Too Hot Outside-Cool Projects Inside

It has been way too hot for the first week of June! It is so hot that Gardner Greg is overwhelmed by noon, but tries his best to make slow progress. So much to do! I, however, head straight for the studio where it is nice and cool and enjoy the garden through the window.

I can see the first peony blossoms and the day lilies glowing through the dappled sunlight. I see the iris are very happy and the strawberries are claiming more space, as always. Ahhhh... the best of both world!

Since we have begun with a pink peony this week, let's continue with the color pink. Here is an extremely pink beach bag designed and made by my friend, Melissa Peda, proprietor of 100billionstars,
an Etsy shop. Melissa has a great instinct for using "personality" prints and shares her talent with several fellow FreeSpirit designers. Since I design the fabric to be beautiful straight off the bolt, I am always happy to see it in "full flower". Melissa has successfully combined several fabrics from the Garden Diva line (Dragonfly Moon and Willow Wands, above) in this cheerful project.

She even had fun with the lining of the bag. I like to have bright linings in my purses because it is so much easier to find things... but this lining will make you smile, too. It is just so much FUN! The main body of the lining is Spring Wreath, with a pink pocket of Lively Silhouette fabric and a key case in Willow Wands, again. Very refreshing on a hot afternoon!

My personal project this week had just a tiny bit of pink. Turquoise ruled in the studio. I have a heartfelt project to make as many simple, but dramatic quilts from the Garden Divas fabrics as possible. I am very fond of this line and feel it has some designs that are "pure Jane", so I want to share it's full potential with all of you.

As you know, I love very strong and graphic designs. This is probably one of the reasons I was so attracted to quilting, in the first place. And I love the rhythm and excitement created by hard edged repetitive motifs, as in Amish quilts. Plus BLACK is another favorite for creating drama in a composition. So this quilt has it all.

The main block is fussy cut from the Lively Silhouette (Aqua) and the supporting block is made with solid black and the Daisy Check in the peacock colorway. I think it is an elegant combination. I cut the Silhouette block so the black part of the design was concentrated at the bottom and would blend into the smaller black squares. But the Lively Silhouette comes in six colors and they would each made a fabulous version of this quilt, although the moods would be totally different.

Notice the tiny pink dot in the checked fabric above? So now we have come back to PINK. In fact, I think this quilt should be quilted with pink thread. YES!