Jane Sassaman quilt artist, fabric designer, author and teacher

It’s not too early to begin thinking about your Easter gathering… the guest list, menu and decor. A festive table setting is a good place to begin. Goodness, I’m sounding like Martha! But I can’t deny that the Garden Diva colors are well suited to spring celebrations.

When I  decorate for the holidays, I always begin with a seasonal tablecloth to set the mood. Here we have created a light and lively table covering using the pink Dots as the center panel and the pastel Daisy Checks as a happy border. The corners have been finished with an elegant miter and for fun we have added a drop of our favorite felt dingle beads… the cats will like these, too!

After the tablecloth, we can add the colorful accessories, in this case our Fiesta ware place settings and Garden Diva napkins. It is not important that each place is exactly the same, in fact, I prefer just the opposite. I like to mix and match. A variety of napkins in the same color family is fine, no two really need to be alike. The plates and cups, too, are more entertaining if they are color mixed. The Tea Cozy and Reversible Party Napkins are both from our Pint Size Pattern series.

Seasonal events are always family occasions and pretty casual. But there are often new guests who have the overwhelming task of remembering 25 new names, so place cards could relieve some of their stress. And a place card can add a bit of class to any event, so I have designed a free place card that you can download and print for your own holiday table. Just print, cut and fold.

We have also designed a simple basket liner/ bread warmer that you may like to stitch up for your party.
It has the advantage of being reversible. The two layers keep things extra warm as well as offering a bit of colorful contrast.

Here it is reversed. I love the pure white eggs on the dark fancy Iris and Bleeding Heart fabric. Below the liner is flattened, so you can see the pattern. It is almost a square, but the corners are slightly rounded and there are half circle bites taken out on every side.

The topstitching finishes it off quite nicely. So as the spring settles in and Easter plans are underway, don’t forget to down load your free place cards and be sure to make some time for seasonal crafting.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 11th, 2011 at 7:53 pm and is filed under accessories, Garden Divas. 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.