Florabunda! Melanie Testa, RJR a bit of magic

Several years ago Melanie, Elizabeth Rosenberg and I met for lunch. We ended up laughing so hard and so much that we annoyed the family at the next table. Which was hilarious in and of itself, and only got us laughing more.

Florabunda!, Melanie’s first line with RJR Fabrics #quiltwithlove, is all of what is precious about her: quirky, fun, and fearless. Each print offering a bit of bold, and whimsy and hidden sophistication. Tiffany Hayes described the line as having elements from stained glass.

As stained glass does, this line tells the long journey of Melanie becoming a textile designer in the quilting world. I see the work of fabric printing, learning to understand color, dyes, and working toward creating a visually pleasing line that expresses a unique style offering quilters a stylized look at roses, leaves, bricks, and textures that we can work with.

We, as quilt makers, get to take the work of her hands to playfully create quilts.

Personally I’ve been inspired by Melanie’s exploration of what we consider to be traditional quilt making techniques. Her joy, like her laughter, is catching leaving me wanting to emulate this.

Queue Debby Brown who designs Cutie Quilts for the Quilt Basket (now located in Wappingers Falls NY). Cutie Quilts use 16 fat eights for the quilt blocks, then adds fabric for sashing, borders, backing and binding. I chose Share and Share Alike as I had the pattern handy, had the fat quarter tower and it meant that the quilt would go together in a relatively short amount of time. There’s nothing like a deadline to get things moving.

Pairing the fabric went together rather quickly, pick two and go.

Cut. Stitch. Press.

Stitch. Press.

Think about borders.

Share and Share Alike technically has two borders, and it does. I found some Free Spirit Designer Essentials in my stash et voila! borders. I said I wanted to float the quilt in purple, who doesn’t really, I mean purple is just the dreamiest color ever.

And as I’m looking at the quilt, and the pattern I realize it’s not pieced quite right, but whatever. I love the quilt, and have someone in mind for this quilt. It’ll get quilted soon so watch instagram for that loveliness.