When orange is a restful color

Do you ever make the exact same quilt twice? Many quilters reuse a favorite pattern over and over, trying out different fabrics or color palettes each time.

But what about a room with twin beds? Would you make the same quilt, with the same fabric, a second time? Might get boring to sew. So jazz it up a little!

Designers Joanie Holton and Melanie Greseth avoided this situation when sewing quilts from Kanvas' Lili-fied collection—they used the same bold fabrics, but two different designs. The like fabrics tie the room together, but you won't get sucked into monotonous piecing!

Both ''Lily's Beach Party'' and ''Tangerine Sunrise'' are featured in the current issue of Simple Quilts & Sewing magazine, appropriately under the tagline of ''Double Duty."

We asked this designing duo to share what went on behind all that orange and fuchsia goodness:

How do you work as a team to come up with your designs?

Melanie: Joanie and I tend to scribble and doodle ideas and then scribble and doodle on each other's scribbles and doodles… in most cases the quilts we design go through both of us at one point or another…. if she figures out a layout, I figure out the color…. if I have an idea for structure, she figures out how to construct…  we are a team in every sense of the word.

Have you ever made an all-orange quilt before?

After creating the [Lili-fied-themed Kanvas] booth for Fall Quilt Market with all this fabulous color, we needed a ''rest'' for our eyes. So we made one more quilt—just with the orange—and called it ''Tangerine Sunrise."

(When bright orange (or tangerine) is called ''rest,'' you can tell Joanie and Melanie have been looking at Lili-fied too long!)

What attracted you to the fabric line?

It is just so bright and fun! The line has really great color, which shines in the simple designs.

           

Photo courtesy of Simple Quilts & Sewing

See the entire Lili-fied collection here. 

(Don't forget, it comes in green/blue/aqua too!)

Find the kits for both quilts here.

Find Quilt magazine here. 

Find the pattern for the coordinating throw pillows here.

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A Box Full of Color

What happens when a designer has a full palette of our Naturescapes fabrics to play with?

You get this!

Wendy Sheppard designed this beauty, called "Stained Glass," and it's featured in the spring 2013 issue of Simple Quilts magazine.

We asked Wendy to tell us more about her design (and share a few more photos!): 

How did you come up with the design idea?  

I was going for something simple with a boxed in look.  I thought that framed four-patches fit the bill nicely.

What do you like best about the design?  

The colors for sure - I like to look at scrappy quilts that draw the eye to their various parts because of the colors.

How did you choose the background color?

White, cream or gray are my usual go-to background colors.  For this particular quilt, I didn't want the stark white contrast, and didn't feel like I wanted gray either.  So, the cream was my safe choice that provided a bit of contrast, but not too loudly.

What attracted you to the fabrics?

I liked the look of textures in those fabrics, and Benartex sent me the ENTIRE range of fat quarters to play with.  It was pure bliss. 

What do you like best about the fabrics?  

The fabrics sewed up nicely.  I liked the tighter fabric weave which made the fabrics fray less easily.

How did you decide to machine quilt this and why?  

I wanted to create a secondary look to the quilt using quilting.  Instead of reinforcing the 4-patch block look, I decided to quilt a variation of the orange peel motif with feathers so that at first glance, the quilt looks much more complicated than just a variation of a 4-patch quilt.

Read Wendy's post about her quilt (and see some additional beautiful pictures!) here.
Want to make your own? Find the kit for this quilt here.
Find Simple Quilts magazine here. 

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