Inspiration : Sunflower is the tallest flower in the garden and in the language of flowers its symbolism is “pride”, probably because of its size. In the Aztec civilisation its meaning was “glory” and French King Louis XIV used it as its symbol in association with his own power, importance and golden light.

Material : Vintage hand-dyed linen, cotton and lace – Silk thread, acrylic paint, wooden block, Inktense pencils, gel medium, commercial stencils.

Technique : I have used stenciling on the different fabrics selected for the background. I wanted the effect to be subtle, like shadows of flowers on the background : I have used a commercial stencil with light green and yellow acrylic paint to allow the sunflower to stand out on the background.

The image comes from an old botany book, I printed it, simplified the design to make the thread sketching easier.

I have also quilted some of the stenciled flowers with tone-on-tone silk thread. The row of small sunflowers on the left are block printed with a wooden block bought in India. They are free-motion quilted and painted with acrylic paint. I have used inktense pencils to colour the sunflower itself. On the right the name of the flower is written in English, French and Latin.

The quilt is faced.

Close up View

Quilts in Series – Wallflowers