Sneak Peek: Quilt Blocks for Moda

These are images from my new fabric collection for Moda! I’m getting excited to go to Quilt Market at the end of next month and looking forward to getting a few bits of fabric soon so I can make some things. This collection was obviously inspired by quilt patterns, but I wanted to break the patterns down to their essence and hopefully make something a bit modern. I don’t consider myself an artist one bit, but I’m interested in shape and color.

The colorway above is called spectrum. What started out with every color under the sun ended up mostly in the pink range. My 6-year-old has actually made me learn to love pink.

There are nine designs in the Quilt Blocks collection and 30 fabrics total, with a couple of extra colors in some of the prints (not shown here). I started with the Wedding Rings design, mostly inspired by the wedding rings pattern of the quilt that spent years on my bed as a child, then through my adult years and now is on my younger daughter’s bed. It’s hard to get a sense of the scale from these images, but many of these would make simple whole cloth quilts or patterned backings, a bit like cheater fabric.

This colorway is called marine:

When I was in college, I remember reading an article in Martha Stewart Living about Denyse Schmidt. I was incredibly inspired by her work and thought “That’s what I want to do.” But I was distracted by other things, so I didn’t get a sewing machine for another 8 years. I still remember that article, followed by the inspiration of the Gee’s Bend quilts that I still love so much. It seemed that my interest in folk art and modern art had come together in one place.

Below is the shade colorway. These are all scanned images of the actual fabric, so the mottled look just came across in the scan. The backgrounds are all solid. Lots of these fabrics use a white background and a limited number of colors, because those are the kind of fabrics that I like to sew with best. While I love large scale prints, it’s always the utilitarian, small-scale fabrics that I use most. The small hexagons have a flowered border just at the selvedge, which I envision along the hemline of a skirt.

It’s nerve-wracking to put these designs out there, so I hope you like them. These fabrics will be sold to fabric shops at fall market, but won’t be available in your local quilting shop until early next year.

In the mail

Yesterday I received the new Liberty Book of Home Sewing and this yard of Julia Rothman’s Miscellany fabric for Cloud 9 Fabrics, ordered from Sew Fresh Fabrics. I can see mixing this print with some Liberty prints with red, like the one on the cover here and making a quilt or pillow.

Michelle at Cloud 9 continues to crank out some really great collections from fabulous artists. I can’t wait to get my hands on some of this fabric from Geninne D. Zlatkis (print below).

And speaking of Liberty prints, what do you think of this new Hello Kitty Liberty collection? Sophisticated is not normally a word I would use to describe Hello Kitty, but this collection is really nice.

Pintuck Clutch Pattern at BurdaStyle

Remember this Pintuck Clutch from 1, 2, 3 Sew? You can now get the free, downloadable pattern over at BurdaStyle.

I made an even simpler version over the weekend (below), smaller and without the pleats, using some Anna Maria Horner fabric and the pink cotton sateen for a lining again. This bag comes together very quickly, especially after you’ve made a few of them. And it’s a nice gift or a simple way to spruce up an outfit. Since I used quilting cottons (rather than twill as used in the book) for these two bags, I added fusible fleece to the lining to make it a bit sturdier.

And here it is in the book in a green twill, along with the other two bags from the handbag chapter. You can see what a difference fabric choice makes in the overall look of the bag.

 

100 Quilts for Kids

Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt e-mailed me a while back about a quilt drive that she began last year in conjunction with the DC Modern Quilt Guild called 100 Quilts for Kids. She’s doing it again and you can help!

All you need to do to participate is make a quilt for a child and donate it to your local women’s shelter or other community organization. The quilt can be any size; baby, toddler or twin. Share a photo of your quilt and you’ll be eligible to win prizes (a copy of 1, 2, 3 Sew for instance). I love this idea and think it’s a fantastic way to bring something handmade and useful into a child’s life.

So check out Katie’s blog for the details, dates and prizes.

I started working on a quilt and just finished the top. Hope to put it together in the next few weeks and donate it locally. Thanks for the inspiration, Katie!