Update 2/25/03: featured on The Quilter Community Forget Me Not: The Yellow Rose of Texas 11"w x 11"h,© February 2002 acrylic on cotton, hand quilting, trapunto, & appliqué Collection of Karey Bresenhan, Houston, TX. In honor of her lifetime friendship with Nancy Holliman To commission a quilt, contact clvquilts@yahoo.com.

In mid-January I felt that compelling artistic urge well up inside. A friend was grieving and I wanted to confort her. I didn't find out until after I painted it that roses are her obsession. And I still don't know why I painted it yellow. It was just meant to be. Usually, the title of a piece comes first, often before the image in my mind's eye. In this case, it was after. Once the Rose had dried and I stood back and looked at what had 'happened' I remembered that yellow roses mean 'forget me not'. Then the phrase 'Yellow Rose of Texas' popped in my head so I searched the net and found the lyrics to the sound - and once again, they seemed to fit -along with the thought that Nancy is her Yellow Rose... The only two specific choices I made were the magenta background (kind of a risk, but it just felt right given Karey's love for bright, bold colors) and the use of a black floral damask for the binding. Late last year she had gone into her personal stash to shared this beautiful piece of fabric with me.

The way I constructed the Rose was first to trapunto the petals. Then I quilted the two outlines and appliquéd the metallic threads and ribbons. Looking at one of Cindy Friedman's figure quilts gave me the idea to use different colors of tulle to increase the texture effect of the shading. But then I turned it into my own technique again by double, triple, and quadruple layering the tulle. There's a dark silver ribbon 'mat' appliqued along the inner side of the binding. It's another one of the treasures Karey sent me as a thank you for hosting the AMERICA: FROM THE HEART auction on this site.

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