This is the 13th quilt I finished, but the third one I started.  Around 1995, I saw a quilt hanging in a shop somewhere and liked the design. I didn’t know at the time that there was a pattern out there called “Garden Twist” that I could buy. And at that time, we didn't have a computer to do research. The pattern, that I have seen since then, only has big squares between the "trellis".  At the time, I knew I wanted little squares with flowers in them to look like flowers were all over the trellis.  I went home, did tons of math, and worked with graph paper, and finally came up with a design that would allow me to use 2 ½” squares of flowers in the centers rather than large fabric squares, like the one I saw. I didn't know what size the center blocks were, but I designed it to fit 9 squares in the smaller blocks and  25 squares in the larger ones.  It took a while to figure out how I could get the "twist" or trellis part of it designed and look like they were intertwined. I made them with 2 1/2" strips.  I hunted for a LONG time (about 5 years), during a time when the quilt shops would cut you 1/8 yards of a fabric, so I could have lots of different flowers. I learned years later that I was creating what quilters call a "stash".  It was lots of fun, finding those special fabrics over the years.

My intent was to graduate my lighter colors in the upper right hand edge in each block down to darker colors, to look like the light was coming from that angle. The quilt I saw had that same fabric on the outside blocks, and it looked "blocky". I wanted to make those outer blocks to be very light and wispy and have them fade out into nothing. So I looked for some fabrics that had a lot of white or very light background with twiggy, thin, curvy movement to them.

While shopping in the quilt stores for fabrics, I found a book that had the look I was going for. It was called "More Strip-pieced Watercolor Magic" by Deanna Spingola printed in 1997. She called the look "watercolor." I have since found books calling it colorwash. It had lots of patterns in it. I was not using the strip-pieced method she had devised for quick assembly. I wanted to hand select each square, however, it had good information in it and it encouraged and inspired me.

While studying and ogling the pictures, I found a border on a quilt called  Sunrise Serenade, that I fell in love with. It was paper pieced and gave the illusion of circles.  I knew I had to incorporate it into my quilt. I don't think I've ever had as much fun on a quilt as I did choosing fabrics for that border, auditioning and choosing each carefully. Choosing the 2 1/2" squares was also a lot of fun, while the cutting of them into squares was not as much "fun". LOL

So, I started designing again. I measured the top of the quilt, decided how big to make the center, before borders, figured the length needed for each side, and how many paper-pieced blocks I would need. I realized I'd need a little more space in the center to make the paper-piecing to fit the dimensions around the quilt.  So, I added a tiny one inch border, then added the paper-pieced border outside of it, before measuring again to decide how much border I needed to drape as far as I wanted it.  I then decided on how many borders, what sizes and what fabrics. I found lots of paper I'd saved with calculations on them like the one in the slideshow above, once the quilt was finished.

It was pieced in 2001, the year I retired as a school counselor. The design (the fairy, hummingbirds, etc)  was to show I was ready to "harvest" the good times after retirement. It took me most of that year, because I worked a little each evening. Each of the little squares in the foundation pieced border took me 45 minutes, choosing colors, sewing, ripping paper, etc. I found a pattern called “Tessa’s Garden” that would allow me to appliqué (which I’d never done before) little hummingbird harvesters around the edges.

I had been dreading quilting a queen size quilt, and finally after 7 years had it custom quilted for me by Tammy Bush. We discussed quilting flowers, leaves, etc. on the quilt,

In Jan., 2005, I did a BTQG guild presentation and then followed with a workshop on colorwash.  We had lots of fun sharing fabrics, designing quilts. My quilt was not quilted at that point, but I used it as an example.