Jane Sassaman quilt artist, fabric designer, author and teacher

We had our holiday bash on Saturday. The house was dressed for the occasion and Greg had the yard tidied and trim. The place was humming with conversation and pockets of activity. Our move to country was intended to be a refuge for ourselves and our friends and it certainly was the case this weekend with good friends, good food and good times.

So in honor of the 4th of July, I thought I would share some fireworks! But these explosions are fabric creations done in the computer by my quilting buddy, Susan Buckingham. She has a crazy wonderful
design program called Kaleidoscope Kreator. She took three fabrics from the Garden Diva’s collection and fed them into the kaleidscope software. The results are stunning.

This is the Exotic colorway of the Iris and Bleeding Hearts fabric. It is very symmetrical so it is a perfect subject for slicing and repeating. Susan applied a ten wedge template and added the blue background to match the background of the fabric. I combined then into a single composition. Look what happened!!

Next she took the Spring Wreath fabric, also in the Exotic colorway, and did her magic. This time, instead of circles, she has kept them in a square format and used an eight wedge template.

I added the black background which looks like sashing on a quilt and really makes the colors dance.
I especially like the way the daffodils and daisies interact and change the texture from one frame to the next. So many possibilities!

It’s hard to pick out a favorite block! The Zinnia fabric in the Peacock colorway was her next test. Also a symmetrical design, with a black background and lots of potential for play.

She really had fun with this one. She used an eight wedge template again and added color around the circular motifs. I put them into two groups so you could see all the variations.

Unbelievable! The graduated colors in the flower do some grand things. The whole group has such a fresh and lively energy. Now check out the turquoise collection, below.

My favorites are the ones that incorporate the stems and leaves because they create more variety and movement in the composition. Of course, the obvious application of these wonderful designs is for quilting. My brain is scheming and my fingers are itching to begin a new kaleidoscope project.Thank you, Susan, for your effort and inspiration. What a wonderful way to start the week!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 5th, 2011 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Garden Divas, quilts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.