Piece by Piece part II
Looking at the other half of Love Letter
Last week we covered the Swans, the Strawberries and the Wonderdot. This week we’ll cover the rest.
Fairy Garden
This is a really special piece. I think most little girls are magic, and they find and create that magic wherever they are. Magnolia is a garden girl through and through, and she has found much magic there. This piece features hollyhocks, one of our very favorites, bees, butterflies, dandelion puffs, mushrooms, berries and more. If you’re a real Lizzy House Head (LHH), then you’ll see some of the same flora from the Lovely Hunt in this print. These are all the trappings of a perfect place to dream up stories and make little flower dolls.
I think it’s good to see this print in person. It’s really stunning. It’s a fussy cutter’s dream. So much to choose from. Also, for typical piecing, it cuts up really well and gives you lots of variety. It’s a great print. I like to think of the colors it’s in as the sunlit and the moonlit fairy gardens.
As a note, you may, or may not, totally up to you, feel like the hollyhocks are little breast-esq, or boobtacular, if you will. This is your right. In their defense, I would just say, show me a hollyhock that doesn’t look a little like a boob, and second, find me a breastfed baby that can’t find a boob in everything in the world around her. You can’t. They’re obsessed. So is it intentional? Not really, but I have a little girl who used to be a breastfed baby, and here we are.
Chrysanthemums (November)
I know I always say it, but I really love this Chrysanthemum print. It’s called November as it’s November’s birthday flower. Chrysanthemum’s are such an interesting flower part of an even more interesting family, the Asteraceae… or Aster family. They get a bad wrap in my opinion. People seem to think they’re a disposable fall lawn decoration, or forever grocery store not very pretty staple. 1. The Chrysanthemum’s in your front yard aren’t dead. When it really starts to be winter, all you have to do is pot them up, and move them. They’ll overwinter in most places in North America, and you can replant again in the fall if you so choose, or you could just plant a more native to your area Aster that will feed native pollinators…. but what do I know.
2. They are very hardy!
And 3. the heirloom Chrysanthemums will send you down a rabbit hole like you’ve never traversed before, and you’ll start making lists about where to find specific cuttings, because they don’t come from seeds, only cuttings…. and then you’ll start looking for ways to build a greenhouse to house all your new chrysanthemum specimens, because you now have a museum worthy collection of heirloom/specialty bred chrysanthemums, and it’s not a regular flower… it’s a cool flower.
Long story short, Magnolia was unexpectedly born in November.
This print, while directional, is great quilting fabric because the colors stay pretty tight within each coloring. They aren’t too all over the place. So while it’s a busy print, it’s going to be a really good team player, a true hardy perennial, if you will. It would also make a very lovely dress. AND I wish it was in a cotton/linen blend because I’d love to see it in a home goods setting, and as bags. That’s something to think about for the future.
Elderberry Blossom
People will call this a hydrangea, and they will be wrong.
When Magnolia was born in the late fall of 2019, they told me it’s a “really bad flu season”, and she has no immune system, so you need to keep her home, and then the day after we were released from the hospital, we were expected to be in a doctors office full of sick kids…
make it make sense.
I was the kind of crazy that only a new mom, following a traumatic birth of a surprise teeny tiny preemie baby, with a low milk supply, and all the regiments and systems of the hospital hammered into them, can be. I’m pretty sure it’s basically a psychosis. It’s bananas to think of now, but we all made it through.
When she was around 4 months, I started to add drops of elderberry syrup to Magnolia’s bottle to give her a little reinforcement. It made her milk a light purple.
She grew healthy and strong. Obviously, it wasn’t due to her purple milk, but I like to think it was a strand of the net we cast to help her along.
The other reason for elderberry blossoms, instead of a pattern of herbal supplements+bottles of elderberry syrup+baby vitamins… we went camping with Magnolia when she was about 18 months, and I’d wear her on my back and we’d explore, and in a mountain forest we saw a giant elderberry bush at least 10 feet tall in full bloom and I nearly fell over. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. So I’ve grown attached to it, as the symbol of her vitality.
And how fortuitous, I just looked it up, and the elderberry bush symbolizes protection and healing. How perfect.
Candy Stripe
Who doesn’t love a stripe?
I love an irregular stripe, and I love a striped binding. This stripe sits on the diagonal, and can be used infinite ways.
There isn’t any real story to the stripe. I needed a strong geometric presence to the collection as it’s all pretty organic and needed some structure. You know what I mean?
Another hardy perennial!
Super Mini PB
The hardiest of all the perennials
This PB is the tiniest of them all!
Tinier than even the mini pb of before, and I think it really works. I love that everyone really loves and uses Pearl Bracelet. It is something I designed for Red Letter Day back in the beginning of 2008 if you can believe that.
I have a really sweet story about Pearl Bracelet.
After my last quilt market, Ben and I went to visit my Dad. He took as to Space Center Houston, as was customary. He always wanted to take people from away to Space Center Houston. It’s a sweet memory of my Dad.
He picked us up from the hotel and took us on the long drive. Once there, he showed Ben all his favorite stuff, and then we waited in line for the trams to take us over to Mission Control. While we were waiting in line, a video starts to play all about visiting Houston. Houston attractions, Houston food, Houston landmarks, and I kid you not, they cut to a woman singing jazz… and… wearing pearl bracelet.
Years and years ago, ModCloth had purchased yardage to produce dresses from my fabric, and this was the dress.
I too am from Houston. We were all a little shocked. It was so random. What are the odds of something like that?
My Dad was really proud. He was almost immediately trying to explain to strangers what we’d just seen. Then he told the same story to everyone he ever took to SCH for the rest of his life.
That’s enough for now. I’m still recovering from Strep and I’ve been crying off and on thinking about these stories. There’s so much sweetness in a life. Too much goodness.
Except one more thing. The quote on the selvage says, “be comforted small one, in your smallness.” That comes from Perelandra, the second book in the Ransom Trilogy by CS Lewis. It also happens to be my favorite book.
Two angels are speaking with Ransom basically telling him to not get ahead of himself and to just take comfort in what he is now. It’s good advice for anyone still growing.
Next week we’ll talk about my return and new/refreshed
philosophy to quilt designing, and I’ll share all my new projects with you.
xoxoxlizzy
These new fabrics are so beautiful! I love your reminiscing about the stories behind your designs. So much is good, and so much is bittersweet. I love elderberry bushes, too, we have one in our front garden. It is amazing how big they get! I am never going to be able to look at hollyhocks again without a giggle. Thank you for making me smile today, Lizzy. I hope you get to feeling better very soon.
Your fabrics were some of the first that I purchased when I got into sewing and quilting. I have loved reading about the meaning behind the designs and I love your designs even more. Feel better soon!