Designing this fabric collection turned out to be my personal great escape during the isolating quarantine. Relying on the design strategies that are the heartbeats of my quilts—symmetry and serendipity laced with abundant color—triggered lots of “what if” questions leading to imaginative patterns. It is my heartfelt wish that this smaller-than-usual collection of versatile fabrics entices quilters of every level to create beautiful patchwork.
The title was conceived when I thought I heard Twyla Tharp say -- in the American Masters documentary “Twyla Moves” -- that she starts every new choreography by finding the heartscape of the dance. Wow, I thought, what an imaginative phrase. Is it a technical term? After rewinding I realized Ms. Tharp actually used the word heartbeat.
Finding the heartbeat of a new fabric collection during quarantine meant a sharp pivot for a Luddite like me. Because I don’t have the correct software or printer at home, I’ve taken the subway downtown for over twenty years to work in the Benartex studio for a few months. In early 2021, coping meant relying on ZOOM. It seemed practicable to start with a found resource, like a pattern from a previous collection, and alter it with another form to create something new. Trust me, teasing out motifs and tweaking colors until all the elements collage into a coherent, seamless vignette always takes longer than expected.
BTW, I asked myself so many “what if” questions during the design process, I considered naming the whole collection What If—maybe next time.
So here we are. With the help of lots of clever people at Benartex and the mill, my hypothetical musings became a small collection with Red/Multi and Blue/Multi colorways for four of the patterns. The 5th design called Stripe-A-Holic has three combinations (Red, Blue, Black/White).
The Heartscapes Panel (13142) and Medley (13143) are filled with lively kaleidoscopic mandalas. Using the agile, graceful lines of Scribbles (from the PATTERNISTA collection), triangular, mirror-imaged versions of openwork lace were created and superimposed onto favorite kaleidoscopes from previous collections. Colorful elements of the original kaleidoscope peek through the lace layer.
My original intent was to keep the lattice white but when that effect wasn’t very spirited and lively, I saturated the zigs and zags with bright colors...once again honing my mantra: when it comes to color, more is MORE!
The Panel is a tidy 24” repeat with 10” scopes neatly laid out in evenly spaced rows and 4” baby scopes along both selvages. Please note, the Red and Blue vrsions do not have identical kaleidoscopes. Crammed with a gazillion colors, Medley fills the 24” x 43” expanse with extraordinary scopes, each seen only once in the repeat.
I asked my friend, Daniel Hauben, a Bronx artist known for his pastel and oil cityscapes and landscapes, for permission to play with his color-rich bouquets of flowers. Eventually SECRET GARDEN (13144) grew. Danny’s magical twigs and buds tangle under an intricate labyrinth of symmetrical motifs. REPEAT 5” x 5.5” https://danielhauben.com/
You can trust a Curly Girl to conjure up a fabric named CURLICUE (13146). I’ve brought a lifetime of practical whorl knowledge to this pattern overflowing with fabulous collisions of color. REPEAT 7” x 10”
A great stripe rounds out this eclectic collection of multitalented fabrics. The variety of light and shadowed bands in STRIPE-A-HOLIC ( 13145) provides visual texture. Use stripes to automatically slide the eye from here to there, instilling a welcome element of motion. Remember, there is more than one way to strip a strip. The effects are completely different if you cut parallel or perpendicular (or even diagonal) to the selvage. There are 3 colorways, Black (12), Turquoise/Multi (82) and Red/Multi (71). REPEAT 12” x 43”
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