Lavender Sage

Spring of 2015 must be the season for new baby girls. I took on my second commissioned piece of the year for, you guessed it, another baby girl quilt. This client's son was the recipient of my first custom (Scout) quilt from the fall of 2014. I was completely blown away that this client liked her son's quilt so much that she sought me out to make a quilt for one of her dearest friends from college new baby. 

Communicating through email can sometimes be tricky when trying to figure out exactly what a client has in mind. I find that making collages of different aesthetics is a great visual aid to really narrow in on exactly what a client may be after. After going back and forth with a few different collages, we finally were are the same page. We decided to go with a pattern that was a little more traditional, with a bit of a modern twist. 

The colors were kept to sagey greens, and lighter purples, hence the name Lavender Sage. My stash was lacking in these colors, so I needed to do some shopping to fill out my palette. Hawthorne Threads, and Harts Fabric each had a great selection. I was even able to score some of Heather Ross's Briar Rose from Harts Fabric! 

I used Red Pepper Quilts' tutorial for economy blocks with a few minor alterations. I omitted the outer most 'ring' so there were only two layers to each block, and I increased the block size by 1". All of the fussy cutting made me so happy! 

With so much negative space, and easy blocks this top came together rather quickly. My biggest struggle was working with on point blocks, and keeping the balance throughout the quilt top.

I found a perfect backing at my local quilt shop that really balanced with the front. While working on the binding I realized that the Jeni Baker print used in the top, and the backing fabric looked like two different artists' interpretation of the same field of flowers.

The lattice quilting frames each block so nicely, and really gives the quilt a nice texture while maintaining ultimate snuggle factor. For the binding I decided that the purple weave fabric that was used in the top would really help make the quilt pop.

   

With all of the sweet bees, flowers, and whimsical animals I often found myself wanting to have a garden party while working on Lavender Sage. Maybe the sweet baby girl this quilt gets to live with will be inspired, and host many picnics, and tea parties.