Today I’m sharing the backstory and inspiration of my newest fabric collection, Riverbend.

August is just about here! That also means my newest fabric collection, Riverbend, starts shipping to stores! Be sure to ask your local quilt shop if they’ve ordered it! The collection is made up of my hand-drawn designs and is overprinted on Essex, Essex Yarn Dyed, and Essex Homespun! It’s 18 prints available in yardage! I hope you find them inspiring! NEW with this collection is a coordinating collection of my designs overprinted on Robert Kaufman’s own Big Sur canvas, it has a total of 8 designs. Yes, canvas!!!

It was pretty thrilling to be able to sew projects for this collection. Pulling together different fabric combinations between the two collections was so fun! I love that there are so many options! I’m so excited to show you all the projects I’ve made using the collections.

I sewed up all the samples myself late last year and photographed them in January in a very cool modern cabin in Northern Minnesota. It was so fun to try a new location and work with all that inspiration!

Design Inspiration

Inspiration for Riverbend came about while living at my sister-in-law’s house while our own house was finishing up being built. We spent a few months at her house and it really ended up being such a memorable time. We were able to be together and be a really close knit part of each other’s lives.

One of the best parts of living at her home was the amazing location, right on the La Crosse River. They have such a large riverfront property and that fall we really enjoyed being outdoors. It was so unlike living in town. Going down to the river in the mornings and afternoons with our dog, Frida was the best! They have quite a few little trails to walk through and lots of wildflowers of course! So Riverbend was the perfect name for this collection – a collection of nature witnessed on one of the many bends of the La Crosse River!

I’ll be sharing all of my projects (bags, quilts, garments and more!) using Riverbend over the next few weeks! For now you can find Riverbend starting to arrive at your local quilt shop.

I hope you’ll enjoy using Riverbend in your next project! Thank you so much for being along on this journey.

Hope you all are having a great summer so far (and winter for those in the Southern Hemisphere!). I finished up a personal project that I’ve been working on for a few months. It’s exciting to finally have it complete – and Irish Chain quilt in linen!

We moved about a year and a half ago and I of course have decorating that still needs to be done. I think in our last house, where we lived for 15 years, I finished decorating just before they took photos to list the house for sale. This time around I am determined to make progress a little more quickly!

I have a large blank wall on the back side of our mudroom area that needed something so it wasn’t so boring. I waffled back and forth on a few ideas, but didn’t commit until earlier this Spring. I made a wall quilt you guys! It’s the perfect project and I’m so happy with how it came together! I don’t make too many quilts, but always love them.

So the wall that it’s on is a little hallway of sorts and it opens up to a larger area coming from the laundry room. And of course the acoustics in there can be loud! The quilt I hope to soften a little of that noise – plus I love the way it looks.

Pattern Information

I chose an Irish Chain quilt after seeing some inspiration pictures. I wanted a very traditional quilt design – so the Irish Chain was perfect. I had purchased Celtic Crossing 2.0 by Lo & Behold earlier for another project. It ended up being the perfect starting point for me. It made things so easy just to follow her pattern. I flipped the colors to be the more traditional layout (with the chains being darker) and omitted the border pieces.

The fabrics I used were Kona Natural and Essex Yarn Dyed (which is a cotton/linen blend) in Flax. Two of my all-time favorites! I had Olive Juice Quilts (my local quilt shop) do the quilting. I love how it turned out.

Wall Hanger

Lastly, I purchased a custom textile wall hanger (from Well Made Chicago on Etsy). It is such a great design and was easy to install. I’m hoping to make another quilt so I can swap it out when I feel like it – maybe something with dark colors just for a change.

Project Details:

• Quilt Pattern: Celtic Crossing 2.0 by Lo & Behold Stitchery
• Fabrics used: Kona Natural with and Essex Yarn Dyed in Flax both by Robert Kaufman Fabrics
• Backing is Carolina Gingham in Sand – so soft, I highly recommend it for backings!
• Quilt wall hanger: this wall hanging frame (in Walnut with Antique Bronze screws) from Well Made Chicago (on Etsy)

I have some more pictures I took of the quilt on my bed, too just for fun.