DESIGNING PART II

Good Morning,
    We have been busy working on the next phase of the new collection. This will be a Spring line for 2013, that is how far we must work ahead so that there is time for the printing process.  Now that we have our ideas formulated and the color pallet finalized it's time to put the ideas on paper. 
     Our cameras are our constant companion. We are always on the look out for anything that catches our eye. Pictures we find or take ourselves are great references to help make our designs come to life.

We first start our designs in black and white. We are constantly adjusting them, changing their scale size and configurations over and over until we feel it is exactly right. With our hi-tech copy machine we can change a print in percentage from original 100% all the way down to 25% to see what looks best. The other picture below, we have tried lots of different versions of the same print. We will select the one that we like the best.

Because of the nature of this line we actually went out to the pond to use some of the elements we found to get the look and feel we wanted.

These may be used within a larger print or just as a separate print itself. We will sketch them and see what works with what we already have started. Watch for part III

Until next time, Eileen & Lynn

DESIGNING NEW COLLECTIONS PART I

 We are always on the lookout for new subject matter, it could be on a road trip spotting something in nature or just sitting in my dining room and discovering we like the look of a center piece on my table. It reminded us of the sun shining on the different grasses and reeds on the pond behind my house. We loved the look and feel of it. It was like we were both on the same page in that minute and the creativity started to flow from there. We try to include something live from nature in every line we do,  and that is where all of your comments came into play. We listened to what some of the things were that you liked best in our previous lines. From those comments we came up with what we wanted the line to look like and what we wanted to use for subject matter. ( But we can't divulge to much. Moda likes to keep secrets until the lines are shown by the reps. at Market.)

  Next we start working on a color pallet. We have files of every line we have ever done, so we check back threw a lot of those to see what colors we have used in the past, looking for the most successful ones you have chosen to use in your quilts. For this line we are selecting some colors that are a little different. It could be just a little more blue tone to a purple or a slightly more yellow tone to green.We have also found color pallets we love in the fashion magazines and just changed them to fit our North woods designs. Over the years we have collected hundreds paint chips from designer paint studios. They are really helpful when we are putting the pallet together but it actually comes down to mixing our paints to exactly what we want. 

These are the colors we will start with. There is also a beautiful soft brown .

Time to start mixing and testing it on paper in a few designs.

Watch for part II in the coming weeks. Let us know your comments on whether or not you enjoy hearing about designing.

Until next time,  Eileen & Lynn