Rose Vine
Featured in Romancing Ribbons into Flowers by Elly Sienkiewicz, each pattern was inspired from a familiar block or the desire to move appliqué into the new direction that has become Ribbon Appliqué. The center block is from Spoken without a Word by Elly Sienkiewicz. I adapted the shape from a square to the diamond pattern.

In my travels for looking for Vintage ribbon, I found the lovely orange and purple ombre ribbon along with a book from the late 1800's on ribbon folding techniques. I started to play and quickly had two lovely vases. I decided to fill one with Pansies, as they are so lovely with the ombre ribbon. My husband's favorite flower is a Chrysanthemum. I had found a book on antique oriental fabrics and embroidery that showed the "twisted" stitch. Almost $100.00 in ribbon later fill that vase was with lovely mums! The Mixed Bouquet grew out of a new awareness of the silk ribbon for embroidery.
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I found a vintage ribbon that went from a soft green to soft coral. It reminded me of grapes I had seen once from my Aunt and Uncles farm called Lady Finger Grapes. This also brought to mind my Great Grandmothers Grape Arbor that was covered in Concord Grapes. I decided a Grape basket was needed. Once it was put together, our winemaking friends quickly identified the remaining grapes as Pinot.
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The Meadowlarks and Robins were from traditional Baltimore Album quilts. When I showed my bird watching friends the original blocks, their first comments were "why are you making the flowers and fruit look so real and then using fake birds?" This revelation caused me to remove the "fake" birds and look for fabrics and ribbons that would more clearly depict the specific birds I was creating. I designed the Swallows to add a bit of Victorian and used the Dahlia as a tribute to my grandfather who grew dahlias. I found I was researching birds more and more - the most prevalent was the Hummingbird. I started to look for ribbon patterns and discovered beautiful fuchsias. I was reminded of my childhood home where we played under a huge fuchsia plant. The size of the hummingbird paired with the fuchsia - seemed perfect, and there was the last bird block.
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The border is traditional. As a child, our garage was covered in a huge climbing rose bush. I have always loved the simple old world roses, and they worked themselves into a vine pattern around the border of this quilt.

I wanted to keep the quilting simple. I used the traditional cross hatch as two lines ¼ inch apart and kept the cross hatch at the same angle as the blocks. I added a feathered border around the blocks to soften the edges.

Thus the style was set for the future quilts. . .
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