Jane Sassaman quilt artist, fabric designer, author and teacher

It is the new year and Garden Divas is finally arriving at your quilt store. So we are celebrating this week with some optimistic colors and designs! Here is one of the quilts which we made for the line’s debut in Houston. I call it Nature Baby because it would make a lovely crib quilt for babies of any persuasion. The construction is easy, so its not too precious for real use. This is one of the free patterns available on the website. It uses two colors of the Life Totem and Dragonfly Moon fabrics and all three color variations of Willow Wands.

I like to make the back of quilts less formal, but still interesting. On the back of this Butterfly Quilt, I made a large checker board, really just an elongated nine patch, edged with the Exotic Dragonfly Check. Pink is the color that flows throughout and holds it all together. I love the electricity that the contrasting blue blue patches create.

My friend Mellissa Peda, proprietor of the 100 Billion Stars Etsy store, has also been busy playing with her new Garden Divas stash. These are two new pillow covers that she is featuring in her delightful e-shop. I really like the simplicity and crispness of her designs.

Notice the embroidered embellishment that she has added in this detail. Quilting could also add some nice texture. The fussy cut Spring Wreath creates a nice kaleidoscopic effect and I can imagine the block being repeated for a larger quilt, too.

So we begin the new year with fresh colors and lively shapes. Stay tuned for new Diva ideas to brighten your winter in the weeks to come.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 9:52 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.