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Sturt Dessert Peas grow after rain in desert  conditions …

…. but are hard to grow in an average garden.

Easier to depict them on a quilt.

Sturt Desert Peas grow in deserts, and appear after rain to form a mat of foliage with the red flowers sitting well above the foliage. I have had them grow in my garden once, though my Mother had them grow every year in a bit of dirt held in place with an old tyre. We were not allowed to play in that little patch of dirt so just as well we had a whole farm to play in!

Love the second design … a garden bed I can only dream about!

It has been a weird summer, but in the last twenty four hours we have had enough rain to wash some of the dust off, and maybe in the not too distant future Sturt Desert Peas will appear.

In the meantime I can play with some designs featuring one of our most striking native flowers. In my designs I can control a plant which naturally sprawls over the ground like a soft green and bright red carpet.

The colouring for the designs is based on how the Sturt Pea grows in nature, though I have made the green much greener, it is more sage in nature, but the flowers and the dirt they grow in are close to nature.

My favourite of these two is the second one.

The Sturt Desert Pea is an unusual flower, but makes for interesting formal arrangements which only vaguely resemble how the flower is seen in the wild.

I like both of these designs, and am thinking about more ways to arrange the flowers, including a less formal arrangement.

Our state’s floral emblem, though it doesn’t form neat and tidy patterns as I have arranged them in these virtual quilts.

Love the second design!

May be able to share a photo of a real flower later today!

From now until Christmas I will be sharing designs each day with a Christmas theme, and like these designs, some not related to Christmas, like these.

Not a Christmas quilts, but I am guilty of making felt Desert Pea flowers to hang on a Christmas tree.

And I certainly don’t removed the Desert Pea magnets off the fridge at any time of the year!

Interesting, but very formal arrangements of the Sturt Desert Pea.

Here is a link to some photos of the real thing.

Unfortunately, they are not the easiest plants to grow in the home garden … I put in some seeds and have a little patch smothered in easy to identify weeds … no desert peas! Before I try again I am going to find some pre-emergence spray so that I will be able to see any strange plants coming up.

I love Sturt Desert Peas, but I keep wanting to change the background to green … but am trying to resist because these flowers bloom in the desert! I suspect that I am going to change it one day, as even the desert looks green for a short space of time after rain.

Wish me luck … today I am going to plant some Sturt Desert Pea seeds and am hoping I have inherited my Mum’s green fingers, as she had these come up in a small area of dirt in an old car tyre for many years when I was ...

A reminder to me … plant those seeds soon! Need to find a rather dry corner of the garden.

Memories of home include Sturt Desert Peas near the back door every year!

If all else fails I might have to make a wall hanging to bring out each spring.

Now I think of it, a few days ago I was thinking that we need another quilt or two for our bed. This year there has been lots of days with scattered showers … not the sort of weather to wash even one of our two quilts as it has also been very ...

In the early hours of this morning I woke up, and after an hour just lying around, then decided to get up and do something quiet. for the best part of two hours I sat at the computer playing with a floral cross featuring Sturt Desert Peas.

With just the basic cross design as my starting point, I designed several block variations, and then some quilts. I usually work with designs for square quilts, but at about 3am I chose a rectangular design, more suited to a single bed.

I decided that I needed a few more block variations and ...