My design for this piece is, of course, based on poppy seed heads, with the addition of cow parsley seed heads. I wanted the main design to contain a fairly solid central motif, in contrast to the more ‘flimsy’ seed heads of my first piece. However I did not want the whole design to feel clumsy, so the more ethereal seed heads of cow parsley were included to fill and complete the design.

I created string stamp blocks for both the poppy and cow parsley seed heads, and used acrylic paint to print with these on a variegated hand dyed fabric. I added a layer of fine blue chiffon at the top of the piece which is barely noticeable, but which gives the depth of colour that I wanted to achieve. I then added more acrylic paint using the edge of a credit card to give straight lines for grasses and vegetation at the bottom of the piece. I used hand dyed silk for the main poppy heads which were appliqued using machine stitching. The remainder of the quilt was hand stitched – this includes stitching over some of the block-printed shapes, detailing on the poppy heads, additional grass and vegetation details. The additional vegetation included a few sweet cicely heads (which is one an aspect that I wanted to include in each piece throughout the series), in a less prominent position than previously. Finally I added a few beads to complete the poppy heads.

Close up views:

Quilt Series – Seed Heads

Quilt 1                                Quilt 2