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I went to a retreat last October and we did fractured flower potholders where you take 6 identical squares and cut them apart and put them back together. We used a large flower in a square with a small border around each block. I hope I am describing this ok. I have been off the board for quite a while because I have spent the last 6 years finishing up my bachelors degree part time. Now that I am an official college graduate, I can get back to my sewing room/daughter's bedroom! I wondered if anyone might know what fabric I mean. They were like a panel with separate flower "blocks". I have searched all over and can not find anything like it. It is nice to be back! I spent 2 hours yesterday making car garbage bags for church bazaar --felt wonderful! Thanks ladies

Welcome back Patty. Congratulations on your college degree. That's a trememdous accomplishment.

Can you show us a picture of the fractued flower potholders. I bet if we had a picture someone on this board could figure out how to make them.

Congratulations!! I got my degree in a very similar manner.... Lots of work but well worth it overall.

Congratulations on the degree. I teach College Algebra and my favorite students are older women. Nineteen year old boys are the worst! 30-40 year olds work hard and focus on learning and not on getting dates. LOL Plus they set great examples for their children. I've had several mother and child enrolled together and usually Mom gets the better grade after the first test.

So what are you doing with that college degree? When I finished my masters degree I bought myself a new sewing room. When I walked out of my comps I drive to a jewelry store and bought myself a diamond ring! I look at it and remember my joy.

I was cutting some HST'S for my scrap group yesterday and had some panels with 7" single daisies on them. Very interesting. Wish I'd thought to make potholders of them.

I wonder if you are talking about the 4-patch posies that we made a few years ago.

First of all congratulations on your degree! Great accomplishment!
If I understand your description I am thinking it is a form of stack and whack. Where you shuffle the "deck" after cutting to change up the patterns.
It does seem that you are looking for large flowers to do this again.... the problem with fabric is that ....you have to buy it when you see it b/c it won't be there when you have the $ or time to sew....:P
You could do a search for "large flowers" @ www.quiltshops.com I found a couple of large flower fabrics.

four patch posies? all i can think of.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: native Texan,

Thanks for the congrats. My degree is in Religion and Philosophy so the outcome will probably be ministry of some kind - the man upstairs only knows!! Right now I am concentrating in getting the youngest through her senior year of high school.
There is a lot of cutting and shuffling with the fractured flower but not like stack and whack. Each piece of fabric is cut separate and the squares are fused to the gridded interfacing. Hopefully here is a pic.

That's beautiful! I want to know how to make them.

Oh that is gorgeous. i was thinking stack n whack but that isnt' it for sure. i know I've seen that done in a quilt somewhere.

How wonderful! I've seen the book on fractured quilts and it looks interesting.
http://www.amazon.com/Fabulous...red/sim/B0026XRCXW/2

I have searched the web for any book or pattern. Thanks for the heads up at Amazon. They are beautiful and as long as you carefully follow the steps they are easy! The teacher had one done with 22 inch iris that was absolutely beautiful.

Ha! found a four patch posie quilt for sale on Esty but called Quilt of Fractured Flowers. duh! I guess they didn't know what it was called.

Do you know the teacher's name who conducted the course? Maybe she has a blog or somewhere we could check out to see if the instructions are posted.

If you scroll down about 1/3 of the way down on this blog you will see a pretty fractured flower.

http://firstlightdesigns.com/?page_id=10

This message has been edited. Last edited by: nlk,

Patty, are you looking for a specific pattern or for general instructions for watercolor quilts? If the latter this might be helpful.

If you are looking for suitable fabric try these:

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bi...G96dI-49112154719.23

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bi...G96dI-41112185919.6b

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bi...G96dI-08112217119.7a

http://www.equilter.com/cgi-bi...G96dI-31112227519.15

Running out of time to search some more fabric. I have seen this technique, but am unable to find any examples on the net. Taking perhaps 5 pieces of the same fussy cut bloom, you cut it apart and overlap it, offset by a 1/4 inch perhaps, over the piece exactly like that piece. Then you repeat. It gives you a larger, more complex flower - but it is done by overlaying the pieces of fabric.

Or... I could be all wet and don't know anything helpful. !@*& (due to lack of emoticons)

I found a tutorial! Go to www.sewlandia.blogspot.com then look for sometime in April. I am on my phone and can not post the exact link. Hope this helps.

I finally got on my computer so here is the complete link.
http://www.sewlandia.blogspot....2_04_01_archive.html

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TerryOH,

Terry, that link is great. It sure is a lot of work, but the tutorial did make it easy to understand!

Thanks for finding that tutorial Terry. I've been looking all over & had not been able t find one yet. I think I might give this a try.

Thanks all. I am looking for fabric and never thought of just using a large flower fabric! Duh! I have the pattern for the potholder and the teacher was just the mother of the woman who ran the retreat. Somewhere I have her e-mail and name. On the potholder we did no overlapping and cutting. Each square had a specific cutting instruction. They were cut into 2 inch squares and then placed on the fusable grid. I guess I wanted ideas on fabric and thanks to you great ladies I got it thanks

That link to sewlandia is the pattern we used!! Thanks for finding that. I searched the web for weeks for fractured flowers and found nothing. Thanks again

Glad I found it. Sometimes I get lucky. I guess I put in the right words to find it. I usually start with a general term then refine it based on number of hits.

Great tutorial, very easy to understand. I made a note of the tutorial, but I really don't see myself doing all that. It does give a handsome result, tho.

To give you an idea of Fractured Quilts, here are pics of some at a quilt show.

Here's another:

And another. As you can see, some quilters use some applique pieces to enhance the pictures.

I've got some fabric chosen and plan to try one of these when I have the time. I think they are lovely.

I was able to get on my computer so I thought I would post the complete link.

http://www.sewlandia.blogspot....2_04_01_archive.html

I was so inspired by this post that I thought I'd give it a try.
This photo shows me cutting the final strips from the first part of it that was finished. It was good at this point.
But when I had to cut up the final strips,I forgot to cut that first 3/4" off from the left and toss it so the final redition didn't come out right. I flubbed it. I doubt I'll ever make that mistake again.
But at this point, you can see that it's looking good and looks like what it is, a Xmas poinsettia.

quiltbea, that turned out beautiful. I'm definately going to try this too. How long did it take you from start to finish & what size is yours?

That's an interesting technique - and new to me. I could almost get tempted to try something in the 9" x 12" size. Maybe. Some day...........

I tried it again and did it right this time. Started out with 4 fussy cut layers of red roses that were 9" square. It ended up 13" square.
Mine took me about 3 hours to do this time, maybe a little less. I didn't time it.
Its such fun to make it. You just have to be sure you keep the piles in order so you don't mess up. And press them flat so you can cut them very straight in strips.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: quiltbea,

And this is the fabric I started with....

Oh yes, that is beautiful. it seems flowers look so very good done with this style.

I went to a qlt shop today and saw a pattern called Reflections by Dragon Lady quilts. not sure of size but it was florals and was very pretty.maybe someone posted this info before.
http://www.dragonladyquilts.com/studentGallery.html

This message has been edited. Last edited by: native Texan,