Imagi-lands

Shhhh! Can you keep a secret?? I can't!!



When making tutus - I buy flower bunches and disassemble them, leaving the leaves, stems and lots of broken plastic pieces. I've been wondering what to do with all the leftover flower pieces from my tutu endeavors, and I've finally found a use! I've been keeping them - thinking there has to be SOMETHING I can use them for??? The flowers are often expensive, so I have a hard time throwing away the "junk." Hmnn.... I wonder if I'll be a hoarder in my old age?
(on an aside - anyone know of a source for just fabric flower petals??)

Anyway - Imaginary Play quilts is the answer for some of those leftover leaves! I mentioned a few posts ago that I'm doing an exchange with Keet of Relentless Toil. She's doing some artwork of my child and another little gal (which will be a birthday gift from us to her..as she shares a birthday with my daughter.) In trade, Keet asked that I make some imaginary play quilts for her daughter.

I don't believe Keet visits this here blog, so I'm going to post this as I'm so excited about it. It was a load of fun to make. It's a great example of how I work, as it was originally going to be a flower garden. I started sketchless, started cutting and oops! It's a country scene. I tried to leave it simple, yet add enough dimension for imagination to build upon. Unfortunately, it's another example of something that looks better in real life -- than in a picture shot on another friggin' dreary dismal day.

There's a Tree house with ladder. The tree house is on a plastic pocket, so that little peoples can be crammed in there to look like they are in the tree house. The house has a openable door. When the door opens, there is a little plastic pocket to hold a photograph of a family, or mama, or the child, whatever... The pond has a lilly-pad, and there are reeds aside it that things can hide behind. The leaves on the trees can conceal little birdies, or maybe even little kiddos climbing about. The rope swing is for swinging. And a path begins at the house and ends at the bottom. Keet said her daughter already has all the imaginary figures for these little lands, but I may have to invent a few bugs, frogs, and characters to send along with them. Of course, my imagination is a bit more effective than my ability to manage time.

I made this kind of quilt-like. It's soft and skwooshy. It's backed and binded rather poorly, though. That's my only disappointment. Man, it's hard to wrestle all the pieces and the layers of embellishments into playing nicely - while crammed in my machine. But, it could look a lot worse.

This could be hung on a wall.. or as Keet prefers - laid on the ground. It measures 19 inches by 21 inches...and I plan to make 2 or 3 more for Keet as part of our trade. And, then...I'll probably make more beyond that. They are just so much fun to do!!! Albeit...a bit time consuming. I'm envisioning the next ones to have bits that "run over" into this land - like the path....or the other side of the tree, etc. We'll see what happens as the next lands are formed!

I'll post the rest of these after they've been successfully swapped. If Keet does happen to visit here, then I'll preserve the rest of the surprise. I may sneak in a teaser though if I just. can't. stand. the. wait.