The colors and spectrum of Modern Workshop lend themselves nicely to this simple strip quilt that I created for Moda.
I had lots of fun designing it, and it’s a good project for someone who is new to quilting or wants a pattern that doesn’t take a lot of time. By staggering the pieced strips, the over-all pattern has an ombre effect, as you can see in the photo.
The quilt requires one Modern Workshop Jelly Roll and additional fabric for the background and the backing. You can download the free project sheet for this quilt from either the Moda website or from our website. I hope you enjoy making it.
Each season we put together a trunk show of new and recent styles and tour the show to select shops that carry Oliver + S patterns.
This season’s trunk show is our largest ever and features our new Spring-Summer 2011 items as well as a selection of best selling patterns from our backlist. All the items are made from our most recent fabric collection, Modern Workshop.
Here’s where you can catch the show in coming months.
As I mentioned earlier, Modern Workshop was inspired by the Wiener Werkstatte, a circle of artists and craftspeople based in Vienna at the turn into the twentieth century. I’ve long admired the aesthetic that this group pioneered. As I’ve said many times on my personal blog, one of my favorite places in New York is the Neue Galerie, a museum devoted to modernist Austrian art which often features exhibitions related to this movement.
I have a particular affinity for the philosophy behind the Wiener Werkstatte. These artisans were living during the height of the industrial revolution, which for the first time in history made mass produced items widely available at low prices. Contemporary society is experiencing a similar situation (a second industrial revolution?) with the rise of the Chinese economy and the proliferation of extremely low-cost imported items that were not available even a decade ago.
In response to their economic environment, the members of the Wiener Werkstatte created hand-crafted homewares and other objects that were beautiful and that are noted today for their enduring quality and their design sensibility. As you can imagine, I have a strong admiration for this philosophy, and I highly value today’s unique, hand-crafted items that stand in opposition to the cheap, mass-produced objects that flood our store shelves.
For Modern Workshop, I re-interpreted the aesthetic pioneered by the Wiener Werkstatte for the contemporary, twenty-first-century crafting community. This collection includes 32 prints in both floral and geometric motifs that make use of a fresh, twenty-first-century color palette. The collection includes small scale and large scale prints which makes it ideal for both garment sewing and quilting. You can preview all the prints included in the collection by viewing the line list on the Modern Workshop page in the Fabric section of our website.
We showed Modern Workshop to fabric shop buyers at the last International Quilt Market. Here’s a little video that Moda filmed during Market that highlights some of the prints and base fabrics (wovens, interlock knits, and waterproof coated fabrics) included in the line.
Modern Workshop should begin arriving on store shelves in your area next week. But if you can’t wait to try the fabric, we still have some pre-cut fabric packs available right now in our web store.
I’ll be back next week to show you some of the things we’ve been making at the studio with the collection.
If you’re in the New York City area, I hope you’ll join us this Sunday, April 10, from 1:00-3:00 PM for a book launch party at Books of Wonder at 18 West 18th St.
If you’re not familiar with Books of Wonder, it is a terrific independently owned kids’ bookstore near Union Square. We love it not only for its fantastic selection of new and old books, but also because it’s located right next door to the Cupcake Cafe and on the same block as Paper Presentation and Print Icon. Plus, the Muji store is just around the corner. I’m telling you, this is a good spot for a craft-related party.
Drop by for some refreshments, a chance to see some samples from the book, and to chat and meet other crafting families. Please bring the kids, too, because we’ll set up to do a little paper doll related crafting.
If you come a little early, you can also attend Books of Wonder’s weekly story time.
For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting release date, I’m happy to tell you that the new patterns for girls are now available for purchase on our website.
And while you’re at it, why don’t you consider adding a Modern Workshop fabric pack to your order. (You can preview the line and add items to your shopping bag here.) I’ll have much more to say about Modern Workshop over the next couple weeks as we approach its official release date from Moda.
