What is ZEN CHIC INSPIRED?

Zen Chic Inspired is a new book, my first book, a guide for modern quilters. I connect the dots between Interior design and quilting by guiding you how to derive a quilt idea from a room, to be more exact: from that room which is the quilt's destination.
The book gives you 12 project examples with clear instructions to make your own version of the idea.
But it also gives you design-tips to develop an own idea.

For whom is ZEN CHIC INSPIRED?

The book is for the modern quilter, for the one who loves colorful, simple and minimalist quilts, unique quilts with an artistic approach. It has projects from beginner to advanced level, with piecing and appliqué techniques.

It is also for the quilter who aims to improve their quilt design skills and gives you some tips and exercises.

ZEN CHIC INSPIRED will make me a better modern Quilter? Really?

That's a statement, which needs a proof, I would say! And I think you can judge yourself. But first, I have to tell you the behind-the-scenes story...

It all started with a party...

My new book and reference examples dropped in and that was a perfect time to invite all my quilt buddies who helped with sewing the tops for the book quilts. We celebrated, had champagne and strolled through the new copies, we giggled, laughed and had a really good time. I showed a bit about my design process, a kind of a slide show, which I had prepared for Quiltcon.

This is my design process,

the little slide show, which shows how I go from a room and a given scenario and find colors and design elements, which lead in the end to my final idea (enlarge it to full size to be able to read about the process):

And all of a sudden my buddy Christine had a brilliant idea:

She said: "Let's come up with a little challenge: We all start by a picture of a room. We all will have that same room as our resource. And then we will derive ideas out of this scenario. We will create a color palette, find design elements and sketch a quilt idea. We could even sew a little project. Wouldn't this be really fun to see in the end all the different results from just one inspiration."

Actually - why didn't I came up with such a brillant idea...(haha)

Of course, this would be totally awesome. I found a great interior picture the next day,

Photo von Houseology Interiors, flickr

I sent it out and the girls got started. This blog post series is about how everyone of them found her own perfect idea and you will be surprised and astonished as I was seeing, with what different ideas they came up.

The first quilt idea in the series

is from Karin Korff. Here are all her steps: She developed her color scheme, she found design elements and finally

Tataa - this is Karin's finished quilt top. What do you say?

The color scheme matches perfectly the room, where this quilt is designed for. The light and freshness of the room finds its equivalent in the mostly light background of the blocks. And the half circle is a reflection of all the rounded shapes she saw in the lamps. Right now the quilt top is a square, approximately lap-size. Karin says, she will add some more blocks to make it a twin-size bed-quilt for a friend.
I love it! And it is something she created just because of that photo, without any quilt pattern. Well done!

Thank you, Karin, for your contribution and your pictures!

What do you think?

Do you think the book, the philosophy and the idea to derive colors and design elements from a room was helpful for Karin's design process?

Here is what she says:

"Hat Spaß gemacht! Und macht Mut ! Außerdem bin ich jetzt bei Stoffkäufen vorsichtiger" means translated: "This was a lot of fun, and it was encouraging. And it made me more careful with my fabric choices".

Moda Bella Solids Designer Select

Did you know, that Moda is coming up with a new product: a fat quarter bundle of 12 assorted solids in the very popular high fiber quality Moda is known for.

What is the special thing about those 12 colors in one bundle?

A DESIGNER (hear me say that magic word) has curated the color scheme. And, you know, it is always good to relay on a person experienced with and educated in color! You might ask “which designer” and the answer is: a whole couple of, maybe your favorite one.

Seven Moda designers started to curate their special bundle, a bundle that reflects those 12 colors, which coordinate best with their style.

You are a fan of Fig Tree? Welcome to a bundle of vanilla cream, strawberry red and olive green plus more of her well-known colors.

Bonnie and Camille are your heroes? Good news – you can now have the Bella Solids in fresh aqua, tomato red, pink, pistachio green, white and more in one bundle. 

You will also find bundles of Sweetwater, V&Co., Me & My Sister, Kate Spain and Zen Chic (yes, that’s me).

Some of the above designers keep their color scheme very consistent through all their collections, other change their colors from collection to collection and their style is consistent in their graphics for example.

I am one of the second group, changing my color scheme frequently. So when to decide which colors are typically Zen Chic I went with some, you will find very often in my ideas, like Zen Grey, Graphite, bleached white, orange, apple green. But I also thought of what is currently in stores (FOR YOU and FLOW, HEY DOT will come) and what would blend in well with hot trends. So I added pink, aquas, and a light salmon, deep burgundy.

(Ok, I have to be honest: I could create four or five more different assortments, just for the fun of it, and still find reasons, why those are typically Zen Chic, haha). Tataa, here is the Zen Chic Bella Designer Select.

Zen Chic Bella Designer Select

And there are more good news: Some of the designers who curated their bundle developed a pattern to feature it. And the cool thing is: you can use each bundle with each designer’s pattern, since all are based of 12 Fat Quarters of a different color.

Now here comes my pattern. It’s a free download

You can download your free pattern here

The settings are very versatile, and this it how it looks,

Or will it look like this? You choose J 

You have a lot of setting options with this pattern.

I hope you enjoy this gorgeous new product as much as I do!

Color choices for the modern quilter

Now if something is powerful – then fire for sure is. Or better said, something which is able to go out a fire.

Akshaj Mahajan captured this power in his colorful shot. This is a modern color scheme and a powerful one! Look at the little splash of turqouise on the fire extinguisher! It’s the perfect cool color to balance all the hot ones.

Wenn irgendetwas kraftvoll ist, dann sicher Feuer. Man könnte auch sagen, etwas, das die Kraft hat, Feuer zu löschen. Akshaj Mahajan hat diese power in seinem farbkräftigen Foto eingefangen. Dies ist auf jeden Fall ein modernes Farbschema, und ein starkes noch dazu! Ist dir der kleine türkise Farbfleck auf dem Feuerlöscher aufgefallen? Das ist genau das bisschen kühle Farbe, das die ganzen warmen Töne ausbalancieren hilft.

Color choices for the modern quilter

Clay Ratcliff made this shot from a door in a back alley in Malaysia and he comments “Some towns seem to have taken the meme of painting everything in nice colors very seriously. I wonder how these things get started. I assume, like other things, a few well-connected neighbors in conspicuous places start painting their homes with interesting colors, and then it spreads on its own.”

And although he gave his picture a kind of vintage touch I liked the vibrant tones and made a color scheme for us modern quilters out of it.

Clay Ratcliff machte diese Aufnahme von einer Hintertür in einer kleinen Seitengasse in Südmalaysia. Er kommentiert sein Bild mit den Worten “Manche Städte scheinen die landestypische Art, alles mit hübschen Farben anzumalen, sehr ernst zu nehmen. Ich frage mich, wer wohl damit angefangen hat. Ich nehme an, ein paar gutbefreundete Nachbarn haben sich heimlich verschworen, ihre Häuschen mit interessanten Farben zu streichen, und das zog dann seine Kreise…”

Und obwohl er seinem Foto absichtlich einen etwas “gealterten” look gab, mochte ich diese leuchtenden Farben so gerne, dass ich gerade für uns moderne Quilter ein Farbschema daraus abgeleitet habe.

Color choices for the modern quilter

 Source unknown

Look at this shopping window, the fine-dotted circle you can see is built from lots and lots of corks from different shades and colors. The blue in the background reminded me of the casual blue of jeans. This is my color scheme

Der Kreis, der die Deko in diesem Schaufenster ausmacht, wurde aus lauter Korken in verschiedensten Blauschattierungen zusammengesetzt. Das Taubenblau hat mich sofort angesprochen und mich zum heutigen Farbschema inspiriert.

Color choices for the modern quilter

Rust, deep red, black, layers of color, metal – this picture has power, has passion and so should the color scheme have too.

Foto von Paco Calvino via flickr

Rostrot, satte Töne, schwarz, Schichten von Farben, Metall – dieses Foto strahlt Kraft und Leidenschaft aus. Und das Farbschema sollte es ebenfalls.

Color choices for the modern quilter

It’s quite a while ago I posted something in my weekly series ;-)
Time to catch up and continue the inspiration. While in former times I posted color, fabric choices and patterns deriving from another which was way of giving a guide but also very time-consuming I had to consider this idea.

For now I’ll post some inspirational color schemes here on my blog, but give you my ideas for modern fabrics and modern quilt patterns twice a year by all the fabrics and patterns I create for the real quilting live ;-) You’ll find them either on my website or on Moda’s news.

This week’s inspirational image spoke to me for it’s light and sunny mood and for the color proportions:

picture courtesy of jana lauren photography

I loved this nearly white background with its gradient from light blue to light sunny beige. And than little “splashes” of colorful lift cabins.

Wouldn’t that make a great quilt? All kind of shadows of nearly white and little colorful snippets inserted? Here is my color scheme, I varied my grid a bit to take the color proportions in account.

Es ist schon eine ganze Zeit her, seit ich etwas zu dieser wöchentlichen Blogserie geschrieben habe. Es wird Zeit, wieder anzuschließen und neue Inspirationen zu zeigen. Bislang habe ich hier jeweils ein zusammengehöriges Konzept aus Farbschema, Stoffauswahl und Quiltmuster Schritt für Schritt entwickelt. Eine Art von Anleitung, wie man von A nach B kommen könnte – allerdings auch eine sehr zeitaufwändige Sache. Deshalb musste ich diese Idee jetzt neu überdenken und ich werde in Zukunft weiter Inspirationen für Farbschemata hier in dieser Serie posten.

Was jedoch die Stoffe und Muster für die modernen Quilter betrifft: die bekommt ihr von mir jetzt zwei mal im Jahr ganz real für’s echte Quilterleben. Ihr könnt sie dann jeweils entweder auf meiner Website oder bei den Moda news finden.

Das Bild dieser Woche sprach mich wegen der leichten, heiteren und sonnigen Farbstimmung und seinen Proportionen an: Ich mag diesen beinahe weißen Hintergrund mit seinem Verlauf von zartem Blau zu sonnig hellem beige. Und dann die Liftkörbe als witzige Farbtupfer in leuchtenden Tönen.
Das gäbe bestimmt einen tollen Quilt ab: Stoffe, die nur in kleinen Weißabweichungen schattieren, und davon die Menge. Dazwischen kleine Schnipsel von knallbunten Drucken. Mein Farbraster habe ich diesemal extra entsprechend variiert, um der Farbgewichtung gerecht zu werden.

Color choices for the modern quilter

Hey, what about blue? We haven’t had blue for a while and I love the shade of blue of the sky on a sunny day. I mean this kind of blue, which is captured by a photo of a truck.

photo by Monica Arellano-Ongpin

It is this jeansy blue, the one we love on summer dresses or swimsuits or dishes.

Do you own something in this color what you really love? What is it?

Wie wäre es mit einem schönen Blau? Blau ist als Farbpalette in dieser Serie schon eine ganze Weile her und ich mag besonders das Blau des Himmels an einem sonnigen Tag. Ich meine das Blau, das hier auf dem Foto von einem Truck eingefangen wurde.

Es ist eine Art Jeansblau, was man gerne in Sommerkleidern trägt oder Badesachen oder Geschirr.

Hast du irgendeinen Lieblingsgegenstand in dieser Farbe? Was ist es?

Color choices for the modern quilter

Dreaming in pastel soft tones recently I’m now in the hunger for something really powerful.

And whooaamm – here they come. Bright as bright can be.

Foto by Ricardo Mendonça Ferreira

Isn’t that a piece of cake to pick out colors for a color scheme. I mean you can just count nine different colors: orange, yellow, turquoise, green, black, white, grey, brown and dark blue.

 

This makes a powerful palette for a modern quilt. It will all be about finding the right amount of each color…

Neulich noch habe ich in Pastelltönen geschwelgt, aber jetzt steht mir der Sinn nach etwas richtig knackigem.

Und wumms, hier ist das Foto, leuchtender können Farben fast nicht sein. In diesem Fall ist es wirklich supereinfach ein Farbschema abzuleiten, man kann die neun Farben sofort abzählen: orange, gelb türkis, grün, schwarz, weiß, grau, braun und dunkelblau.

Wenn das keine lebendige Palette für einen modernen Quilt ist. Das Geheimnis wird sein, die richtige Menge der jeweiligen Farben miteinander zu kombinieren.

Color choices for the modern quilter

The last color scheme here reminded me of  someone male, mid aged, well-off, distinguished, smart, cigar-smoking, maybe a Wallstreet broker?
But kind of reserved, not believing in love, way of lone at heart. Disappointed? Withdrawn.

Who could get under his skin, touch him, win his confidence?

Innocence. Gentleness. Playful sensitiveness. Unintentionally.

Here it is. No more words.

 

Das letzte Farbschema auf meinem Blog lässt vor meinem inneren Auge ein Bild erscheinen von jemand sagen wir männlich, mittleres Alter, gut situiert, vornehm, clever, zigarrerauchend, vielleicht ein Börsenbroker.
Doch auch irgendwie distanziert, misstrauisch gegenüber der Liebe – enttäuscht? Verschlossen.

Wer oder was könnte dieser Verschlossenheit unter die Haut gehen, wirklich berührend sein?

Unschuld. Sanftmut. Feinsinnigkeit. Absichtslosigkeit.
Wie in diesem Foto.

Color choices for the modern quilter

Usually you find this post on Tuesday, but this time Tuesday was a busy day. I’ll tell you more about later.

About my inspiration – isn’t it that you can find sometimes beauty in even ugly things if you focus on some aspects? I think concerning color you can find wonderful inspiration in broken, rusty or damaged items like in this facade of a city building (I had such a damaged beauty once some posts ago).

Wow, what a richness of shades in grey or rust and a bit of petrol spices it all up.

photo by Susanne Koch, Norway, via flickr

Maybe this is a more masculine palette, but we sew for men too, don’t we?

Any suggestions for a pattern or fabrics? I’d love your ideas.

Normalerweise erscheint diese Postserie Dienstags auf meinem Blog, aber dieser Dienstag ließ mir keine Zeit – davon erzähle ich noch später.

Zu meiner Inspirationsquelle – ist es nicht so, dass man manchmal gerade in hässlichen Dingen eine gewisse Schönheit entdecken kann, je nachdem wie man die Dinge betrachtet? Ich denke, was Farbe betrifft, ist es so. In vielen kaputten, abgeblätterten, oder alten Dingen findet man oft wunderbare Farbschemen wie in dieser alten Stadtfassade (ich hatte ein ähnliches Beispiel schon mal in einem vergangenen Post).

Was für ein Reichtum an Schattierungen in Grau und Rost, aufgepeppt mit ein bisschen Petrol als Kontrast. Dies mag vielleicht eher eine maskuline Palette sein, aber wir nähen ja schließlich auch für Männer.

Hast du vielleicht irgendwelche Vorschläge für Stoff- oder Musterauswahl? Ideen sind herzlich willkommen.

Now to the thing which took my time on Tuesday – it’s yummy, smells well and sweet and it’s called “Pudding” here.

Looks like this.

My mum loves preparing meals and so I gave her for her birthday a day in the interesting “Dr. Oetker world” (a company located in the town I live. I don’t know if you have ever heard about this company which delivers worldwide baking supplies and pizzas. In Germany it’s a huge well-known factory. The company’s bestselling product are puddings and you can get a cup of hot, sweet pudding from this pudding machine above).

What else do you see visiting the “Dr. Oetker world” – a remodeled old brick-building with a new modern facade from glass

You get "treasures from the company archives" on a nostalgic journey through time

can pick um some recipes

and see what they do to get their quality products with very high standards.

As part of the event you’re guest of their “test kitchen” where they show you how to make some wonderful meals using the products and let you try the results.

 

It’s interesting and worth a visit – so if you’re ever near my town, don’t miss it (you have to book it a half year forward, they are overbooked).

So- und jetzt dazu, weswegen ich Dienstag gar keine Zeit hatte. Ein leckerer, wohlriechender und süßer Anlass:
Meine Mutter macht gerne leckere Mahlzeiten, und so habe ich ihr zum Geburtstag einen Besuch in der Dr. Oetker Welt geschenkt: Der historische Backsteinbau, renoviert mit einer modernen Glasfassade hat als Herz einen Riesenvanillepudding: Eine Maschine, die auf Knopfdruck heißen Pudding liefert. Ein Rundgang durch die Firmengeschichte mit alten Produktionsgeräten und einer Zeitreise durch die verschiedenen Fernsehwerbungen, Beispiele der Qualitätskontrollen, Rezeptwiese zum “Pflücken” neuer Ideen und manches mehr ist unterhaltsam und informativ und wird von einer Führung bestens erklärt. Im mehr kulinarischen Teil der Dr. Oetker Welt erhält man dann in der Versuchsküche Demos über Rezepte und Anwendung von Produkten mit entsprechender Verköstigung.

Das alles macht einem Lust und Laune, so dass man immer wieder im Publikum hört “das probier ich gleich morgen mal aus” und die Besucher anschließend auch gerne noch ein bisschen in dem sehr günstigen Produktlädchen shoppen.

Insgesamt eine empfehlenswerte Sache, wer Lust dazu hat, sollte sich allerdings mindestens ein halbes Jahr vorher darum bemühen, denn die Termine sind vollkommen überbucht.

Color choices for the modern quilter

My last color choice was more decent, way of cool – so my today’s color scheme demands for something vibrant, warm.

If you wonder what that flickr photo might be about -

found from cobalt123 via flickr

it’s a macro shot of a lot of nursery bedding pots in the hothouse  ready for the next season of early planting. Would you have guessed?

Cool, huh? Well, I mean hot, or warm, or kind of cozy although it could also be rusty steel, something like that.

So, now my color palette

I just can help but thinking of a crackling open fire, me in front of it, reading an exciting book.

What do you imagine seeing those colors? What inspirations do they give to you?

Mein letztes Farbschema war dezent und etwas kühl, deshalb war mir  dieses mal auf jeden Fall nach etwas Warmem, Farben mit Ausstrahlung. Falls du dich wunderst, was auf das auf dem Foto (bei Flickr gefunden) sein soll – es sind zusammengestapelte Blumentöpfe in einem Gewächshaus, die auf die neue Pflanzsaison warten. Cool, oder?

Nein, ich meine eigentlich eher warm, heiß, und auch irgendwie gemütlich. Die Farben könnten auch von einem Stahlrohr mit Rost sein oder so etwas ähnlichem.

Bei diesen Farben steigt in mir sofort ein inneres Bild von einem prasselnden Kaminfeuer auf, ich sitze (nein chille sagt man ja heute) davor, und lese ein spannendes Buch.

Was denkst du bei diesen Farben, welche Bilder oder Inspirationen verbindest du mit diesem rot?

Someone drew my attention in the last comments to the fatquartershop competition explained at quokka quilts and yes – I do my fabric selection for this nice activity. That means you can get all the fabrics I’ve chosen in only one shop, at fatquartershop.

Why not go there and try your own version?

See mine

 
Die Stoffe, die ich diesesmal ausgesucht habe, kann man allesamt in einem Shop bekommen, bei Fatquartershop.

Color choices for the modern quilter

If you know a bit about me you’ll may have recognized that I’m not so much in the vintage or shabby chic style, although I think there are wonderful examples of it I really like. It’s just that the style in which I grew is more clean or modern or somewhat like this. But nevertheless I pick up some vintage looking inspirations here and there and today this picture is the source for my color scheme, just pretending to develop a quilt for this entrance.

 photo via interiorsbystudiom

Obviously the theme is black and white, but surrounded by a pale naturals palette: tan, leafy, duck egg.

Any lettered fabrics would be great to tune in the black and white character of the scene. Will see what I can find.

Do you know any fabric stores online specialized in lettered (or Japanese) fabrics? Any recommendations?

Falls du mich inzwischen etwas kennst, könntest du bemerkt haben, dass ich nicht so sehr im Vintage oder Shabby Chic Style beheimatet bin, obwohl es viele tolle Beispiele gibt, die mir gefallen. Es ist eher so, dass ich eben mehr in den modern, clean Style reingewachsen bin. Nichtsdestoweniger picke ich mal hier und da Ideen aus dem Vintagestyle auf, die mich inspirieren, wie hier z. B. das Foto eines Flurs für ein Farbschema – einfach mal so zum Spaß, als gäbe es einen Quilt für diesen Platz zu entwickeln.

Ganz offensichtlich ist das Thema hier schwarz-weiß, eingebettet in eine sanfte gefärbte Umgebung aus Naturfarben wie sand, blattgrün oder enteneierblau.

Stoffe mit Schriftdrucken, wie Zeitungsausschnitte könnten gut zu diesem Thema passen.

Kennst du irgendwelche Onlineshops, die ein gutes Angebot an Buchstabenstoffen oder auch japanischen Drucken haben, irgendein Tipp?

Color choices for the modern quilter

We didn’t have green so far, did we? So time for a green color scheme.
Hey wouldn’t you like to have this kind of bags and boxes? No, not this mass of baggage to carry, but this delicious color which would you let easily find all your suitcases among the boring brown, black, grey whatever luggage at the airport conveyor belt?

image credit: Anya Hindmarch

The last few days had been very busy. Do you know the feeling when you look inside a mirror and are wondering why the face you see seems so much older than the heart you feel inside? Do they really belong together?
I mostly feel young at heart, sometimes even silly like a young girl. There are so many ideas, and yes still dreams living in my mind that life could last twice as many years as so far. Only my mirror speaks other words and my identity card makes clear that most years of my life are over now – calculated statistically and realistically –  a couple of days ago I celebrated my 50th birthday!

Oh I was spoiled, my sweetheart surprised my by 50 roses and a weekend trip, my family had funny ideas to give me memories of the past fifty years of my life, my children made an amazing book for me: They collected pages of personal memories and words written by each meaningful person of my life: My brother shared memories of our childhood which I had nearly forgotten, my sister listed all the moments we had to burst out in laughing when we were together.  We had a really great day together!

And it is good to take such a day to look back on your life’s journey: To see what you’ve been going through, your struggles, but most of all what you have gotten and all the blessings.

When I look back on my life’s journey there is something I’d like to pass on you: never ever give up on your dreams!

Some know about my life that I took studies in design as a young girl, but because I was a rebel and had a fight with my professor I left without a diploma. For many years I took care for my children by earning a regular income in an office. I was about 48 years when I quitted a quite secure job to go for my dreams.

During all these years my daughter saw me as a designer (just a short time distracted in an office job for some practical reasons) and encouraged me by saying: “Well, Mum, nice fabrics you bought for your shop, and I’m sure one day you will have your own fabric line to sell in your shelves” - “This quilt you made looks beautiful and I’m curious how much more awesome your quilts will look when you’ll eventually use your own fabric line”.

She even surprised me one day when I came home from the office with a room of our house remodeled as a design studio for me.

Well, it took it’s time,  but it’s never too late to make your dreams come true (unless you dream to become the Olympic gold medalist in the javelin).
So dear one, if you are just in the years to build up your life or at the age of looking back on many years – hold on your dreams cause they're precious having and don't let anyone ever steal them from you. Remember, that life is what you choose, follow your dreams and do what you love to do.

Tell me about your dreams! What would you like to do one day?

Wir hatten bislang noch kein grünes Farbschema, oder? Dann wird es jetzt Zeit!

Hey, würdest du nicht gerne solche Taschen und Kisten haben? Nein, ich mein natürlich nicht diese Massen an Gepäck zu schleppen, sondern mehr die außerordentliche Farbe, die einen einen solchen Koffer sehr leicht unter all den langweiligen braunen, schwarzen und grauen auf dem Flughafenförderband finden ließe.

I link this post to W.I.P. Wendsday @ freshly pieced