Happy Quilt Blocks
I now have a stack of happy beautiful quilt blocks! Holding them in my hands feels like holding my novel in my hands, only even more electric. I love color and pattern and I love an abundance of color and print. In many ways these Dismal fabrics are the illustrations from my Dismal novels, only they are illustrations in fabric.
Reds and Pinks
I started my color story in the red designs from my 1951 plot line. These fabrics feature energetic retro inspired line work. I like to feature barbed wire inspired lines and rope inspired lines and hearts.
The Y2K woman in me has a soft spot for heart shapes. And the historic ranch in the Dismal novels is called the Heart Seven and later the brand transitions to the heart and the less than sign, the heartless.
The first novel in my This Is Dismal series is called The Heartless Ranch Is Haunted. Thus the little hearts in the retro inspired line work. These lines feel very clean and contemporary in their high energy kinetic restraint.
These red retro western fabrics represent the characters from that generation of the Hart family saga. Specifically the red fabrics have to do with the character Joe Hart. They are brave, optimistic and full of hope, representing a very kind soul.
From the red color story I moved slightly into my pink color story and then rapidly into my orange. I like pink but I like orange even more.
Pink and Orange
In this quilt block layout you can see the pink fabrics at the core of the design. The one with black arrow work represents the soul journey of Emmy Donahue. The white line work has the nice barbed wire barbs at the corners and when you look closely the white is slightly transparent. I love the subtlety of the color story within this fabric, black and white, hot pink and raspberry and ocher or mustard gold. The hot pink is very Y2K woman, like Emmy and the raspberry cross outline really sings as brings complexity to the character. The design to me represents how Emmy’s personal journey through New Mexico to Nebraska mirrors the stories of the historic and also how her character arc is about connecting the present and the past.
Also in the core you see another hot pink fabric with white line work. This is a very different vibe that ties our modern timeline to our vintage timeline. The white lines are solid and more abstract floral than arrow or barbed wire but still connected to our retro line work. Then the mauve abstract flower behind the white lines ties back to Emmy’s experience in moving into an abandoned house and specifically the decomposing wallpaper.
The soft coral orange fabric with the light robin’s egg blue and dark taupe abstract cross shapes and lighter taupe soft looping line work has to do with Emmy’s desert journey through New Mexico. Then the black and yellow and orange fabric is the kitchen linoleum in the abandoned house she arrives at in the novel The Heartless Ranch Is Haunted.
Pink Orange And Yellow
The light pink fabric in the corners is the fabric that represents the Ivory character’s youth. I think of it as a western take on the cottage garden aesthetic. I see barbed wire inspired line work taken to a narrower more brambly place and also roses and other blooms.
The light soft coral orange fabric in the outside corners features soft yellow barbed wire lines and turquoise geometric shapes and burgundy arrows and white barbs and pale icy blue barbs. For me this fabric is about the rich cultural experience in seeing New Mexico through Nebraskan eyes. This fabric is so easy to love and it represents the experience of characters in both my modern timeline and my historic timeline.
The coral orange and baby blue and late summer yellow abstract geometric floral is part of the Dismal Y2K collection and has to do with how the story feels through my Emmy and Phoebe characters as Y2K era women. The yellow and soft orange fabric in the core of the quilt block is a softer take on the vintage linoleum inside the abandoned house in the first book.
These fabrics are all available to shop through my Dismal Spoonflower store front.
Shop Bunny Hammond’s Spoonflower Shop Here (it opens in a new tab)
View the gallery below to see the fabrics in a variety of scenarios (including as wallpaper and gift wrap or tissue paper suitable for decoupage projects.) Click through to see the design on that product in more detail. Even if you are only in the market for quilting cotton I feel like these mockups help one get a better sense of the artwork and design.
These are images I generated using AI to further explore the qualities and the natures of the designs by interpreting them into spaces. In some ways they bring to visual life the many things I see and feel when I hold these fabrics.
