QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Flora Delanica Quilt: Botanical Block of the Month


I don't know about your place but it's been a little dull around here at the old B.O.M. Ranch this year so we've been thinking up an applique project to keep us entertained. 

We'll begin sharing the 12 florals on the 15th of October and you'll find a block here for free on the 15th of every month for a year through August 2021.

Mary Granville Pendarves Delany
(1700-1788)

We're going way back in time about 250 years for our inspiration, drawing from the cut paper collages of Mary Granville Delany, an Englishwoman whose life spanned most of the 1700s.


Read more about Mrs Delany here:


The colored paper collages she called Paper Mosaicks are surprisingly modern in their boldness and color. Mary had a genius for abstraction, accurately rendering botany in simple shapes. During the 1770s and '80s she created nearly 1,000 little masterpieces of observation, her Flora Delanica.

We are simplifying further and adapting a dozen of Mrs Delany's botanical pictures to applique. The head wrangler at the BOM Ranch (moi) has drawn the patterns.
 The champion roper (Becky Brown)  has lassoed my designs into models of perfection. 

We've got a new hand (Nancy Phillips) who has adapted the designs for wool applique.

Denniele's doing raw edge machine applique and
added details with colored pencils.


I've got a couple of other cowpokes asleep in the bunkhouse who are going to get up and get going.

Me, I'm looking at my blocks as Broderie-Perse.

More about fabric for Flora Delanica in the next post.

Dear Mrs Delany:
Sorry about mixing the cowgirl metaphor with your 18th-century images.
BB

Check out our Facebook Group: MARY DELANY QUILT

12 comments:

  1. Woohoo! Cowgirls and floral applique - it doesn't get any better than that! I'd better hire the bulldozer now to clear out the sewing room and make way for the new sew-a-long. Can't wait!

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  2. Quilting cowgirls- yes! Home home on the range, where the designs and the appliques roam.

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  3. Sounds very interesting and I'm trying to decide which way I'd like to go .... traditional applique, wool applique? Fun, fun, fun. Thanks, Cowgirl Barbara!

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  4. Floral appliqué! My favorite! You know exactly how to inject some excitement into life. I can’t wait.

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  5. Girl'up, this is an inspired project. I was first introduced to the paper collages of Mrs. Delany at an exhibition in 2010. I lingered over each delicate floral composition. Her biography reveals perseverance and her commitment to her creative abilities. I hope Mrs. Delany smiles down from her worktable while you sew.

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  6. How delightful! Thanks, looking forward to all 12!

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  7. Looking forward to my next Pandemic Project!

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  8. Thank you for creating these projects!

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  9. Wow, ir's awesome.Looking.forward tour tips to improve my applique.Sure I will make a block.Thank you for the fun

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