Bill and I debated a lot over whether or not to include Tartan in Transparency Quilts. Bill wanted to include it because he loved the complexity and the efficiency with which he was able to design the construction. I was hesitant because I was worried that it was the most complex pattern in the book by far and requires better-than-average craftsmanship. Although I thought that the transparency itself was really successful and the finished quilt is beautiful, I wondered if it would be too hard for the average quilter. In the end we decided that it was important to have different projects for different skill levels so we kept it in.

We also decided to include this quilt in response to the comments we sometimes hear about the Modern Quilt Movement. Some suggest that the Modern Quilt Movement is simply about abandoning rules and concerns over craftsmanship. The idea is that “rules” inhibit creativity and that “letting go” of concerns about matching points and sewing consistently will result in quilts that look fresher and more modern.

Bill and I feel that there are times to design and sew in a completely intuitive way but that sloppiness is always just sloppiness. How you decide what goes together is an entirely separate issue from how well it is constructed. Whether or not you plan a quilt completely or whether you work intuitively and improvisationally, striving for good craftsmanship should always be a goal.

Tartan is a good example of a quilt that is modern yet requires a very high level of craftsmanship and planning. The sewing is simple but to make this quilt successfully, you’ll want to make points match pretty closely. In the book, we offer pointers on how to do that more easily. You only need six fabrics but you’ll want to spend some time making sure that the color relationships are successful.

Many people have called the studio to see if we are kitting any of the quilts in this book because some people are finding fabric selection for the transparencies challenging. These quilts were made in 2010 (the book publishing process is a long one) so most of the fabrics are long gone. However, we thought it would be helpful to show you some Kona solid equivalents of the colors used in the original quilts. So here are some colors that would work for the Tartan palette:

[Note: Computer monitors are calibrated differently so the darker blues may look like a bunch of black blobs to you but we chose these colors based on actual swatches.]

One of the things we love about creating transparency quilts is the depth you see in the colors as well as the composition. Hello Sunshine appears to be a relatively straightforward baby quilt but in one place the overlapping colors make sense – a light over a darker fabric yields a shade in between. However, look at the light centers. We’ve played with the visuals to have two medium tones overlap two darker tones and the result is a yellow that is lighter than either of the other colors used.

This example shows how the transparencies don’t always have to be logical in terms of the overlap color being the shade that would result if you really did overlay the colors with, for example, an overhead projector. What matters most is that the gradations between the different overlays aren’t too much of a leap.

I think the most useful section of the book is “What Works, What Doesn’t and Why.” We intentionally put together a series of UNsuccessful transparencies so you could see what went wrong. Let me know if you want to see any more of them and I can add them to future posts.

By the way, we were happy to read that Library Journal has included Transparency Quilts as a “not-to-be missed” title for quilting along with our second book “Modern Quilt Workshop.” Thanks for the shout out Library Journal!

Readers of Quilts Made Modern may remember that I spent 8 months hand quilting a quilt called Small Change made entirely with Cherrywood fabrics. Cherrywood hand-dyed fabrics are more expensive than mass-manufactured prints, but have a softness that’s just not found anywhere else.

While the design thinking behind Small Change was the interplay among rich colors, Whisper is all about the subtle differences within a very desaturated — even drab — palette. We used all of the colors in the Potters’ Wheel Palette (part of the 8-step bundles that Cherrywood offers) and added a few other taupes as well.

Note that because the fabrics aren’t patterned and the colors were low in contrast we were able to use swirled stitching in the circles and a simple stipple in the field. The stitching really transforms a quilt when it’s this simple so if you make a quilt with Cherrywoods, it’s worth thinking through the quilting because it will really show.

I have to add that designing and making this quilt was a leap of faith for us. These are not colors that are considered “hot” in the quilting fabric industry. I once had a fabric sales rep tell me that we should only design and use fabrics that grab your attention from the second you set foot in a shop. It was painful to hear that. I didn’t want to believe that we had to scream all of the time. So I was particularly relieved and encouraged when one person after another at Quilt Market said how nice is was to see such an unusual palette. See. There’s room for quiet after all.

Madras is one of the best examples of how careful fabric selection can create a very compelling transparency. You have to look carefully because although the two shades of blue are easy to see, it’s the light and dark pink that really make the transparency visually convincing.

Whenever possible we’ve made the quilts in Transparency Quilts in strip sets for a few reasons. The main reason is that it’s so much faster to sew but we’ve also found that if you cut the strip sets carefully, aligning seams becomes so much easier and faster as well. We’ve categorized this quilt as appropriate for “Adventurous Beginners” both for the strip set construction and the color decisions.

I was also happy with the quilting on this quilt. The spirals illustrate, nicely I think, the idea of quilting being a different design layer that enhances the overall pattern of the quilt. If we had done echo quilting or stitched in the ditch, this quilt would have become very predictable and very flat visually. We used a soft gray thread which totally disappears in the contours after washing but is neither to light nor too dark against the lightest and darkest of the fabrics in the quilt.

We chose a deep blue fabric for the binding that serves as a frame. Binding can be tricky with some of the quilts in this book. While it might be counter-intuitive, using a fabric that’s different from those in the quilt top actually frames the transparency more successfully than trying to use a fabric that’s already in the quilt. Given the narrow bands, if you were to use the same fabric in the binding, it might look as if the design is spilling too much over the edge.

If you decide to make this quilt, take you time getting a good palette together and cutting carefully and it will come together quickly and easily.

“It’s all relative,” is the message of this quilt. Bill and I had so much fun looking at the subtle differences between the blacks and grays used in this quilt. On the shelf all of the fabrics looked blue or gray but in the company of others, their different hues quickly became apparent. These colors also make for a great guy quilt I think. Masculine with no camo in sight. I also want to make this quilt in totally different fabrics. maybe some of the new brighter Cherrywoods or feedsack prints? Or maybe as a little boy quilt with sage greens and Wedgewood blues? Never fear, Bill has put together alternate palettes in the book so there will be no shortage of ways in which you can customize Next in Line.

I also have to tell you how thrilled I was to be able to use one of my favorite Japanese vases in this shot. I’ve had that vase since 1985 and it still looks so fresh and modern to me.

To the casual observer some of our quilts look pretty straight forward and easy to design. The trained eye, however, notices the subtle differences in proportions and in the use of negative space. Negative space is the the area around a motif or the space between the things that really stand out. In this quilt the negative spaces are the white diamonds and dashes found between the blue and green wedges. Once you look for them the quilt takes on a totally different look. Those magical shapes give the quilt an added bit of visual interest and open up a world that many people never notice.

You know about the negative space in the FedEx logo right? That logo that you’ve seen 1,000 times, right?

Have you ever noticed the elegant arrow between the “E” and the “x”? That wasn’t an accident. That’s some masterful use of negative space. If negative space is a new concept to you, try looking for beautiful uses of it in graphic design or in tile patterns or paintings or packaging. Understanding the concept of negative space helps you understand why some fabrics are easier to work with than others and helps you choose fabrics more easily.

Mint Julep is a calm quilt by design but could become a wild and crazy mix of bright patterns as long as you kept them within a dark or light value so the transparency band reads. I add this because some readers have asked about how to make transparencies without going out to buy a ton of new fabric. You can use whatever you have on hand, is my guess. You’ll just need to sort it by value so the transparency works. You don’t need a lot of yardage to make a compelling transparency, you just need a little bit of the right value.

And yes, I know that you’ll never look at a FedEx truck the same way again. That’s what great design does. It makes everything you look at a little bit more interesting.

And I’ve got to tell you about that green sofa that we used in the photo shoot. I bought that Mid-Century Modern gem for $100 off eBay from someone in North Carolina. It was covered in the original nubby, cigarette-smoke-infused wool from circa 1963. It was shipped to Chicago on the belly of a Greyhound bus for a song. It reeked of cigarette smoke so much that we kept it on our sun porch until the upholsterer could come to pick it up. It’s slim and trim, makes every room it’s in look bigger because it doesn’t have a skirt and its arms are slender. And always looks neat while still being comfortable. They don’t make ‘em like they used to.

The picture above was taken in a few weeks ago and gives a hint as to what the new studio will look like. On December 22, we move the studio to our new digs. It’s hard not to remember the morning I woke up almost 13 years ago and decided to start a business in our basement with a Bernina and a dream that quilts could be modern. It’s been a great studio for us and we’ve had so many great memories here. It will be exciting to see how the new space changes how we work. As is the case with our current studio, the new studio has a separate entrance and will be in the basement of our home. The new home is a 1930 Tudor that has been completely renovated. If you’re curious about the rest of it I have been keeping a renovation blog not-so-coincidentally called www.therenovationdiary.com so feel free to take a peek inside.

Once the dust settles, we’ll invite you over for a New Name, New Book, New Studio party in January but in the meantime, we’ll be closed from December 22nd and will reopen on December 26th.  We’ll close again on the 30th when our household moves and re-open on January 2nd as the shiny new Modern Quilt Studio, complete with that new name smell. Never fear – I’ll post pictures of the chaos on Facebook should you want to be able to think as I used to when I saw my friends moving “Boy am I glad that I’m not moving right now.”

Warm wishes for a joyous holiday (without any snow just yet please).

We had another design in mind for the last quilt that was to be included in Transparency Quilts. The final photo shoot was a few days away and I approached Bill, as I am known to do, at the last minute suggesting that we audition another quilt for the book. I had an eclectic stack of fabrics in my hand and told him that I wanted to see how many different genres of fabric we could put together without looking chaotic. We decided that if we took out all of the saturated ones and pastels that it might look cohesive. We auditioned dozens and dozens of fabrics before we came up with this bunch. There’s Amy Butler next to a primitive batik next to William Morris. We titled it Small World and it became one of our favorites. It was the most fun we had had choosing fabrics in a long time. We were delighted when the editors at C&T chose Small World for the back cover of the book.

“I think we need to go even bigger with this eclectic idea and submit something to American Patchwork & Quilting,” I suggested. Without missing a beat Bill was pulling handfuls of fabric out of our stash and laying them out on the table. In the end, we cut up 36 fat eighths for this quilt and it has become one of a favorite as well.

Photo used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting ©2011 Meredith Corporation, all rights reserved

The wonderful editors at American Patchwork and Quilting decided to put this quilt entitled Fabric Fusion on the cover of some of their newsstand issues (if you’re a subscriber, you got the other cover) and we have been deluged with orders for kits.

Part of what I love about both of these quilts is that they both remind me of that great Louis Armstrong quote about music: “There are two kinds of music, the good and the bad. We feel that way about fabric. There are lots of fabrics that are supposed to be for modern quilts that I find very difficult to use. Conversely, many Civil War reproduction fabrics that are often overlooked by modern quilters have soft colors that are a welcome foil to all of the brights out there.

Both of these quilts have prints, plaids, batiks, primitives, tone-on-tones, reproduction fabrics and large-scale prints in them. Our hope is that quilters will rethink some of their assumptions about what goes with what and be able to see new possibilities for fabrics that are already in their stashes but they haven’t been sure how to use. These collections of fabrics were carefully thought out but with a little thought and editing, you could probably find some unexpected combinations of your own among those in your stash.

So do tell. What fabrics are in your stash that you want to use but aren’t sure how to use?

As I did with Quilts Made Modern, I’m going to reveal one quilt from our new book in each post and write a little about the design thinking behind each project.

We hung this quilt Share & Share Alike in our booth at Quilt Market in October. Although the construction looks complex, it’s a variation of log cabin construction and is quite simple to piece. The trickiest part of making transparency quilts is the color work. In the book we devote a lot of pages to breaking down the color theory behind the transparency concept and include several pages of what worked, what didn’t and why.

There’s a calm to these quilts that makes them particularly suited to bedrooms I think so we’ve got several bed-size projects in the book. Some of the projects, like the one shown above, are made with just a few fabrics and others are quite scrappy. What I love about the projects in this book is that they need not be modern if that’s not your thing. It’s just about color work. It needn’t be large-scale or super bright and busy.

As always, our photographer Jim White did a great job capturing the colors and the textures of each quilt. We’ll do a blog tour and lots of giveaways in January when all of the holiday dust has settled. If you can’t wait to try to win a copy, the nice folks over at C&T are giving away a copy on Facebook so go comment to try to win.

Thanks to everyone who donated to our fundraiser for the Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry. We’ve got shopping cart full of groceries from those who attended our blockbuster Moving Sale and a check for $60 from those who donated over the phone. We’ll do it again next year.