ode to Botanics

It took awhile to get my mits on this collection.   But, mmmm, it does not disappoint!  I definitely warmed up to designer Carolyn Friedlander over Architextures, but with Botanics she lands squarely in my "thank-you for creating awesome fabrics" zone.  If I have such a zone?  Which I probably do.

Since this delicious fat quarter set arrived on my doorstep last month, courtesy of Robert Kaufman, the fabrics have been disassembled, pressed, cut and dragged back and forth through my house.  Especially as I work on Color Catolog for Color Intensive workshop, Botanics fabrics are showing up everywhere. They're just that useful!  All of these fabrics are one-color prints, with textures that add interest but allow them to remain so easy to mix with other fabrics.

a Color Story {sea}

algae. storm clouds. deep water.

Here's one of my Color Catolog mosaics, which appeared in Color Intensive this week (you can still join us - class blog stays open through March 31st).  I spy 3 Botanics in the mix.  Lots of my fabric mosaics for Color Intensive feature 2-3!

Botanics includes a huge helping of Carolyn's popular crosshatch print.  Lots of great colors, including unusual shades (like simple green and pale blue (not aqua!)) and neutral basics (I tend to use the pale gray quite a lot).

I was eager to see these two designs - the tiny leaves and graph paper floral.  They're better than ever in person!  Turns out the tiny leaves are my favorite.  So sweet and simple.

But I've saved the best for last.  These are my favoriteBotanics by far.  They're called "metallic succulents" in some shops or just "foliage" in others.  What they are is plain AWESOME.  The prints really do have subtle metallic accents and an all-over foliage design that's neither feminine nor masculine.

I love the intensity of her colors!  The yellow is a lovely caramel.  The orange is super intense!  The teal is absolute luxury, and the emerald green is gorgeous (using it a ton in my Gathering Flowers quilt).  Plus, the white-background metallic foliage...swoon.  This is, for me, the perfect low volume print.  I'm already having trouble "letting it go" by using it.

Officially. done. gushing.  But, honestly, I like this stuff so much that I"m pretty sure you will too.  In fact, I asked Robert Kaufman if they would like to sponsor a giveaway of 1 yard cuts of all 5 fabulous metallic foliage prints.   Turns out the good folks at Robert Kaufman are going to start sponsoring this blog (whoot!), and they were game for a giveaway.

Would you like to win?

  Enter now through Friday at noon (eastern time) by adding your comment, 1 per person.  International entries welcome.   Good luck!

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Our winner is comment #292 - Beth, who said, "Oh man, I need this!"  Coming right up, Beth.