Project Quilting 10.1

The new season of Project Quilting started last Sunday with our first challenge~ Hope Springs Eternal. As soon as I heard the challenge announcement I knew instantly what I wanted to do.

During Christmas Break we decided to go sledding one afternoon when our son & his family were home visiting. The temperature was perfect and there was actually snow, just no sunshine and everything felt grey and gloomy. They took off in the ranger to go scout for sledding spots & I told them I would come up later & meet them. I headed for the first spot we had talked about but no one was around, as I was turning back to head to the next hill a bright red spot in the snow caught my eye, I had to stop & check it out. It was a little red rose hip peeking through the snow, one little bright spot of joy in the vast sea of browns, grays & various shades of white that make up the colors of the prairie on a winter day.

When the theme Hope Springs Eternal was announced, this was the image I wanted to create. That bright red seed pod of hope in a wintry cold world. 

Hope Springs Eternal is a phrase that means it is human nature to find fresh cause for optimism. When there are so many long dreary days during the winter months in South Dakota, Optimism is a good companion. Finding those little bits of color in the day help remind us that these long cold days will pass & there is something good in every day. 

I love wild roses, everything about them. I especially love the little red rose hips that appear after the flowers are done blooming. To me they are the perfect symbol of hope. They provide food for the birds, and are used by many people to make jams, jelly, tea, or even wine. Rose hips have a very high vitamin C content and during World War II people were encouraged to grow rose hips in their Victory Gardens. The Native Americans used rose hips in soups, stews and medicines. 

Something I found interesting when researching rose hips was the History of the Rosary~
Long ago, people thought the rose hips to be sacred. This is corroborated from the fact that during the Middle Ages, the rosary of the Catholics was made from rose hips and hence they were called rosary. These rosaries were used to count the prayers as they were also being said. Even today, the beads of the rosary used by the Catholics resemble the rose hips and like the fruits of different species of the rose plant, these modern-day beads are also smooth and elongated in appearance. I guess I don't know if this is true or not but maybe some Catholic History experts might know more :)

So back to Sunday and the decision to recreate the rose hip in snow picture, I knew what I wanted to do but I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. I wanted my rose hip to pop out from the quilt and I finally decided that I would attempt beading it to the fabric. First I had to decide what type of a background I was going to create and after talking to a friend I came up with a plan for all of my little quilts this year, we will see if I can pull it off. 

I dug through my stash and found some different rose colored fabrics and created an edging for my little block, I also used the darker of the two fabrics when it was time to bind the quilt. I fused some different shades of blue, grey & white to my background to create shadows.
I used thread painting to create the brown stems of grass, and changed the thread 8 times. I have great admiration for people who do thread painting with 100's of colors. I lost interest in thread painting after thread change #4.

I then beaded the stem and little round rose hip with seed beads and added some white and iridescent beads to the snow. I quilted the edges with swirls and flowers, added swirls into my snow then added the binding. It was done! My quilt measures 8 x 11. 

But I wasn't quite finished... I decided that I wanted to add the name of the challenge to the back of the quilt, and since I had the song "The Rose" by Amanda McBroom stuck in my head the whole time I worked on the quilt, I added the lines that fit with my little picture.

....When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snow
Lies the seed
That with the sun's love, in the spring
Becomes the rose.

Because I am weird...LOL.... Another picture I had in my head the whole time I was working was the imagine of a little grouse finding that happy little red morsel in the snow on a cold day, gobbling it up...and then a little red fox coming along & finding that fat little grouse in the snow...and gobbling it up. Hope Springs Eternal.