Sewing in green

Although Winter has its particular beauty, and a dormancy that seems to quieten down everything around you, there is one aspect that I miss a lot : a colourful vegetation. Of course there are some Winter colours that brighten up gardens, parks or forests. Moss, bays, leaves, lichen, cones and the occasional bushes that keep their warm shades all Winter.  Leaves or branches. Green is probably the colour I long for more than any other.

It is the time of the year when I like to sew “colourful”. Two projects are on the way – Seminole and calendar quilt – their bright shades are a real pleasure to look at and they add this cheerful mood in the thickest of fogs outside the window.  Recently I sewed a small garden for my friend Else in the Netherlands. She loves flowers and her garden is a joy to look at and to walk through.

So I chose amongst my  fabrics those flowers I imagined Else would plant in her garden and this is the result :

Flowers from here and there sewed directly onto a piece of green linen, rough edges around the fabrics. I added a special Swiss material  with a black cow, some rhododendrons, pine trees and a deer  to remind her that she should visit me in the Alps during Summertime 😉

The back of the quilt is also decorated with flowers. I called it “Delft garden” from the beautiful  blue and white Delft pottery made in the Netherlands. Those materials were like our Winter, in a state of dormancy in some boxes. Now they are alive on Else’s quilt and who knows ? those flowers may well bloom in the Spring in her garden ?