A Summer Quilt. Gardens and Light

Potholders or the beginning of a fabric painting, I told myself as I headed to my studio this morning.  That was my plan, loose as it was.

I circled around my studio, looking at the fabric piled up everywhere.  But it was the box of scraps from Nancy that caught my attention.  I still didn’t know what was in it though I’d gotten in a couple of weeks ago.  It seemed to be mostly small scraps, which I knew were perfect for making potholders.

So I sat on my floor, sorting the fabric into piles. Some by size others by color.

It was such a beautiful day out and what I really felt like doing was being outside in my gardens.  I think that’s what made me search out the little plastic bag of fabric squares that Fran sent me a while ago after Nancy’s scraps were sorted.  Those fabric squares, although not all with flower patterns on them, always reminded me of little gardens.

I never used them to make potholders because I’m not sure what kind of fabric they are and are too thin and delicate to use for potholders.

So letting go of the idea of making potholders, I started pairing the squares of fabric up with each other.

After each square was paired, I pieced them together adding a white cotton liner behind each one.  Then I combined them with some of Nancy’s scraps.

I used up all of the fabric from Fran making eleven “squares”.

At the end of the day, I looked at the “squares” knowing they were the beginning of a quilt. I kept thinking of it as a summer quilt, all gardens, and light.

It was only when I was about to leave my studio for the day that I thought of using some of the embroidery pieces I have in the quilt too. I pulled out a few that I thought might work and laid them on my floor beneath the quilt “squares” for tomorrow.