Sew in Love {with Fabric}: Introducing Christa Watson's Fandangle

Monday, July 16, 2018

Introducing Christa Watson's Fandangle

If you follow Christa Watson on social media, you're probably aware of Fandangle, her new fabric collection for Contempo, which launched at Spring Quilt Market. The fabrics are now available in quilt shops, and to celebrate, we're hosting a Fandangle-themed week! Learn more about the fabrics today, and then come back each day this week for Fandangle project inspiration. We'll wrap up the week on Saturday with a virtual trunk show of Christa's quilts.

Check out Christa's Fandangle skirt!

Where did the Fandangle name come from?

It means excess ornamentation or embellishment. It’s kind of tongue in cheek—with my quilts, I love creating sparkle and depth with fabric and quilting, but I don’t actually embellish or bling up my quilts. It’s kind of an inside joke to myself—a quilt collection about embellishment.

How did this collection start?

I really put myself into these designs. A lot of my designs are inspired by strong modern geometrics. I’m inspired by machine quilting designs and angular quilting designs. I wanted designs that would add sparkle and texture. Even the pattern names evoke embellishment!

Click here to read Christa’s blog post on designing this fabric.

The Fandangle prints:

Can you tell us about some of the prints in Fandangle?

Sparkling Squares – I really like this space age starburst design—they’re flourishes set into squares.

Triangle Trinkets – This was definitely inspired by a machine quilting design I do, with depth and texture added in. It’s the 3-D version of one of my favorite designs.

Beaded Curtain – I’m a child of the 70s and 80s, and this looks like a beaded curtain from that era. But the lines are a little wonky and the beads aren’t just beads—they’re ovals and quirky rectangles.

Paper Cuts – This is one of two tone-on-tone prints. The actual design comes from a modern zig-zaggy stipple. It kind of reminds me of little shapes cut out of paper.

Confetti Crosshatch – This is a greatly reduced version of the crosshatch from Modern Marks. It’s the other tonal print in the collection.

Baubles & Bits – I started with the other geometric prints and this one came last. My original idea was to mash it up like in Modern Marks and have something from all the prints in this focal print. It didn’t work—less really is more. I really like the bursts—the baubles. If you look closely, you can see little hints of the other prints in the background.

Tell us about the palette.

There are twenty prints: 10 cool and 10 warm. The cool colors are the teal, green, blue, aqua and light gray, and the warm colors are the opposite – red, orange, yellow, pink, lilac, and the darker gray. They all work together, filling in the rainbow in a more cohesive way, or you can make a quilt using just one palette.

Do you have a favorite print?

As much as I love color, the grays are probably my favorite. Neutrals add so much—they’re such a subtle tonal. Pairing all these colors with gray makes me super happy.