Sew in Love {with Fabric}: Susan Rooney

Showing posts with label Susan Rooney. Show all posts

Friday, June 26, 2015

Brush Dance Sneak Peek

Here's a quick look at Susan Rooney's new line, Brush Dance. It features many of her same signature colors in bold, cheery flowers, plus a new array of tonal coordinates: dots, basketweave and scribbles.

Here's a look at the whole border stripe print--so many possibilities for using this!

And two free patterns, which we'll be posting on our website soon:

Floral Weave by Janet Page Kessler

Flower Power by Janet Page Kessler

Watch for this collection in your local quilt shop!

Click here to see the entire collection.

Monday, June 22, 2015

New from Susan Rooney: Autumn Breeze

If you're a fan of Susan Rooney's Breezy Blooms collection, you'll be happy to know that she has two new lines out--and we'll be sharing both of them here on the blog this week!

First up is Autumn Breeze. This collection uses many of the same fun colors from Breezy Blooms, but with a fall feel. Because much of the palette is the same, the scribble and whirl coordinates from Breezy Blooms work beautifully with these prints too! Keep reading below the swatches, as Susan chatted with us about her new collection.

The panel

We love Autumn Breeze!

Thanks! It uses the bright colors that I love, and people seem to like the option of a fall look in these colors—it’s something a bit different. It’s fun to pull things together between these prints and the coordinating whirls and swirls from Breezy Blooms.

Tell us about the panel.

The panel initially started out as squares but progressed to rectangles with leaves looking like they were falling or twirling. I like being different. The rectangles have so many possibilities! And since I have a pattern company as well, I am designing patterns using these rectangles. They make a beautiful table runner for a fall in general or even a Thanksgiving table.

Which of the prints came first?

The overall stained glass look. I’d used that concept before in some of my licensed products and I liked it. The way in which I colorized the sections creates the pattern in the print.

And how did that translate over to the leaf prints?

I started out by fitting the stained glass look into leaf shapes—almost like using cookie cutters. Then I reworked the lines to fit the leaf shape and give them a bit more dimension. The larger prints have just leaves and swirls, and the smaller prints have leaves with swirls as well as acorns and bittersweet, something else that is also in the panel.

What is your favorite piece in this collection?

The panel. It’s different from typical square block panels. I like how we’ve been able to pull it into a quilt and table collection design. I can’t wait to work with it some more.

Here are three free patterns available on our website featuring the Autumn Breeze collection:

First, Susan's table collection:

Click here to download the free pattern.

The Falling Leaves quilt by Heidi Pridemore:

Click here to download the free pattern.

The Walk in the Woods quilt by Susan Rooney:

Click here to download the free pattern.

Click here to see the entire Autumn Breeze collection.

Click here to download the free projects featuring the Autumn Breeze collection.

Click here to read more about Susan and see her Breezy Blooms collection.

Click here to see more of Susan's patterns and other work.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Breezy Blooms: 2 Styles

If you fell in love with Susan Rooney's Breezy Blooms collection when we shared it here on the blog, you're in luck! Today we're showing two different quilts featured in magazines that use these bright, cheery fabrics. The quilts are pretty different from each other, which really shows how versatile this line is. Keep reading and ask for Breezy Blooms at your local quilt shop--it's perfect for an early spring project!

First up, Tricia Maloney designed "Ella" for Quilter's World magazine. She paired the bright Breezy Blooms prints with white for a bold pop of color that graces the magazine's cover.

"Ella" by Tricia Lynn Maloney;
featured in Quilter's World Spring 2015

Here's Tricia:

What appealed to you about the Breezy Blooms fabric collection?
The Breezy Blooms collection is fun and relaxed -- exactly how I wanted this quilt to look.

Do you have a favorite print in the collection?
I really loved the scribble fabrics in the bold saturated colors.

Why did you choose the Irish Chain design?

I've always wanted to make a double Irish chain. One of the very first designs I ever made was a single Irish chain, but until now, I had never made a double, so it was a personal challenge. Now I think I'd like to try a triple chain sometime. :)

Tell us about the white space I this quilt.
The white background fabric is the perfect choice for Breezy Blooms with its saturated yummy colors. The white solid provides a lot of contrast, but keeps the Breezy Bloom Prints as the "stars of the show." The white solid also helps to calm down the quilt a bit because of all the different prints.

Can you talk about your pieced border choice?
When designing the quilt, I tried several different border treatments including no border at all. I found that a single fabric border overpowered the scrappy double Irish chain, so I decided to use long narrow rectangles which acted more like frames, but didn't overpower the patchwork.

What do you like best about the quilt?
The final result, of course! Once all of the elements came together -- the design, the fabric, and the quilting -- the quilt really had sparkle and was definitely a breath of fresh air. I was thrilled to discover it had been selected for the cover.

Can you tell us about the machine quilting?
When faced with so much empty white space, sometimes it's hard for me to come up with a quilting plan. But with this quilt, I followed the Breezy Blooms lead and went for a big showy floral design in the negative spaces. To further emphasize the diagonal qualities of the chains, I quilted a simple serpentine.

Click here to see the entire Breezy Blooms collection.

Click here to learn more about Tricia and her work.

Click here to find Quilter's World.

Next up, Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton designed "Breezy Blossoms" for the spring issue of Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts magazine. In their quilt, the textured plaid takes center stage, alternating with columns of tipsy squares--a more contemporary look.

"Breezy Blossoms" designed by Melanie Greseth and Joanie Holton;
pieced by Sharon Rosberg and machine quilted by Naomi Polzin
featured in Easy Quilts spring 2015

Here's Joanie:

What did you like about the Breezy Blooms collection?

It was such a fun, playful line to work with—perfect because we wanted to create a fun, playful quilt that was fresh and not too difficult--something with a little modern twist to it.

Do you have a favorite print in the collection?

We loved the modern plaid. That was a big highlight for us. Susan just has such great colors.

Can you talk about your design, specifically the pieced columns?

We were looking for something fresh--a simple design with a twist. It’s really easy to stack and frame squares, but we wanted a little more playful look. We think the columns are modern and fresh, and tilting those squares gave a little more playful feel to the quilt.

We love how you used a print in the background of the pieced columns.

We decided to use the tonals as the pop in the blocks, and that middle-sized print in the background gave it a nice feel—it really added interest.

What about the machine quilting?

We had told her we wanted fresh, open quilting done so it didn't distract from the plaid and the vertical columns. She did a lovely job of blending the quilting with the plaid fabric on the outside and accentuating the pop of colors in the blocks.

Click here to see the entire Breezy Blooms collection.

Click here to learn more about Tailormade by Design and their work.

Click here to find the kit for this quilt.

Click here to purchase the digital pattern for this quilt.

Click here to find Easy Quilts.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Susan Rooney: Paper engineer turned fabric designer

Breezy Blooms, the first collection from artist Susan Rooney, starts with garden flowers. Lots of 'em.

And more flowers: The panel, complete with blocks and lengthwise borders to fussy cut

You'll also notice dotted lines that swirl, an idea the carries through pretty much every fabric in the collection.

And a unique not-your-grandmother's plaid, comprised of smaller patterns:

Scribbles with flowers and heart shapes worked in:

Scribble coordinates in a variety of colors:

Whirl coordinates in a variety of colors:

We asked Susan a few questions about herself and Breezy Blooms:

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I've been a licensed designer for a very long time. I've been doing greeting cards and other types of product design. Now I'm designing fabric as well, and I've teamed up with Ruthann Stillwell, a sewer/quilter to design and write patterns..

What was the starting point for Breezy Blooms?

It was hard to choose where to start, because I have such an extensive line of designs for licensing. Benartex suggested focusing on bright colors. I'm all about bright colors. We picked some florals in my portfolio and began adjusting and changing them for fabric. I always like looking at intricate things—the center of a sunflower—it has that whirl in it. Such an amazing pattern to play off of. Or zinnias, which have a little flower within the flower. I had a bunch of flowers in my garden, and I used photos to help design the fabrics.

One of our favorites is the plaid—how is it different from a typical plaid?

I call it a progressive plaid—the pattern is made out of dots and squares—all those textures and colors in one fabric. I went with the warm colors mixed with black and white, and at the last minute tried to make it work in lime green mixed with black and white as well.

Everyone finds themselves doodling scribbles from time to time. How did your scribble become fabric?

I had a scribble design already created, and then one time in the scribble I noticed something that looked like a heart and a flower. I adjusted the repeat of the pattern to have the hearts and flowers be all over. I like that challenge—making the scribble look random, but having the shapes appear. The dotted scribble line works well with the textures in the flowers.

Do you have a favorite print in the collection?

First, the plaid. I'm excited about it because it's different and it worked. You can play with the pattern and really make something dynamic.

Second would be the whirl, in the pink and yellow combination. The whirl pattern came from flower centers and it really has a nice texture to it.

What makes your panel unique?

I chose the mini flower border because I wanted to do something a little bit different. And with designing patterns, I can come up with ways to use it, like on the free quilt pattern. The flower squares have enough room around them to fussy cut squares from 6-1/2'' up to 12''. And the scribble pattern in the background carries the dot through, pulling everything together.

You said you love brights. Why do you like this color palette so much?

It's kind of fun to play around with the blenders in this collection. Depending on the combinations, you can come up with everything from watermelon colors, to Halloween colors, to just black and white.

What's the advantage to designing fabric and quilt/project patterns?

Ruthann and I work together—it's neat to brainstorm how to use the fabric and how they'll work indifferent patterns. We can take the fabric and design around it for patterns or vice versa.

Here's a look at some of the patterns Susan and Ruthann have designed:

"Brees Blooms" uses the plaid print to create the illusion of a pieced background for the quilt's 3-D components. The oversized dimensional blooms stem from Susans' background as a paper engineer: "I specialize in pop-up and die cuts, and it's been fun to bring those concepts, particularly the 3-D aspect, into patterns."