Painter's Palette Solids in action: Lighthouse Steps

We've been adding to our Painter's Palette Solids collection! Later this week we'll be announcing the new colors here on the blog, but today we wanted to share a new pattern by designer Kate Colleran of Seams Like a Dream. The pattern uses our Bayshore Snack Pack, a carefully curated selection of Painter's Palette Solids colors. 

"Lighthouse Steps" by Kate Colleran

Fun, isn't it?!

Our "Bayshore" Snack Pack of Painter's Palette Solids

We asked Kate to tell us about her Lighthouse Steps pattern.

Q. What appealed to you about the colors in the Bayshore palette?

KC: What I really liked about the Bayshore Snack Pack was the feel the entire group of strips gave me. The name was so appropriate- it reminded me of the beaches back in New England. I thought of the coast of Maine, the shore on the Cape…

Q. Why do you like working with precut strips?

KC: I love putting fabrics together. But for many people, it can hard and stressful. So what I really like about precuts is that someone has done the hard work of putting colors and fabrics together. And the fabric is already cut into useable pieces. Though of course, in this quilt, we cut those strips up!

Q. How did this design idea come about?

KC: Most of my designs evolve. Usually the first few aren’t all that great. But as I play, they change and get better! This was a design I had started without a specific fabric line in mind. But I always knew it was going to use strips. I was just playing around with the strips, using different size pieces. Originally the strips were going to be more random in each row but as I played, I realized the strength in the columns of color.

Q. What prompted you to add the navy section to the quilt?

KC: The quilt would have been fine with just the gradation of colors. And I love white backgrounds. They are just so fresh and clean feeling. But I realized that if I wanted to use some of the lighter strips, I needed a different background. So that section of light strips with the cadet blue background does three things: it breaks up the long line of the quilt, it gives the eye a place to rest and it allows us to use, and see, some of the lighter strips.

Q. What do you like best about this quilt?

KC: The overall movement. I love the straight lines of the design in contrast to the wavy lines of the quilting. Gives a feeling of movement. Waves. The quilting almost makes the quilt look like it is not straight!

Q. Where did the quilt name come from?

KC: The name came from, again, the beach. I sense a theme! I was standing back, looking at the design as a whole and I could see the outline of a lighthouse. Obviously, not a literal outline, but it reminded me of one. And the blue section made me think of the part of a lighthouse just before the top. And I thought about all the steps to the top and each color became a step up the lighthouse. Of course, had I used the other strip pack, New England, with it’s fall colors, I think I might have thought it looked more like a totem pole!

Q.  Is there anything else you’d like our blog readers to know about the quilt?

KC: I pieced this quilt in rows; one color at a time. It worked best for me that way. It helped me to be able to keep all the pieces straight. But it could also be done in sections. Whatever works for you. Play around with the the piecing, play around with the colors, just have fun with it.

Thanks Kate! 

You can purchase the Lighthouse Steps pattern from Kate's website.

Find the Lighthouse Steps pattern here.

Find the entire collection of Painter's Palette Solids (including our new colors, which we'll officially announce here later this week!) here and ask for them at your local quilt shop.