Sew It Seams

JESSICA HOGARTH IN CONVERSATION

Jessica Hogarth, a resident of North Yorkshire and the designer for the new VeloCity collection, tells us in her own words her sources for inspiration and her design process.

I adore Paris. Many trips have been made there both for pleasure and research. This is where I first began drawing bikes, scooters and birds. The carousel at the foot of the Sacre Coeur is littered with eager pigeons all waiting to be fed. Equally, similar scenes can be viewed in Central Park in New York or in London’s Trafalgar Square.  They help shape the character and charm of the city, and to me are incredibly interesting objects to draw.

Drawing architecture is one of my loves. The buildings of the main design ‘City Scene’ are more energetic and loose than my normal drawing style but I think variation within the collection is great and necessary for a balanced set of fabrics.  The pops of block colour add interest to the otherwise linear print.

click on the image to see full size

‘Crooked’ was inspired by a high rise building with intriguing windows, which is where the zig zag nature of the print has come from.  All of my drawings begin as black pen on paper, before I scan them in order to digitally build up a repeat and add colour.

The geometric nature of ‘Bird’s eye’ has been inspired by the high rise buildings present in many cities around the world. I like the fact they have been combined to make a flat all over pattern, but to me the reference to tall buildings with hundreds of windows in varying sizes is still present. The controlled nature of the print makes a stark contrast to ‘City Scene’, which allows both designs to compliment each other effectively.

The remaining prints- ‘Traffic Jam’ and ‘Rooftop’ provide a less prominent interpretation of my views of urban environments, with emphasis on simple colour and line. These two complimentary patterns work against the busier main designs to round off the collection.



I love bright colours and am really happy the collection has been manufactured bold and fun palette. Now I’m looking forward to getting creative with sewing and making some simple zip up purses with my fabrics and a cushion to have on the chair in my little studio!

If you’d like to know even more about Jessica, here’s a video she recently released:

  

 

 

VELOCITY

Urban Quiltin’!  We love the modern look of this cityscape collection by Jessica Hogarth.  The main print could represent just about any big city, and it comes in both daytime and nighttime colors.


Check out the next piece!  It could be a packed city, a circuit board, or just a great geometric.

Here is the whole collection

We love the scooters and birds!  What city is complete without them?  One of the first projects that came to mind was a messenger bag, so we sent some of the fabric to www.totesbysandy.com and look what we got back!  Not one but THREE cool totes!



You can order these fun patterns from her web site:  http://www.totesbysandy.com/.
Both of our quilt projects are by Diane Nagle.
These will soon be free downloads in the Patterns section of our web site:

City Blocks quilt

 

City Lights quilt

Look for our urban offering in your local quilt shop starting now!

 

BASICS

Where would quilters be without basics?  The unsung heroes of the quilting world are the tonals, textures and solid colors that we use make all other fabrics stand out and look their best.  Every collection we present has some textures and tonals mixed in with it, but we also produce groups of basics on their own.  They are the building blocks for many, many quilting projects, and they are beautiful in their own right!

Here is a quilt by Toby Lischko, that combines our recent Apple Cider neutrals with a few darker tonals from our Suede collection.

Download this free pattern from our web site:

We also have two tonals with gold metallic accents, both called Luxury Blenders.
(click on the swatches to see the entire collections):Luxury Blenders (Dots)

Luxury Blenders (Swirl)

Our latest is an organic tonal called Suede that has been so popular we’ve produced three sets of colors.  Click on the swatches to see the entire collections.

First we offered the original, earthy colors:

Then the bright pieces:
and now the Midtones:

Click on the quilts below to download free patterns:

Alison Tudor created our Suede Brights quilt:

 And we now have two new quilts made from our Midtones collection:

Here is Heidi Pridemore’s:

And here is Toby Lischko’s:

If you are a fan of our Linen Texture basic, you’ll be glad to hear that we’re introducing a new and updated version in the next few months.

If you have a quilt or project that you’d like to share, made from any of our basics, please let us know!  Email [email protected] and send us a photo!