“Summer Garden in Bloom”— Baby Quilt

I almost want to just keep this one… maybe as a wall piece, a future Grand-baby Blanket—- its just so pretty <3

This piece started out as a stash basket in my sewing room… Tossed scraps from years of plant dying, bits to small to do much with, but of course not letting them go, they would become something, someday. Last month I decided to just cut them into 2’ squares, see how many I could get out of this ombre of color… As I slowly unfolded and pressed each one, I remembered, then referenced my Quilt Dye Journal, just where or when I created the color- This was avocado pit, this was avocado skin- this was mangosteen, dipped in iron, onion skin, marigold shifted with cutch, coreopsis- then this itty bit of white linen, flower steam pressed from a Spanish Broom Vat, stared up at me from the wicker, another treasure piece from my time in Sicily, harvested from Mt Etna one Summer. I keep saying its my last bit of that fabric, yet somehow, like magic, another will pop up!

I honestly thought I would have enough to make a decent size throw, would spread them out in 9 square patches, but as I laid them in different patterns, a picture kept weaving into my mind… Late Summer, the sun setting, the fields all gold, mums and coreopsis in the garden boxes, sky shades of orange…. And then of course, the birds. The 4 corners are dyed with logwood, a new favorite palette I played with this year.

For whatever reason, this was the vision…