Modern Marks was my first fabric line that I designed for the Contempo division of Benartex Fabrics. They released in September of 2017, and because Benartex reprints fabrics as long as they are selling, most of them are still available. Although I’m now promoting my second fabric line, Fandangle, (which ships to stores this month), I realized that I need to archive all of the Modern Marks prints in one place so that I can link back to them as needed.
Fat Quarter bundles of Modern Marks are available while supplies last.
Click here for Modern Marks Precuts.
Read my blog post about the fabric design process and fabric rejects.
Modern marks was inspired by many of the marks I like to make – whether by hand or machine. Several of them are based on machine quilting designs and they all incorporate graphic geometry which I love so much! I wanted them to work well when cut up into quilts and add a spark of color to any project.
Modern Marks
The main print comes in four colors: Red, Orange, Lime, and Turquoise
The namesake print is mashup of many of the coordinates, and even includes a few motifs which didn’t make the final cut of the collection. I’m definitely revisiting some of the shapes in future fabric lines as my goal is for all of my fabrics to work seamlessly between collections.
Half Ovals
Half Ovals comes in four colors: Dark Fuchsia, Orange, Light Turquoise and Teal
I knew I wanted to include a “dot” print in this line but wanted it to be more interesting than the standard polka dot. I also wanted to make sure that with this coordinate, it would cut up nicely no matter which way you rotated the print.
Herringbone
Herringbone comes in four colors: Red, Lime, Jade, and Navy
This print is one of the blenders in the line that’s based on one of my machine quilting designs – a simple zig-zag. The beauty of fabric design is that the lines don’t have to be continuous like my machine quilting is!
Boxes
Boxes comes in three colors: Light Blue, Cream/Lime, and Light Orange
Boxes is based on one of my favorite modern machine quilting motifs of the same name. The quilting design is a continuous/allover design, but I wanted the print to not be so obvious that it was a quilting design, so the squares are less dense than the quilting design with just a few of them overlapping. These fabrics also read a little lighter so that they can provide contrast to the darker, bolder prints.
Crossmarks
Crossmarks comes in five colors: Pink, Gold, Green, Turquoise and Jade.
This is the simplest print of the bunch but very effective. It serves as the blender, basic, or tone-one-tone of the group.
Quirky Triangles
Quirky Triangles comes in three colors: Pink/Orange, Green/Blue, and Navy/Blue
I knew I wanted to include a triangle print but something a little more unexpected than the usual tossed triangles. Adding a pop of color emphasizes the asymmetry and irregularity of the print which I really like.
Crosshatch
Crosshatch comes in three colors: Tangerine, Light Lime, and Royal
Crosshatch is another basic/blender print. Adding the random pops of filled in squares gives it a little more quirkiness and originality to your basic crosshatch/plaid design.
The full Modern Marks line includes the 26 prints I designed above, plus 5 coordinating Color Weave basics in Cobalt Blue, Fuchsia, Citrus, Kelly Green, and Electric Blue.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane for my first collection. Click here to see current list of shops that carry my fabric and feel free to email me if you know of a store that carries it that’s not on the list. I’ll be glad to add them!
