Sunday, August 11, 2013

Book Cover = Cone Flower

Fantasy Book Cover
10" x 10" framed
 
The Fast Friday Fabric Challenge was to create a book cover for one of our favorite books.   Because of my love of plants and gardening, I have many gardening books.  My frustration with all of them is that they try to cram too many photos or a photo of too many plants on the cover.
 
For example, one of my favorite books to use for plant identification has 3/4" photos on the edge and 1 1/4" photos on the front.  Only one of those little photos is 'legible'.  That photo is one single yellow flower on a black back ground.  The others have different colors, but all in the same tone.  No contrast.  Even with a magnifying glass, it is difficult to tell what plant they are showing. 
 
Because of this, I decided to create a book cover that I would like to see.  I also was so fond of my idea, I thought it might make a nice series.  However, because of the strictness of my design, everything had to be exact.  It was much easier on paper than fabric.  Paper doesn't stretch and move, sometimes with a mind of its' own.
 
Because my original photo was very busy with other flowers, it had to be painted over a LOT!  It still does not have enough contrast for me.  However, it is legible.
 
I am happy with this piece.  Not sure if I will make another in this series.  If I do it will be larger.  Working at this small size is too 'picky' for me.  I want to have a bit more leeway in framing. 
 
Beading Detail
 
I used tiny, iridescent seed beads on the top of solid small seed beads.  Those glaring dots in the photo are reflections of light.  I stretched the center of the flower with the round handle of my scissors.  Then I beaded it and stuffed it.  After mounting on the foam core, the perimeter of the 'cone' didn't want to lay flat.  I stitched the edges down with clear poly.  Now it has the depth that I wanted.  I like a lot of depth and texture.  I first stitched the petals to one layer of poly batting and a thin backing.  After stitching all of the petal veins, I cut around the petals so there was no batting between.  Then I made the usual layer of top-batting-backing.  I re-stitched around the petals so that they would have dimension.  Then I quilted the rest of the piece.
 
This is seventy number 63.
 
For more information on "seventy", please see the post below.
 
 
 

6 comments:

Katherine McNeese said...

LOVE your book cover...now I want the book too! LOL!

Unknown said...

Very nicely done Ann!

sonja said...

this came out very botanical
like the bee's eye view!

momid5 said...

very appealing!!

Funky Diva said...

Ann, I think your book cover is really lovely. Great job. Maggie

LA Paylor said...

the texture is fab, and the design is so balanced. Love
LeeAnna Paylor