All aboard the nostalgia train

You don't have to be a 2-year-old boy to catch the train obsession. The romance of trains--steam engines, sleeper cars, cross-country travel--speaks to most of us in some way. Add in vintage train images, quilt-friendly coordinates, and a huge panel design, and we think you'll agree that our "Locomotion" collection is a hit!

Have you seen Lori Hein's "All Aboard!" design? It's featured in the June/July issue of Quilt magazine.

"All Aboard!" designed by Lori Hein and machine quilted by Laurie Burgess
featured in Quilt magazine June/July 2013
photo courtesy of Quilt magazine

Lori's quilt works for a train-obsessed child, or a young-at-heart train fan, and big pieces means it sews together quickly. We asked Lori to share a bit with us about her design. 

What drew you to the Locomotion collection?
Three reasons: While I was growing up, my dad was a model train enthusiast. Also, I loved the print that had nostalgic brochures on them.  One of the brochures was titled "Mt. Rainer," which is in Washington state where I live.  

And thirdly, I have fond memories of riding on an open box train in the mountains of Santa Cruz, CA, when I was a child.  The place was called "Roaring Camp."

Talk to us about working with the panel for your design.
The challenge of working with a panel, any panel, is that they aren't always printed straight on the grain of the fabric and so I almost always need to add a fabric "frame" it to correct that. I was delighted that this one was printed pretty straight. I used just one panel in my design, but if you purchased three, you could put train engines in all the large rectangles and use a continuous row of trains in the top and bottom borders. 

Train panel

How did you develop this design?
I'm always asked how I come up with a design.  I'm not sure there is a real answer to that.  I begin with knowing about how big I want the quilt to end up.  Then I doodle on graph paper and try to come up with a balanced design using uneven numbers of panels to make it interesting. I knew I wanted it very geometric and masculine looking.

What do you like best about the quilt?
The old-fashioned, nostalgic feeling of times past that the fabric has. A bygone era that is a part of history.

See the entire Locomotion collection here.
Find the kit for the All Aboard! quilt here.
Learn more about Lori Hein here.
Find Quilt magazine here. 

P.S. Quilt magazine is offering a free pattern to make the coordinating pillow (using the other half of the panel needed for the quilt!) here.