STRAWBERRY GARDEN BOOK: FIG FRIEND FEATURE – WEEK 1

Over the next 6 weeks, on Thursdays, we will be showcasing our wonderful makers who contributed to the STRAWBERRY GARDEN book to bring all of my lovely ideas to life. I know I say this often, but it really does take a village to run a company like ours and I am forever grateful to the ladies who have sewn with me for decades and those that are brand new to the extended sewing family!

The VINTAGE BOWTIE FANCY QUILT only seemed fitting to start us off! If you’ve been following our sew along, you might already know it comes in (2) sizes, hence (2) makers – so its a double feature week!

• Small [scrappy greens]: 54 1/2″ x 60 1/2″ – Pieced by Sinta Borland/Quilted by Marion Bott
• Large [scrappy colors]: 60 1/2″ x 66 1/2″ – Pieced and Quilted by Susan Vaughan

A few quick things about this quilt:

• Choose as many different prints in a variety of tone and scale.
• This is true whether or not you are using a colorful palette or one color.
• Be sure to add variety into your background if you like a scrappy look. As an alternative you can, of course, also use one single background print for a more uniform quilt.
• Don’t set your blocks just yet as we will be discussing various setting options later on in the sew along.

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Let’s learn a little about this week’s STRAWBERRY GARDEN BOOK contributors…

SINTA BORLAND [@pinkpincushion]

1- Tell me your favorite quilt block and if there is a reason that is so. 

My favorite quilt block is the Churn Dash block… it’s kind of a workhorse in itself; I think it offers so much variety and that it is often under-rated… a bit of a plain jane block. But I have never seen a Churn Dash that I didn’t like! 

2- Tell me a bit about how you found quilting. 

I have always had a passion for all things vintage. I have a collection of vintage clothing that I actually wore on a daily basis. I also had a very special vintage quilt that I washed and dried… needless to say, that quilt/family heirloom was ruined. I felt a need to bring that art back into the world by making a quilt myself. I, at the time, didn’t even know how to sew but I learned how! It wasn’t long after that that I was at a quilt show and discovered Joanna/Fig Tree Quilts… before she became a Moda designer.

3- Tell me your favorite Fig Tree color and a reason if there is one. 

My very most favorite Fig Tree color is yellow! Nobody does yellow like Fig Tree… it’s so soft and buttery and sweet. I love the green as well… they do make a very nice pair!

4- If you were to suddenly have unlimited time, could drop everything and make one of the quilts in the book from start to finish… which one would it be and why? 

The quilt that I would whip up from the book, hands down… is the Argyle Sweater Quilt! It looks like so much fun and the blocks are huge! 

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SUSAN VAUGHAN [@thefeltedpear]

1- Tell me your favorite quilt block and if there is a reason that is so. 

They aren’t really a “block” but I love making half square triangles (HSTs).  I like cutting the fabric and find the process of squaring everything up meditative; I also like that you can use them to form all sorts of secondary patterns and designs.  Sometimes you don’t need to be fancy. Simple does the trick.

2- Tell me a bit about how you found quilting. 

I started quilting after Ryan and I got married.  We were married in December and promptly moved to Michigan (where it is cold, snows, and is grey…and I knew no one!). My grandmother gifted me a sewing machine as a wedding shower present, and I took it out of the box and started playing around with it.  I found an online message board about quilting and decided to give it a try.  I was hooked!

3- Tell me your favorite Fig Tree color and a reason if there is one. 

Fig Tree Green is pretty hard to beat.  It is also a great pear green color too 🙂  

4- If you were to suddenly have unlimited time, could drop everything and make one of the quilts in the book from start to finish… which one would it be and why? 

(I’d finish my original BOM sampler of Strawberry Garden…I think I am on month 10 or 11! But I don’t think that is what you were going for!) I would probably make the trio of pillows in the back, because can you really ever have too many accent pillows?  Quilt-wise, I would probably make the Vintage Baskets because I love how they are set in a row (but each row tilts and opposite way) and although I have been quilting for 20 years, I have never made a basket quilt!  It would also look great as part of my single-color scrap project of the year.

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I hope you have enjoyed learning a tiny bit more about these lovely ladies. It is always so fun for me to learn something new about each of them.

Stay tuned for next week’s FIG FRIEND FEATURE!

-Joanna