In 2010, after making a couple of simple, small quilts, I took another quilt course at my local fabric store that was advertised as a "Divide and Conquer" quilt. Now this kind of a title wouldn't necessarily appeal but the quilt of that name was hanging in the store and I really loved it. It was big, made out of Japanese fabrics (as in Japanese themed fabric) and had a kind of appealing randomness to the pattern.
I decided, given my love of dirt, and that my first, much loved, much treasured, used everyday quilt had a floral orange and brown theme I would make a riff on those themes. So a Flower Garden quilt was born. The pattern of the Divide and Conquer quilt needs an accent fabric and I chose a dark, chocolate brown (from the Japanese fabric range used in the store's quilt). This dark brown fabric isn't actually included in the photos below.
The selection of fabrics for my quilt came from a Sew Mama Sew sampler put together by Hillary Lang (oranges/brown/florals). I actually had picked this out and bought it long before I decided to make this flower garden quilt. And I had purchased a whole swathe of Anna Maria Horner Garden party fabric - again pre-quilt course. I'm fascinated by the way some creative projects seem to come together from serendipity. Two separate purchases, two different times, a Japanese quilt in a fabric store .... but underlying all that serendipity are actually broad themes running through one's creative imagination. Anyway, here's a selection of photos of the fabric laid out on the floor.
They are laid out in 9 patch blocks because that is the start of the whole sewing process.
