Free Patterns From Moda

Evening Mist by Sentimental Studios

Do you ever go to the free pattern page at Moda?
http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/fp_quilting

You should bookmark the page and come back because we are always addding patterns.

Blush by Basic Gray

Here is how you find it:
Go to Moda's home page: http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/main?openpage
You don't have to log in or register.

30s Playtime by Chloe's Closet

I'm picking out the more traditional ideas here but there's a lot of variety.

At the top menu line it says Fun Stuff. Click on it.
Among the menu items it says
Free Patterns---it's yellow here

Click on it

Click on Quilting Patterns and you will find many free patchwork patterns. It will say:

Simply click on an image below for more information about the pattern.

Click on the quilt and the picture appears at the top of the page. Click on this button near the large picture.

A PDF will open up in a separate window with all the information you need. Save the PDF to a folder you create labeled Free Moda Patterns.

Dominique II

You can follow many other trails here and wind up with lots of ideas.

Like the Verna Bag from Kate Spain. It's under Sewing Patterns.

Park Avenue from Three Sisters

Pashimina by Sentimental Studios

Look at Moda's Home Page

Because I am all over it. When you click on some of the frames it directs you to my stuff.
Click here:
http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/main?openpage

Fort Sumter block by S. J. Gilbert

The blocks are from the Civil War Quilts Flickr group

Click here:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/civilwarquilts2011/

I'm pretty proud of that home page! Thanks, Moda!

Which gives me the opportunity to give you some links to some actual Civil War Reunion footage on You Tube.  

Fox & Geese by Carmen Maria

Two views of the 75th Anniversary of Gettysburg, one with Franklin Roosevelt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUd4txQ8X_g&feature=related

And footage from the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIJaxu3w4-U&feature=related

Little Blue Basket by Theresia B.

London Square by Australia Sue

Swatch Books at Moda

In the last post I wrote about my road trip

to Moda/United Notions headquarters in Dallas.

My major goal was to go through the antique swatch books

the design department has been collecting.

They've bought several books from various mills,

collections of samples printed, say in 1904.

Here's a book with swatches from the mid 1870s.

My French is rudimentary but I think the label says the book was bound in the textile city of Mulhouse in France.  

The books are full of numbered swatches, some related in color.

Others are related in print style.

Many would make excellent reproductions.

It's surprising to see these color combinations that don't fit into our idea of period fabric.

Some of the pages mix cotton prints with wool/silk combination prints in which you'd find brighter color.

This mid-century page looked like wool/cotton mixes (delaines)

I love the red stripe on green contrasted with the green stripe on red.

It's hard to believe these are mid-19th century colors.

Mint green and magenta.

Could that be in the infamous poison green?

Turkey red cottons with greens from overdyed blues and yellows.

Many of the pages contain sketches and paintings of the print rather than the prints themselves.

Can you see the very faint pencil lines covering the paper here? The artist has painted in a color idea for this print that looks like jewelry on top of seaweed.

This is an unfinished sketch for a paisley.

That's my pinky finger for scale.

These sketches are called croquis in French

(pronounced crow'-key)

The fashion industry has adopted that word for a painted design.

Here's a beauty--- a stripe with a daisy or marguerite--- from 1864

A foulard style floral from

April 1875

Wow!

I don't paint croquis for my fabrics.

I collect old swatches and scan them.

I find most of mine in quilt blocks and tops.

The swatch books are expensive. They can go for thousands at auctions.

You might ask your local art or history museum if they have any textile sample books.

Here's a page on German swatchbooks. Scroll down for pictures

http://www.heinrich-pestalozzi.de/de/dokumentation/einzelbeitraege/bruehlmeier_arthur/level3/war_pestalozzi_ein_ausbeuter/bilder/index.htm

We'll see what reproduction collections come out of my trip. From idea to print it usually takes over a year.

Twin Nine Patches

Twin Nine Patches

by Kathe Dougherty, Lawrence, Kansas 2010

Kathe took a package of Moda's 10" square Layer Cakes in the Arnold's Attic fabric collection and made this Nine-Patch Quilt.

The double nine-patch is made up of twin nine-patches. The twins are fraternal---not identical. They complement each other nicely to create a pattern in dark and light.

Fraternal twin sisters? about 1910

 Terry Thompson and I collect pictures of twins.

Our rules: if they are dressed alike and rougly the same size they are twins.

The pattern is on the Moda Bake Shop, Moda's website that provides all sorts of online recipes you can use with Moda Pre-cuts. Check it out by clicking here:

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/09/twin-nine-patches.html#more

Fraternal twin brothers and a big sister, about 1910

The blocks are Fraternal Twin A (lighter Nine-Patches in blues and greens) and Fraternal Twin B (darker Nine-Patches in oranges and browns). We were pleased to find you can get that contrast out of one Layer Cake Pre-Cut.

Bookmark that Moda Bakeshop. It's a great place for ideas and how-tos.
http://www.modabakeshop.com/

Ragtime

Ragtime by Georgann Eglinski, 2009.

Quilted by Lori Kukuk

Here are some pictures of Georgann's strip quilt that

she showed at the Kaw Valley Quilters Guild show in April.

Georgann has made several quilts in this pattern, a good combination of simple patchwork and fancy fabric.

She took her palette from a reproduction print line called Ragtime

that Terry Thompson and I did for Moda in 2005.

Ragtime reproduced some crazy prints from the ragtime era, the 1910s.

People sometimes have trouble believing these "black novelty prints" could be 100 years old.

(Not all reproduction fabrics are brown---see my last post)

These bright on black prints were very fashionable about 1910.

Above is a stereograph photo with a quilt top that was the inspiration for the Ragtime collection.

Vestibule or Morning Star

Susan Stiff at Moda did a digitized version of the old quilt top in the new fabric.

Here's a version I made of the Morning Star I made with the charm pack and some extra yardage.

We did a  little package called a Tin Box Sampler that featured a charm pack of small squares and a disk with patterns on it.

Here's an applique design from the Tin Box.

Your quilt shop might even have a few yards of the Ragtime reproduction left, or I bet you can still find Ragtime prints at your favorite online source. Just do a digital search for Ragtime Moda.

Centennial Prints

Every Civil War reproduction line needs a star print. My Civil War Home Front for Moda has this simple star that adds a patriotic accent in a several useful background colors.

Many of the stars in my antique fabric collection originated after the Civil War, which ended in 1865. A decade later the Centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence inspired a fair in Philadelphia and a plethora of patriotic prints. The theme in 1876 was a re-union of North and South under the Union flag and symbols such as the eagle and George Washington.

I've been collecting original and reproduction Centennial prints for years. It's a good collecting specialty because the originals are abundant and they've inspired several reproductions.

This print with an eagle and a portrait of Lafayette is a reproduction printed in 1876. The original was printed when Revolutionary hero Lafayette returned to America about 1825. I've never seen the original, or even a photo of the original, but historian Xenia Cord tells me she saw a piece in a quilt at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.

The document print (original) at the bottom has faded quite a bit. Above is a reproduction (more an interpetation) that Terry Thompson and I did for Climbing Jacob's Ladder for Moda in 2007. The musical notes are the tune to "Hail, Columbia"

In 2000 Judie Rothermel reproduced this print celebrating the Philadelphia Exposition in 1876. She changed the words to say "To the New Century."

A few years ago Terry Clothier Thompson did a collection of Centennial prints in red, white and blue for Moda called Libertyville.

Pat L. Nickols has a new RJR collection available soon called Waving Old Glory

She's reproduced the print in this child's dress from the Collection of the Smithsonian Institution.





Read about a quilt made of Centennial prints in the collection of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian by clicking here:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object.cfm?key=35&gkey=169&objkey=7222

You know designer fabric collections are available only for as short time but you may be able to find a few of the older pieces at your local quilt shop, or do an online search to find them.