the sunflower quilt in the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show as I am guessing bed size quilts are easier to sell at the show than lap size quilts (of the 5 quilts I had in the 2015 Sisters Outdoor Show, only the bed size quilt sold).

The plan is for next year’s Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show, I put in 5 quilts again and Terry “The Quilting Husband” put in 5 of his quilts!