Take Gorgeous Photos of Your Quilts with Flowers

TRANSCRIPT:

I'm Jody Sanders, editor of American Patchwork & Quilting. I collect vintage quilts. Sharing photos of my vintage quilts is one of my favorite things to do. I like to add flowers to the photos and create vignettes to make it more visually appealing. Here are a few tips for photographing flowers and quilts:

Peonies are heavy flowers. So I choose vessels to hold them carefully. One way to showcase these fragrant flowers is in a shallow blue-and-white speckled bowl set on top of a Dresden plate quilt. Another way is in a clear glass vase chock-full of peonies. The volume of flowers help support the weight of the blossoms. A stack of 1930s quilts adds softness to the photo.

Flowers don't always have to be in a vase. When the coneflowers are blooming I hang a Jacobs Ladder quilt over the front railing of my home.

June is often a month of weddings and also a time when zinnias, phlox, daisies, and other flowers show up in the garden and at your local Farmer's Market. I like displaying these blooms with a Double Wedding quilt that includes all the colors of the quilt. This quilt is draped on a vintage drying rack and a vintage wooden ironing board holds a canning jar of flowers.

I chose a yellow Nine-Patch quilt to complement the purple lilacs. Choosing colors opposite on the color wheel make dramatic displays.

If you have a collection, incorporate that into your photo. I collect Fiesta dinnerware. A stack of vintage plates, a tea pot with lilacs, and fan quilt make me long for the last days of Spring.