Inspiration: Diane’s Roseville Album, Vol. 3

It’s raining here and quite gray, but spring is in the air and bright colors are just what we need for a cheery note. We are sharing three more completed Roseville Album Blocks, part of the nine-block center. These florals in vases were all rendered by needle-turn applique and handmade bias stems.

When working applique onto a dark background, such as this mocha colored brown/black, the light valued brights show up much better than the darker values. You will notice in this next block that the flower stems are a light brown. After finishing this block, all of the bias was remade from a light green and it shows a much better contrast.

The entire block probably should have been redone to match the rest of the quilt, but we have to be realistic and hope to finish this quilt sometime before we die.

Many of the applique fabrics are from Kaffe Fassett’s designs, just like the original by Kim McLean, but we have added in this and that from our stash. Creating this kind of quilt is really like painting on fabric, so the applique fabric choices have more to do with color, value, and texture than they do with keeping to a particular line or designer. The original was also made on a white background, so this has a very different look, and we like the way it is coming together.

While waiting for the blooms to appear outside, we will continue to create our fabric gardens inside where it’s nice and cozy. Happy Spring!