Quilted Runner Features Unique Flowers

 Meet the Flowers

The Himalayan blue poppy (Meconopsis betonicifolia or Papaver betonicifolium)

  isn't really a poppy at all. True poppies belong to the 'Papaveraceae' family. 

The Himalayan blue poppy is referred to as a poppy because of its similar appearance.

The flowers are four inches in diameter on average.  The True blue flowering plants

 are rare in the natural world, but the Himalayan blue poppy is an exception. 

It derives its blue color from the pigment delphinidin 

combined with the plant’s ability to maintain acidic 

conditions inside the plant cells. Both conditions must be present to 

produce the blue color of the Himalayan blue poppy.

.

I spotted this massive field of them in Sitka AK in 2013 and

snapped a few dozen photographs.  They  grow 7-9 feet tall and are 

of the Rhododendron Species.  (Probably more than you

ever wanted or needed to know about this fabulous blue "poppy".

As indicated on the title, this is a Giant Trillium which

I spotted while hiking with our hiking group in CA.  It grows to 

almost 18 inches tall and wide with leaves (usually mottled) and

up to 8 inches long.  And, this one shows off its unique blossom.

They are native to woodlands and scrub of North America.

The blossom of the Bitterroot is quite small, up to only about 2 inches across.

However its color is stunning but you have to keep your eyes

peeled to spot it... I was lucky once again while hiking with my

CA hiking group.   It is a culturally significant

plant for several Native American tribes in the West (Flathead, Kutenai, 

Nez Perce, Paiute, Shoshoni and others). Traditionally, 

the roots were gathered, dried for storage, and used for food or trade.

And this rare and beautiful Western wildflower was pointed

out to me by our guide from a small cruise ship tour 

we were on in Glacier Bay AK.  This was the best

thing we saw while on a land trek.  The Chocolate Lily

has purple-mottled flowers, whorls of lance-shaped leaves, 

edible immature seed-pods, and a sweet, edible bulb.

Looks good enough to eat doesn't it?   They grow  8-24 inches tall.

I wanted to make a table runner to be used on a bar height

countertop in our kitchen area.  Maximum size to be 

13" wide and 60" long.  Lots of pre-planning was needed.

As usual I did the designing on my computer, planned the individual

color combinations, printed it off

and took it to the quilt store to purchase the fabric.

I printed some b/w to scale photos

of each flower.

I then cut out each leaf

to create individual pattern pieces to use as a guide when

I cut the fabric for each flower.

Here's a close up of my stylized and modified  flower stitched to its

own unique piece of background fabric. 

I used a variety of techniques like raw edge appliqué

and spent hours at the sewing machine stitching the individual

pieces together and finally using blanket stitch to quilt all

the flowers down to the batting and backing material.

This is the backing material that I used which also wrapped

around all edges to create the 1 1/2" binding on the front

of the runner.

And the end result...

I didn't want the plates, napkins, baskets, trays and bowls to cover

up the flowers when I served cheese, crackers, chips, etc.,

to our guests so that's why the beige pieces were

pieced in between (and quilted with cloud shapes using a beige thread).