Karen's Hospitality is ready for the first strokes of the artist's brush.

 What colors should be used? What fabric designs will augment the pattern design?  

When I look at fabric I first think about the design I'm going to be making.

This design will grace a table top: perhaps in a dining room, living room or on a bureau to protect the surface wood.

The design itself has sweeping curves, strong straight lines, hearts and a fleur-de-lis...a French flower.  It is solidly framed, too.  It is reminiscent of the Victorian era.

I wanted fabrics that would do the same. I wanted strong, rich colors with design elements of their own.

I found this fabric first.  It was perfect. The pattern in the fabric reminded me of wall-paper from the Victorian era with similar design motifs to the quilt pattern.

The colors were so delicious!

Burgundy, maroon, purple, with touches of blue and green set off on the creamy  background.  The fabric design was elegant and the colors rich. This would be a fabulous background peaking out from the design.  

But what for the top?

Let me see.....

Carrying the first bolt through the store with me, I pull out any and every  bolt of fabric I think might have possibilities...laying them on the floor together.  First one fabric, then another, one at a time.  Fabric stores must cringe when they see me move in and begin to rip bolts off the shelves. ( I do always put them back where they came from when I'm done.)

I step back to see what the fabrics do with one another, always envisioning the quilt design.  I see what works, and what I like.  Most of what I tried for Karen's Hospitality were in the burgundy - purple family.  But for grins I tried blues, greens, browns and creams, too. Why not, this artistic play is fun and free.  And its part of how you learn what you think works and what you like.

 I found a beautiful deep-colored mottled purple, but there wasn't enough fabric on the bolt.

 Don't you hate when that happens?

So I kept looking. This beautiful burgundy red jumped out at me.  It is an interesting "solid" with random mottling of the deep red shades and black. As the top fabric it will give an impression of the wrought iron that the design was inspired from, and frame the piece nicely.  I loved it and knew it was the right one.

The final test, put them together.

Bingo! A stunning combination!

Even better than what I first imagined with the purple that there wasn't enough of.

It does everything I want it to do.

I can see my quilt design coming alive in these colors.

A touch of elegance for any table!