Darling Blossom

So we got away for a much needed R&R this past weekend.  Friends of ours have a lake house and invited us for a weekend of a little swimming, a little sailing, a little eating, a little talking and no schedules.  It was awesome.  And this is what I made.  Her name is Darling Blossom and I made her for our hostess:

The making was fast, fast, fast.  The pattern is from Folded Flowers: Fabric Origami with a Twist of Silk Ribbon by Kumiko Sudo.  She used a patterned fabric for the bag body, pretty - but not my style, I thought the flowers were battling the pattern on the body and were just not as prominent.  So I used a gorgeous two toned fuchsia and orange silk that I had picked up at an upholstery shop sale a few months ago.  The depth of color is hard to see in the photo, but I love it so much I'm going to do another pattern from the book with it. 

Okay - I know.  A pattern from a book?  Claudia - what ARE you thinking?  I can't really answer that except to tell you that I'm completely taken with this whole idea of folding fabric into flowers. not to mention that it rally is a beautiful book (if you can get past the REALLY busy fabric combinations) with more than enough folded flowers to keep you stitching all summer.  It's awesome - this fabric origami.  And when you do the little flipping things to turn the petals inside out - a flower appears out of a little stitched square.  Pure magic, and we all know how much I like magic!  So yep, I'm going to go ahead and make another bag, and I guess it'll be some form of pink, since I seem to be hooked on the pinks this summer and this length of silk in particular. 

And then - just because folded flowers weren't enough, and because I'm hooked on Japanese craft books, today, I learned about Kanzashi, which is the art of "pinching" flowers for elaborate hair ornaments for Geisha.  There is a pattern on Craftlog and I'm going to look for more patterns.  It's too hot to hold yarn, and summer flowers seem to be just the ticket.  Anyone?  Anyone?

Comments

[Patricia]

What a beautiful bag. I love the name. It reminded me to put on a Blossom Dearie CD.

[Lalheg]

Oh utterly fabulous

[Heather]

How cute is that! I love it :)