I love the forest at every time of year, but none so much as the autumn. It’s a place of surprises: clusters of mushrooms, scampering creatures and leaves in every fiery shade. You wander through deep, cool shadows and then find yourself suddenly in an open forest glade, bathing in light. Contrast is everywhere. Beauty is verdant.

I’ve just finished my latest Wild Oranges quilt and photographed it over the weekend in a park nearby our home. The light, the leaves, the rich green grass - how lucky I was to capture the richness of this quilt in such glorious surroundings.

Ta da - a finished Wild Oranges quilt, again. This second rendition turned out just as beautiful as the first, in my opinion. I’m delighted that following the quilt pattern really did reproduce the play of shapes and value in such a satisfactory manner. It has depth and sparkle. Hooray!

As you can see, I decided to custom quilt Verdant Wild Oranges in the exact same style as Kismet Wild Oranges. I absolutely love the texture that this quilting plan creates - soft, fluffy petals against a fancy, swirly background. They say that you can’t improve on perfection!

Sponsor of the Week

Nanno Creative

Fantastic news - there’s a new source for Art Gallery Fabrics right here in The Netherlands! Nanno Creative has just added Sharon Holland’s “Listen to Your Heart” collection, which includes beautiful remixed prints from Kismet.

You will find more Art Gallery favorites at Nanno Creative in the coming months. Hip Hip Hoorah!

For the backing fabric, I used a silky teal solid augmented by a strip of forest green print. Its simplicity shows off the quilting from a distance.

Green is absolutely one of my very favorite colors, so this quilt is perfectly delightful. It has shades of emerald, mint, and teal, plus fresh limey green and soft, dusty aquas. It just feels so rich, so green, and thus I’ve named it Verdant. I think it will be just as fetching in the spring, when green returns to the world.

You can find Verdant Wild Oranges listed in my Handmades shop. I’d like to keep this one, but you know the story. I’d have a whole room full of quilts by now, if I kept all my favorites. I’m ready to send it off to someone with gratitude and blessings!

p.s. this lovely park is called Wooldrik park. It’s an estate from the 1700’s that’s been turned into a beautiful public grounds in our region of Enschede. The original house at the estate center has become a tea restaurant and the adjacent barns host a free children’s petting zoo, which you can see just at the edge of the photo below. On this crisp autumn morning, Elora clambered in the castle playground while Brandon and I photographed the quilt. Happy weekend memories!