Chloe's Imagination

These are just a few of the new fabrics debuting this Spring in Portland Oregon. They are superb... I am so excited about this collection. This colorway is called Fairyland Coco, and its lovely in soft lavenders, and light dreamy greens, and warm beigey-ivory, but anchored in dark chocolate. There's a lovely modern toile in this collection I created from two perfectly relaxed but majestic peacocks, sitting in leafy branches, eclectic flowers you'd find in 1850s wall paper, and a birdhouse you'd want in your garden. The toile is called Cade's Treehouse.

The entire collection came from childhood memories in Africa, playing in our large back yard. It was picturesque with enormous trees and birds including a little HooPoo which whistled all afternoon long. We'd dance and play, and climb these trees until dark. An archard traveled the East end of the garden beyond a thick, leafy and high hedge of orange hibiscus flowers. This was truly a garden like none other - a mix of traditional English flower beds, but rough and wild flowers tangled themselves in patches. Trees were surrounded by flower beds, and the only seemingly planned plants were the fruit trees. And these were ringed with a circle of rocks to prevent the grass from growing up to the tree trunks. We had one enormous avocado tree and I remember my father running from it, tearing his shirt off his back and waving it around furiously. After a while we realized he'd obviously disturbed the hive in the tree; he was saved from the black puffy cloud of bees by diving headfirst into the pond. Kenneth the gardener was not amused! This second image is from the colorway I called AZUR TEA.
Anyway, I conjured up some of these fabulous memories from this garden and put some of them into the collection. You'll find perfect little ladybugs, those infamous bees, birdhouses, and trellises, veranda shade and that leafy hedge. It's also I think an eclectic mess of English organization and pattern, but also a sense of a wild flower garden with nature filling in to finish it's character!
This is called Pink Veranda and you can see it's toile "Cade's Treehouse" is in pinks and an soft acid green background color; I pulled in brilliant blues and of course that dark chocolate brown. The depth of the blue and the brown with the airiness of the pink and greens creates that drama I so crave in my fabrics...

One more, but not the last, here I called Marigold Palace - it's sherbet orange, chocolate, golds and a touch of pink. Eclectic to be sure and one of my favorites in the collection. I can't wait to get my yardage so I can get crackin'.... The large blue flower in the center there is called Fortiny after my fabulous great aunt... Fortiny is an amazingly strong woman with a voice to kill for - she was on the BBC radio for years. She was always one of those woman you didn't mess with... you know the kind. And a fabulously elegant worldly woman... who at 80 is now living a quiet life on the most southern tip of the African continent where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Pacific... in a small village called Fish Hoek!

I say not the last colorway because there is one more, and it was so fabulous right off the bat it was approved. It's called Oberon's Red and let me tell you it's gorgeous... We didn't have time to photograph it, so we'll leave that as a surprise. I hope to see you in Portland and if not, please email me or Sarah Amerhein at Westminster Fibers/Free Spirit to reserve your bolts. Oh my are you going to love this one! And for those of you looking to buy retail, check out the store listing or email me and we'll get you hooked up.

Always a pleasure and I am pleased I got this little post in.... The kids are off school today and we had a glorious morning of errands, the pet shop, visiting the studio, going to the postoffice (it was closed, today is a holiday), ice-cream and now they're playing with the neighborhood kids! Thank goodness!
All my best, Tina