Spring is just around the corner

There was a TV commercial on the other night that used as it’s hook that spring was just around the corner, I looked at my husband and at the same time we both rolled our eyes.
Come on, spring is a good eight to ten weeks away.
But it got me thinking about spring. It is one of the reasons I made my Paper Keeper for Nancy Zieman using my Trillium pattern design.
I often hear in class where do you get your ideas? And I have shared with you over and over again where I get my ideas – from everywhere.
My pattern Trilliums is a perfect example of that.

Trilliums are some of the first wild flowers to bloom in the woods. I discovered that the Trilliums in my woods are the most common red kind, but there are all different colors of Trilliums. Years ago I saw huge Celadon light green ones when I visited Spring Green, WI. I would love to have those in my yard.
Trilliums was one of my first fused quilts. It measures 30” x 40” .

If you notice theseTrilliums are growing up out of a bed of dead old last year oak leaves, so when I designed my quilt I wanted to incorporate the oak leaves in the design. They have now become one of my favorite things to add to my quilts.

When I first made this quilt I didn’t want to use all “realistic colors”. I certainly used the green and deep pinks for the flowers and leaves, but then I needed something to set them off and let them show up on the background.
After “auditioning” many colors the blue seemed to be just right.


When I added in the first border I picked something that would make the background pop, my all time favorite neutral – lime green.

I have always loved the blue/green/aqua color combination. I think that stems from loving sky, grass and trees.

But when I went to add in the leaves in the outside border I choose to use the complimentary colors of green – pink, purple, and magenta for the oak leaves. I changed the scale of the leaves to give them more drama and because they needed to be big to even out the composition.

When I started making patterns I made a small version of Trilliums and called it Petite Trilliums. By the time I started designing patterns I was also producing my own hand dyed fabrics.

I used one yard of my hand dyed rainbow gradation to create the whole petite quilt top. The only colors I didn’t use where the yellows on the far right.

You can see that I used the middle section where the purple, magenta and fuchsia come together for the outside border. I used the area where the turquoise and blue merge to create the background behind the trilliums and I used the greens at the far left for the Trillium stems, leaves and beards. I used complimentary colors for the oak leaves and placed them against their compliment on the outside border.

This is one of my favorite patterns and quilts, I think because I get to see the Trilliums every year and they represent spring, but also because the colors are so clear and happy.