Capri fabric collection

My Capri fabric collection has finally started to arrive in quilt shops worldwide!

There has been some shipping delays caused by pandemic, so the collection is a bit late, but just in time for spring!

Beautiful forsythia flowers are in full bloom, just like during the same period 2 years ago when I originally painted them. It was the beginning of the pandemic, so I remember that I suddenly had a lot of time to paint, as we were forced to stay at home, during major lockdown.

I started to paint in watercolors, dreaming about the Amalfi coast getaway and Italy vacation, knowing that it will not be that easy to travel and see our Italian family any time soon again. 

So I had to make a print that would represent beautiful and so authentic cities and colorful houses among the Amalfi coast and nearest, Capri island. It was a bit challenging to put it in repeat, but I somehow managed to do it.

I was enchanted with all the phots of the beautiful streets and corners of the Capri island and I am so glad I did a toile version with all these blue inked drawings.

Unfortunately, that print is available only in rayon, but it's a perfect substrate for this lovey print that with added lemons became even more unique.

Of course there are 16 prints in premium quilting cotton, great choices for both quilting and wardrobe making.

I also created this file with matching AGF pure solids, so that it can be convenient for quilt making. 

O course, there are more solids that can be matched with the prints, like pistachio and mint greens, but I tried to narrow down the choices to mainly blues, pinks and yellows.  

I hope that you will enjoy using this collection and that it will instantly take you to this beautiful part of Italy!

I can't wait to show all the beautiful projects that many makers have created for the AGF look book coming March 18th.

xx

Katarina

Twenty fabric collection

 

And finally, it's time to introduce you to my newest fabric collection with Art Gallery Fabrics called Twenty. 

When I start designing a collection, I always think about the story, or theme behind it. With this collection it was a bit different, as this was my 20th collection with Art Gallery fabrics and my idea was to gather a group of prints that would work nicely together as a group, but also individually, for different kinds of projects. So the only theme or story was cohesiveness and unified color story. I wanted to cover almost all the elements and principles of art from color, line, shape, form, value, texture, and space. So my aim was to have contrasting prints, but also very harmonious ones, to provide balance, variety, movement and rhythm, with a kind of minimalistic, almost basic designs, that would provide importance to the whole, to the collection as entity.

I was so inspired with this collection, as it has 20 designs printed on quilting cotton-that I created 2 new quilt patterns: Vibrato and Kelim. 

While I was making Vibrato quilt, my friend Barbara Opett created throw version of my Kelim pattern.

AGF created another amazing look book that contains many beautiful projects from different makers and I hope that you may find your favorite project to make.

xx

Katarina

GRID fabric collection

My newest collection, Grid is finally out and I couldn't be happier with it! It's a great addition to my PhD project and I can't wait to use it the way I imagined ;) Hopefully will be able to show something soon....

But let me tell you a bit more about the concept I had in mind for this collection...
Numerous social and technological changes throughout the twentieth century, led to new researches and experimentations, interlacing and reviewing basic concepts in art, and the art itself. With implementation of the media in the arts, especially at the beginning of the second part of the twentieth century, there started to appear new artistic practices and movements, some as a revolt on the traditional way of seeing and understanding art, some as bunt on aestheticized, spectacle reality, and some as an attempt to bring art to a zero point, to review and clear art of any narrative and discourse, in order to widen the field of perception and give space to originality, in accordance with the changed social and cultural conditions.  

One of the most important visual art structures, which largely defines the art of XX and XXI century is certainly a grid, that within the contemporary art in the era of multiculturalism and globalization, introduced a new reality and inaugurated some of the most important movements of the twentieth century, including minimalism, pop art and op-art. 

Modern grid, as appeared in the works of artists of the twentieth century, owes much to the history of textiles, especially in the field of tapestries, carpets and quilts. *The grid and its contemporary manifestation, the matrix, continue to influence the work of artists, especially contemporary artists that weave or use concepts of weaving in their work. It is quite possible that computer programming evolved from the art of hand weaving, the first known binary code being warp and weft. The formal advantage of a digital Jacquard loom is that because of the ability of the software to assist the weaver in realizing much more complicated designs it is possible to embed more irregular structures into the cloth as well as symbols and images the artist chooses to include. These choices can vary from super abstract or simple structures and shapes to actual reproductions of photographs in textile form. Although a weaving emerges from the grid, part of the way cloth rebels against the idea of a dependable structure is its inherent ephemeral quality. 

Ideas like the matrix and the grid are used to name not only the un-imaginable reaches of space but also the unseen interiors of our own bodies. The grid and the matrix continue to be viable starting points for contemporary artists to explore the possibilities these structures hold to imagine the visible and the invisible and the connection between body and mind.  

In modern life, the grid is everywhere. Butterfly scales form the most beautiful and unique grid, the streets of cities create the most famous urban grid in the world, while we follow our digital media through small pixelated display network.  

*Partly taken from: 

The grid, weaving, body and mind 

I am so proud of the free quilt pattern-Megapixel quilt that also can be found in the beautiful look book created by AGF team.

I particularly enjoyed making this beautiful tunic dress with rayon for my youngest daughter.
I certainly hope that this collection may inspire you to create too!!

xx
Katarina

Mediterraneo

It's been a while since updating or posting here, but I suppose it's better later than ever;)
My current collection with Art Gallery Fabrics was out in late April and it's called Mediterraneo.
The first image is the Soleil quilt, that is a free pattern, that can be downloaded HERE



Inspired with childhood memories and summers spent in some places along the Mediterranean coast, this collection takes you to the beautiful journey spiced with typical Mediterranean fruits and flowers, in shades of navy, magenta and hints of tangerine. It has two color groups: Maddalena gateway and Marrakesh escape.

 Here are two original watercolor paintings that were used for my favourite Frutteria print.

 

 

I created the Bows quilt pattern featuring this fabrics and it can be found HERE

For more projects and inspirational images and ideas, feel free to browse through the Look book.



Happy sewing,
Katarina

Lavish

Let me tell you a bit more about my freshly released fabric collection: Lavish.
The official AGF description describes it as: Watercolor brushstrokes and an appreciation of the nearby flora, come together in beautiful colors inspired by the subject itself. Opulent, overflowing petals, stems, buds, and hidden berries make up this flower scented collection and release a fresh and fragrant aroma to delight the eye.

If you happen to follow me here for a longer time (can't believe that I started this blog more than 8 years ago), you might know that we have a weekend house in the nearby mountains of Fruska gora.
It's our little getaway place where my parents almost decided to completely move to and where the nature can be enjoyed and explored in full. It's the place where I am planning to make my studio one day, hopefully soon.


Indelible from Katarina Roccella on Vimeo.


NORDIKA Fabric Collection by Jeni Baker from Art Gallery Fabrics on Vimeo.

My Indelible video was filmed there, and also the video that I filmed for Jeni's Nordika collection.
So, all the flowers, berries and grass from this collection is seen, photographed and painted there.

Let me show you more of my photos that served me to put this collection of mainly floral prints together.

This is my mom's garden. It's a beautiful mix of wild flowers and those planted. My mom loves to plant flowers and her garden always looks amazing, especially in summer when it’s full of chamomiles, daffodils, cosmos, lush poppies and other small wild flowers. The garden's look changes from spring to late summer, but it is always full of colours and shapes to be admired and to be inspired with.
Hens, the print: MOTHER'S GARDEN.

It took a lot of time to put this print together, but I think it's as far the favourite print of mine.

It has a sentimental and artistic value to me. It somehow gathers the feelings, the colors, the shapes. I can hardly wait to see it in use.

Another cute ditsy print in work ;) I think it can work as a nice coordinate print.
I hope that you got the idea. Can't wait for the look book to be out next week with many beautiful creations featuring this line.

Have a great weekend,
xx, Katarina