Santiago, Chile

My Pattern Pack, "Twilight Garden Quilts" is now official!  I worked very hard on this pattern pack late last year and early this year and put it in C&T's hands some time ago.  Such is the editing and publication process that many months go by before the final product is on the shelves.  Furthermore, as people tend to get impatient, C&T advises that you don't mention your book/pattern pack etc until just before its publication.  I learned this the hard way all by myself with my book, "Beautiful Botanicals"!  My friends and family all knew that contracts were long signed and that a book would be forthcoming.  For months, actually more than a year and a half, the first question anyone asked me was "So where's the book?".  After a while I think people began to think it was all in my imagination, or something had gone awry but the publication process takes a long time!  However, this is the only way it should be and what is immensely reassuring for both the author and the buyer is that the book goes through so many edits and technical edits that any mistakes or errors in maths are discovered long before the final copy is sent to the printers.

My Pattern Pack is called "Twilight Garden Quilts" and features two full size patterns for my quilts "Spring Flower Heart" and "Midnight Garden".  In 2010 my husband moved to Chile and I stayed in Montreal as a single parent in his absence.  Due to all that entails and trips between the two poles a couple of times (Montreal to Chile and back again) I only made two small wall quilts in 2010.  However, I can say in all honesty that these are two of my most favourite quilts.  I made "Spring Flower Heart" to highlight the gorgeous colour range of Oakshotts.  With such subtle nuances in colour these cottons were fabulous for designing botanically correct flowers and with so many colours in the Oakshott palette I could "shade" them to give an almost 3 D effect to the flowers.    The quilt is full of daffodils, narcissi, irises, croci, tulips and other spring flowers.  This is a quilt I should like to make for a bed by repeating the central flowers in an extra border to increase its size.  With the ease that Oakshotts can be washed this would make a gorgeous bed quilt.  I'd also love to see it on a classic off white background.  

"Midnight Garden" was a quilt I made to sew whilst on a trip to Chile.  Even though it is worked on one piece of fabric the block style made it easy to sew in a small space (my husband's bachelor pad!) with minimum fabrics transported from A to B.  I love the way this design works so much that I bought a huge quantity of the same midnight blue silk background as I intend to make a full size version of this quilt one day.  This quilt is made entirely in silks.  I love the way the tendrils escape the rigidity of the blocks giving movement to an otherwise quite static piece.  The flowers are a mixture of real flowers such as the waterlilies drawn from those on the lake by our Canadian house and invented flowers such as the central flower, my most favourite "lotus flower".

Both quilts use my standard easy applique methods and embroidery stitches with some advice on sewing with silk thrown in.    I am very excited by the potential of the pattern pack as the way both quilts are designed these patterns could be used to make either smaller projects such pillows and table runners.    Both quilts picked up First Place Awards in AQS Shows last year.  I am so excited to see this pattern pack on Amazon and cannot wait to have a copy in my hands!