Dresden Addiction

I warned you in my last post, this desden ruler can be addicting.  I wanted to show another Dresden version for my class on April 27th at Fabric Etc and when I saw the post Randy did about her purchase at Sisters, I knew what my next project would be.

The flowers were machine appliqued and so were the stems. The top part of the stem is also a dresden blade on the 2 half flowers. The pot, leaf and center circle were hand appliqued. Once the center was done, I knew immediately that a border was necessary. The problem was that I started the center on Thurdsay at 5:30 pm and when I finsihed the hand applique, I had to get to bed; it was midnight!

As I layed in bed, my mind would not shut down, it continued to pondered my options and I kept having visions of this spiky scrappy border, a la Gwen Marston. I really like the bits of green and cheddar in the border, I think it really adds to the overall look of this piece. If I was to do it all over again, I'd have put the side borders on first, then ran the top and bottom borders to the edges.  Just a design decision, but I'll live with it like this. 

So here's the details. The finished size is 30 x 50, the border pieces are 4" wide, and the bottom left flower had to be unsewn and then restitched so I could add the border. Now it floats a tiny bit into the border.  All fabric came from my stash, so no fabric budgets were hurt in the process of this. The border is a bit time consuming, but worth every minute.  I'd do it all over again!

I look at this and I smile so that must mean that it worked.
What makes you smile?
Sharon