This is as close as I get to traditional quiltmaking. I love working with small squares, it's my secret vice. I don't do it very often, but find it fascinating when I do. I have two quilts in this mini series so far, this one, a summer garden 'For The Roses' and 'Autumn Rain', a garden in autumn (surprisingly enough). I've made a number of 'garden' quilts, though, starting with the Healers Garden quilts that I made during the breakdown from hell, and seemed to have great significance for me. Then there was a crazy quilt for Robin's mum and dad's Silver Anniversary (which was incredibly late for the event, in truth...). Then there was a wall hanging for my friends Archie and Sheila; Archie has a passion for gardening, Sheila likes my quilts, seemed like a good idea at the time!
For The Roses, though, illustrates a point, as does Autumn Rain. People often looked at my handdyed cloth and said things like, but I don't know how to use it, or what would I use it for, or it's too beautiful to cut up... I wanted to show that you could get great results using small amounts of hand dyed cloth. In this case, four pieces of cloth were used to make this, three of them on the top, one of them on the back. All those different shades of red and green came from two pieces of fabric. Economical! And isn't it amazing, what can be done with simple shapes and vibrant colours!
The piece is quilted using rose motifs that are reminiscent of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (as are the little squares, come to think of it...), so this piece harks back to my Scottish roots in art as well as economy (well, I live in a house called 'Skinflints'...). I'm contemplating offering small kits for garden quilts like this, with instructions on how to make them. Unlike most kits, of course, what you end up with will be different to anyone elses quilt; the cloth is unique each time! Please let me know if you think that's a good idea...and let me have your email address if you want me to reply to you... so many people don't give contactable email addresses via blogger!
