View from inside my house. Woodruff Place Victorian neighborhood. Note the sand colors.
We did it. We traversed across the blog-a-sphere and peeked in on a slug of creative friends who have put Succulents to good use. I’m totally honored and proud of the company I keep, my friends and creative colleagues. I wanted to cap off the tour with a little story of where the ideas came from plus a few more thank yous.
The Beginnings of Caring for Succulents
The design process for me starts with pencil on paper. And then again, more pencil on paper, from doodles to realism. I like to explore the range and often land somewhere in the fringe with elements of realism but mostly a whimsy style. Through this process for Succulents, my first collection for Windham Fabrics, I wanted desperately to hangout in greenhouses and nurseries among the warm air that the cacti breathe. As a mid-westerner, cold winter months draw me to those places of tropical relief. And to think it’s only a short trip across town to smell the earthy dirt and moist air, I’ll take it. If I’m going to be totally honest and reveal my absolute nerdiness (which I’m totally ok with) you should know that I’ve been a member of the Cacti and Succulent Society of America for the past 15 years. I subscribe to the technical journal and read it religiously. It’s always a great day when the journal shows up in my mailbox. I dream of traveling to South Africa to witness some of my favorite plants in the wild.
In my not so distant past I had a huge collection – over a hundred varieties – of various succulents and cacti. One of my favorite things is when people bring me cuttings of their heirloom plants. I am thoroughly convinced that plants that are gifts grow much better than plants you buy for yourself. It’s easy to share many kinds of succulents because the less finicky varieties just regenerate in new dirt.
Flux‘s beautiful green typewriter
They don’t mind, either, if you neglect them. In the winter months when they are sitting in all of my south facing window sills, I ignore them until they cry out, playing Mr. Obvious that they need a drink! Being inspired by their funky leaves, sometime fat and transparent, is easily done. Often succulents are totally CUTE, too, so that doesn’t hurt.
In this collection I wanted to pull together a slug of different greens that are sometimes difficult to coordinate. So to add olive green to spring green to sage green, how can we make that work?! Lovely and luckily enough, those tones live together very harmoniously in the succulent world. I love that the overall collection edges a little bit dusty and earthy. I like to think that’s who I am. If you add dashes of antiques and worn goods, it’s the spice of who I am.
It has been such a pleasure and immense joy to work with the gang of Windham Fabrics. Let’s do it again! And in fact, I’ve turned in some designs for the second collection, so hold your hats. We’re gonna take this ride again.
In the next few days, I’ll feature a tutorial on how to sew this quilt. Subscribe, follow, pinch, poke, you owe me a coke, or whatever you do to remind yourself that you should come back here in a few days to see how to build this modern quilt I call Scandia.
Photos by Eric Lubrick
BIG FAT THANK YOUS!! Here’s a short list of the humans I love and appreciate their help. (Obs, there are too many to list, but these few need a special shout-out)
Thank you to Jamie MacDougall, my dearest and best friend, who made me lots of dinners and coffee when I would submerse myself into what I was working on so I didn’t have to worry about life details.
Thank you to David Barnhouse of Crimson Tate – truly my right-handed right hand man and bestie.
Thank you to Shannon Brasovan of Practice Indie who is my guru & yogi who has been teaching me how to keep balance in my life.
Thank you to Laura, Sandy, Alex, and Mickey of Windham Fabrics who just plain get me and are total pleasure to work with.
Thank you to Kristofer Bowman of The Inventorialist who allowed me to use his space to take some of the photography seen in the look-book and rushed vintage ledger papers over without questioning me on why.
Thank you to DeAnne Roth of Flux Antiques & Curiosities who allowed me the use of her super cool typewriter that I typed the text on for the collection and inspired one of the color-ways of the text prints.
Thank you to Chris DePrez of Fountain Square Clay Center who allowed me to come in an throw a bunch of pots for Quilt Market last fall.
Thank you to Joey Ponce of JoeyPonce.com who is an all around amazing human.
Thank you to my mom who cleaned my house a couple of times when I couldn’t seem to get to it. And thank you to my dad who has done a ton of ironing for me in the last year.
Thank you to the customers and community of Crimson Tate for entertaining me and sharing in the joy that has been this past year. Thanks for supporting us and for dreaming with me. Soooo good! Don’t forget, today is your last day to enter the drawing for one of fourteen complete fat quarter bundles of Succulents.
THANK YOU TO MY PRECIOUS LITTLE LOVERS WHO WORKED TIRELESSLY TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. Drop by their blogs and give ’em some sugar.
March 15: Heather Givans of Crimson Tate
March 16: Eric Lubrick of Eric Lubrick Photography
March 17: Sarah Sharp of {no} hats quilts
March 18: Lindsay Lefevere of ellesquare
March 19: Karen McTavish of McTavish Quilting Studio
March 20: David Barnhouse of Crimson Tate
March 21: Meghan Eschbaugh of Calvin and Carolyn
March 22: Brooke Starnes of Crimson Tate
March 23: Matthew Wheeler of Kapa Quilts
March 24: Samantha Howard of Bobaloo Kids
March 25: Amy Garro of 13 spools
March 26: Amanda Castor of Material Girl Quilts
March 27: Heather Jones of Heather Jones Studio
March 28: Heather Givans of Crimson Tate
In closing, comments that celebrate who inspires you, helps you endlessly, or make you happy receive a big hug and high five.
xoxo
Heather
Heather Givans 