Broccoli!

At the beginning of October, my friend turned the big 3-0. Usually I get her a vegetable or two for her birthday (cuz that's the kind of person she is :) ). However, she's been on a reduced diet recently, and I wasn't sure what she was and wasn't eating. Plus $1.99 broccoli didn't feel like enough for a 30th birthday.

So I got to work thinking and googling and decided a collage broccoli was the way to go. And I even found some ideas online - I'm not the first one to quilt a broccoli :). I ended up using ideas and resources from Collage Quilter, who has done some great work. She has some lovely pieces including a harvest quilt, which includes some youtube video tutorials on fabric selection, technique, etc.

I pulled my fabrics out and got to work, sorting, cutting, placing and sticking.

I did the outer edge of the broccoli separately from the inner floret - this made it easier to get the shape I wanted without too much work. I cut out rounder shapes for the florets and strips for the stalks.

Both pieces were made on a separate scrap of fabric, and then cut out and placed on the background.

After that it was just a matter of quilting: pebbles/bubbles for the florets (smaller in the darker parts and larger for the lighter middle bit - made it stand out a bit more) and jagged lines for the stalks.

I had a lot of fun creating this project. I would definitely try something like this again.

She hung it in a place of honour (and picked out the perfect ribbon for it) :)