Introducing Printology by Modern Quilt Studio

We're really excited to share Printology, a new Contempo collection from Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio. These prints are so appealing, and as you read what Weeks and Bill have to say about them, you'll be inspired to find many different ways to use them. 

We'll be focusing on Printology all week on the blog, with three projects to share and then a virtual trunk show on Friday. Enjoy!

Where did you find the inspiration for Printology?

Weeks: We were in Japan last year and walking through the Gion district of Kyoto, where the geisha culture resides. I’ve always had a fascination with the maiko san (apprentice geishas). They have white paint on their faces, complicated hairdos, and layers of kimonos in a way that’s sweet, charming and bubbly, all at once. They typically wear 3-4 kimonos, and you can see a sliver of each. They’re all different prints—they have this fearlessness in mixing prints, which is so different than Western fashion, with a main print and accessories that coordinate. I really wanted to do this concept as a fabric line. It’s not a Japanese line at all. It’s about mixing, drawn from an Asian concept.

Bill: For us, one of the main goals of the line was to create a mix of prints that would also welcome what people already had in their stash, to encourage people to fearlessly mix.

What do you see as a selling point to this collection?

Weeks: The quilts we made from the line look really different from each other. If you start with a blue and yellow focal print, you’ll make a blue and yellow quilt. There are so many choices in Printology. We could do a peach quilt, a blue and green quilt, a gray quilt, etc. By not having one fabric that’s dominant, you have more flexibility to making different types of quilts.

How did you design the prints?

Bill: We work from sketches and then digitize them. Everything is hand drawn to start. In the collection, you’ll see different illustration styles—some of the shapes, like the Scallops, have outlines (called trapping lines), and some like the Blocks print are just color on color. We wanted prints in a range of scales, some with trapping lines and some without, some with colors filled in and some that weren’t.

Scallops

Blocks

Can you tell us about the prints in the collection?

Bill : To me, one of the roles of the Flowers fabric was to create depth and layering. It’s also a nice in-between scale, with tiny details like the flower stamens.

                 

               

Weeks: The maiko san often have a red print or a red and white check print that is a liner under their obi. Red is a celebratory color in Asia. These tiny checks are hand drawn; they have a slight irregularity to them. We rarely use white because it’s so high contrast, but we wanted the checkerboards to be an accent fabric, so we included it here. It’s a contrasting element within the line. The scale is adorable, and it is a great binding print.

Bill: The Wave print is about curvature and fluidity, and it has softer colorations.

Bill: We had 24 hours to come up with one more print, and it was Gridwork. It has a hand-drawn looseness to it, and incredibly versatility from tiny bits of color.

Do you have favorite prints within the collection?

Weeks: I really love the block prints. It is the first one we designed. I love that the lines don’t go around the colors, but through them.

Bill: I’m really fond of the sketch print. I took a drawing from Weeks’ sketch book, digitized it, and put it into a giant repeat. I need to find enough hours in the day to sew myself a shirt out it. Hard to put my finger on what it is, but I love the quality of a hand-drawn line. I’d love to have this print in every single color.

Click here to see the entire Printology collection. 

Click here to visit Modern Quilt Studio's website and see the newest issue of Modern Quilts Illustrated, featuring quilts made from Printology (we'll be sharing those quilts here on Friday!).