From Laurie Simpson of Minick & Simpson... Summer can be short-lived in Michigan and, therefore, it's all the more treasured.  Lake breezes and water views for miles inspire me to capture the feeling of it.  I hope they inspire you too.

Northport, Michigan is yet another wonderful town on our beautiful Great Lakes. It's a waterfront community north of Grand Traverse Bay on the northern edge of Lake Michigan dating back to the 1850s.

I am thrilled that the Northport collection includes prints and wovens incorporating some of my favorite elements - flowers and ditsy prints mix with stripes and plaids.

The colors are shades of soft red, white and cream, and a variety of blues. I could sew with these fabrics all day - and I do!

With all these pieces, getting the scrappy look I love is easily done. (These fabrics also mix beautifully with past collections.)

This is Leo - it is a pieced and appliquéd quilt. If you think appliqué isn't your "thing", this quilt is a good starting point as the appliqué elements can be stitched by hand or machine.

The circle flowers and vines are made so that the edges are already turned under and all that's left is to stitch the pieces to the background. The vines are made with a bias maker, and the circle flowers use Karen Kay Buckley's Circle Templates.

The pieced blocks in the center are strip-pieced so they're made in a snap. Really.

There are four new mini quilts in two new patterns - Live Your Life and Forest Fete. (Each pattern has two different designs.)

This is the Eiffel block from Live Your Life - it measures 20" x 20" finished size.

This is the Deer from Forest Fete. It also measures 20" x 20" finished size.

These four mini quilts can be made individually as wall-hangings, table-toppers or pillows, or they can be put with the two mini quilts from Our Best Friends to make a full-size quilt.

All six mini quilts are made with machine strip-piecing. The appliqué is simple and can be done by hand or machine. There is a bit of embroidery for embellishment.

Strip-piecing is also used to make the nine-patches and four-patches for Seaside.

Seaside will be offered as a boxed kit from Moda or as a pattern. Use Northport pre-cuts for the entire quilt, or mix them with scraps from older collections. This is my favorite kind of scrappy quilt, it looks and feels like an antique reproduction.

Mixing wovens and prints is my way of making quilts look like our beloved antiques.  Wovens in particcular are ageless, and in the light colorations in Northport, they mix well with contemporary fabrics. I am often asked about using the different textures together and my experience is that they mix beautifully. They also launder without issue.

That's Northport, the fabrics and my quilts. The collection will ship in September 2019.

For the Moda Fabrics PDF for Northport by Minick & Simpson.

Enjoy the summer.

Laurie

Be sure to ask your Moda Sales Professional about the Northport collection. 

All quilt images used with permission of Laurie Simpson – All Rights Reserved.