March 12 x 12 Promises of Spring

Finally! March really got away from me, but here is my quilt, just before the April ones are due.

This piece continues my series interpretating Nature through the Seasons, using hexagons and my photos printed on prepared fabric sheets. I got the idea for this one from a poem that is quoted on the label. I visualized the dead looking landscape above the ground with all kinds of promised goodies hiding underground in the form of seeds and roots. In a Grandmother's Flower Garden pattern, I used my flower photos in the hexagons surrounding some of the natural flora and fauna that would arrive with the warmer weather and longer days.

The landscape is from Centennial Park in Canon City, with wild American Widgeon ducks feeding on whatever they are finding in the winter dead grass that wasn't covered by snow. The smaller hexagon is a photo of seed pods from Toad Haven, and that is our very own Thaddeus Toad in the center of one of the flowers. The Easter Egg represents rebirth and resurrection, which is another promise of Spring. The bees will pollinate the flowers of summer to provide the next crop of seeds of promise. [The photos of the bees on their comb and the Easter Egg are the only ones that were not taken by me.]

The pieces are fused with Steam a Seam 2 and machine zigzag stitched with Sulky irridescent thread to represent the miracle that is going on under the winter to spring landscape. I finished the piece envelope style because I didn't want a more definite frame.

This piece is also posted on the Quilt Studio blog along with the other March pieces.

Please feel free to click on the photos to see them larger.