Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr are the creative powerhouse behind Modern Quilt Studio, a design studio in Oak Park, Illinois. Bill and Weeks are pioneers of the Modern Quilt Movement, having written the first book on Modern Quilting.

Here is their take on 2023 fabric design trends, inspiration, and the events they are looking forward to.

Color of the year 

In our 2023 lines, it’s not so much a single color that we’re focusing on but rather an overall saturation and value. We’re looking for hues that are both strong but soft and hopeful. More robust than pastels but a bit calmer than neon. We try to design timeless palettes that will still look fresh ten years from now but aren’t a remix of things we’ve done before.

Trending fabric print

For us, the trend is all about moving away from theme/focus prints and more towards interesting combinations of prints without any single print being the “main” print. This allows more versatility in the line and allows for an ensemble feel to the collection as opposed to a star print with all of the other prints less dynamic. In our Delight line, we’re excited about the combination of the prints working together as opposed to a single print.

Delight Fabric collection by Modern Quilt Studio, shipping June 2023

New sewing tool you must have 

We love the Good Measure rulers and templates we designed for Brewer and use them daily.

Skill you’d like to learn/improve this year

In 2022 we began learning drone photography to be able to show our quilts in unexpected and new ways. We do a Come Fly with Us Friday feature on Instagram and Facebook that features drone photos of our quilts in a variety of environments. We’re hoping to add more videos, including drone videos, on our YouTube channel as well in 2023.

Inspiration for 2023

Our focus has always been designing inspiration and education. We plan events, design fabrics, publish periodicals and make quilts that, we hope, will help someone gain new skills, expand their “go-to” palette and help them grow as quilters. So, our inspiration is always listening to our customers and seeing their responses to our fabrics, patterns, and classes. In 2023, we hope to use our fabric lines and tutorials to help people make quilts that they didn’t know they had the skill to produce. We titled our Spring 2023 line Delight because that’s what we hope to offer quilters all year long.

Event you look forward to in 2023 

Starting at midnight on New Year’s Eve, we’ll be hosting an international, online, 6-week Modern Mystery 2023 Quilt Along. We’ve designed a fabulous quilt that will be unlike any quilt the participants have ever made. We’ll be providing YouTube tutorials along the way to make sure everyone has the skills to complete the quilt. The mystery will be a secret online, in case anyone decides to join while the mystery is in progress, until March when we’ll invite everyone who’s completed their quilts to post their versions of the pattern on social media on the same day. It’s going to be a blast! And we already have a few tricks up our sleeves for 2024.

 

Stay up to date with Modern Quilt Studio in 2023!

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