
** Quilt Modern Curves & Bold Stripes **
My friends Heather Black and Daisy Aschehoug have a wonderful new collaboration book out called "Quilt, Modern Curves and Bold Stripe".. and I love it! I've been drawn to their work for it's wonderful designs and fearless use of curves. I was so happy they agreed to an interview to tell you about their books!
I have a few 'behind the scenes' photos to show you below.. it's fun to see how things come together!

- When you decided to write this book together, how did you come up with what it would be about?
There was no question that the quilts would have curves. That’s the design element both of us use the most, but we wanted to challenge ourselves to pair curves with something else. We were having this conversation just after QuiltCon 2018 where both of us had award winning quilts in the Use of Negative Space Category (Heather 1st, Daisy 3rd).
Those quilts used curves and stripes, and we got excited to dive deeper into that theme!

- Since you live in two different countries, Heather in the US and Daisy in Norway, did you design together with skype, photos being sent, or did you actually work independently once you had an outline for the book?
We worked on our designs independently, but we often checked in with each other whenever we wanted feedback on colors and composition. Sometimes we’d message a digital mockup with a quick question. Sometimes we’d use FaceTime just to check in with each other. Other times we would use Zoom to meet and discuss our designs as a whole and whether each design supported the theme of stripes and curves. Using Zoom allowed us to share computer screens, and this was particularly helpful once we had a group of designs to curate from for our table of contents.
INSIDER TIP: Heather took her quilts on a trip to Alaska to do the binding! Can you pick them out of the stack?
- What was the most challenging quilt in the book for you to do
Daisy: I thought Patio Lights would be the most challenging because of the placement of the curves within the strip sets, but that ended up being fairly straightforward. Dancing Cups required a good bit of trial and error to get the half circles to alternate in a way that both matched my vision and could be easily explained in pattern instructions.
Heather: Even though it looks simple and have a fair amount of negative space Aurora was probably my most difficult make. The circles and stripes didn't line up exactly so it took some careful planning and quilt math. It was also difficult to match the binding to the piecing. After quilting the stripes had decreased in width and the scrap pieces weren't the right size anymore so I had to go back through and correct for that shrinkage before I could complete the binding.
Article continues below this Ad
- Does one quilt have a story that didn't make it into the book?
When Daisy was trying to name Rouched, She asked Heather for ideas. Heather told Daisy to talk to her a little bit about what she saw in the design. Daisy told Heather the original intent was to create a bit of a smocked or rouched effect with the stripes, anchored by some alternating curves in the middle. But Daisy realized her final result looked kind of like a contorted spine with straight ribs jutting away from the center. Heather then suggested the title: “Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress.” They decided their editors might not be so keen on that and kept Rouched.
Yes! We HAVE met in person! We first met at QuiltCon 2018, again in 2019, and we’ll see each other this year in Austin at QuiltCon 2020. We had also messaged through Instagram before meeting in person when Daisy and her family were thinking of moving to Pullman, Washington, a college town less than 2 hours south of Heather's hometown, Spokane. In the end Daisy and her family ended up moving to Norway.