Luxurious Retro Modern Quilt Gem
Custom Queen size retro modern quilt
I was so excited to make this custom queen size quilt for a customer who seems to share my aesthetic, and even had a great name for our shared vibe: retro futurism. Think of the Jetsons’ vision of what the future (now) would look like. Living in the sky, among the stars, but still communicating on phones with cords and rotary dials.
To achieve our retro futuristic quilt, we went with a tonal mid-century color palette with bold pops of fiery red. We used a deep teal celestial secondary feature fabric with metallic accents to allude to space-age travel among the stars. We chose a pattern of mine called Society for its plentiful opportunities to fussy cut interesting images from fabric that were personally meaningful to the customer.
Below, the final digital mock-up for her quilt on the left and the final product on the right. Full of warmth and whimsy, it pops with personality.
playful and timeless fabrics in Mid-century color palette
Luckily, our style is also shared by fabric designer Melody Miller, so I was able to use a lot of her fabric collections, including the recent Stay Gold, to create this stunner. I had to source a few extra prints in order to incorporate the customer’s request for red cowboy boots, disco balls, and gemstones.
The Stay Gold panel had dozens of larger images that fit the bill so perfectly and were just the right size to be featured in the center of these quilt blocks. These prints don’t just stay gold, they shimmer, they strut, they roll, and they bring that perfect touch of nostalgia-meets-modern fun.
The color story here is vintage mid-century pop. We have warm tonal shades in caramel, sepia, bubble gum pink, orchid, and cream, with bold pops of mustard yellow, turquoise and teal, coral and fiery red. The palette is straight out of a sunken living room, minus the avocado green shag carpet.
The Society Quilt pattern: a perfect match for Retro energy
The Society quilt pattern is one of my own, based on the annoyingly named ‘Contrary Wife’ (cue eye roll) quilt block. With flashy points surrounding both a large square and four smaller squares, each block is like a little mod vignette, or a scrapbook of Kodachrome snapshots.
Each print gets a moment to shine in this pattern, and together they tell a story that feels cohesive, personal, and in this case, totally fab. It was an outstanding way to showcase all the significant and personally meaningful details that the customer was hoping to reflect.
Even once we had settled on the perfect quilt pattern, there were still so many decisions to be made. We went through several possible iterations before the customer found the right fit.
In the end, we went with a shell colored Spark background from Ruby Star Society, and the teal-navy Cosmos print from Sarah Watts for the secondary background color. Together they projected the right Jetsons appeal that was both nostalgic and fresh, rooted on Earth, but with its eyes on the stars.
adding meaningful quilt details
Incorporating gemstones into the quilt became a fun challenge and gave me an opportunity to piece a few gemstone blocks to give some texture and dimension to the quilt. I used the book Gemology, by Andrea Tsang Jackson for a couple of those gems, and the emoji-style diamond was a free tutorial from Quilt Cakes.
This customer wanted some personally meaningful symbols represented in her quilt and this was a really unique way to do that. It adds texture, visual interest, and personal significance in a way that just printing it digitally on the fabric would not have accomplished. Nobody else in the world will have a quilt quite like it.
While I don’t know the significance of all of the details to this customer, I can think of so many ways these gemstone details could add meaning to quilts. Precious gemstone jewelry and birthstones often become family heirlooms just like quilts do because of the stories they carry, and the important events to which they bear witness.
Staying Gold with luxurious finishing touches
Because of the deep teal (not quite navy) metallic gold celestial print on the front, this special new quilt owner chose a complementary print for the back; it is a larger scale print, slightly lighter color, and made of cotton sateen for a luxe feel and light weight that will work well in both winter and summer.
I usually use bamboo blend batting for a lightweight feel and gorgeous drape, and this was no exception. I quilted a grid of straight lines in shell-colored cotton thread on either side of the main seams, so that the main images in each block were uninterrupted.
I always forget how truly large and unwieldy a queen-sized quilt is until I’m trying to get good photos of it. My kids tried to assist me in the process of taking an outdoor quilt photo, but to little avail. We had a good time wrestling with it in the breeze though.
I finally managed to get a good shot of it indoors, which really showed off the soft retro color palette. An abundance of warm colors and sepia-tones. I used a cat to show the scale, standard practice in the quilting industry.
The little personalized details really make this quilt sparkle. See if you can spot them all:
rollerskates
disco balls
red birds
Viewmaster reels
corded rotary phone
diamonds
cowboy boots
There is so much to see, it’s hard to stop looking at it, and I hope the customer feels the same way. The retro details bring the fun, and the metallic gold sparkle brings the glamour. It is a gorgeous example of how quilting can be both nostalgic and forward-looking, both art and play. It holds your stories and your dreams.
Retro Mod Quilt decor styling ideas
This quilt IS a decor styling idea; it is sure to define the character of any room it’s in. But, I also just love imagining quilts in their natural habitats. You can check out my Pinterest boards for similar stylish room ideas and more. This quilt belongs with these other vintage artifacts and stylish furnishings in these beautiful spaces.
This quilt was completely bespoke and therefore unavailable for purchase, but I hope you’re inspired to create your own custom quilt. If you need help making your quilt vision happen, let me know.
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