Introducing the Concho Collection: A Little Bit of the West in Fabric

Sometimes a collection starts with a carefully thought-out plan.

And sometimes you start drawing, follow an idea down a rabbit hole, and suddenly realize you have a fabric collection.

Welcome to the Concho Collection.

This collection grew from my love of the colors, textures and ornamentation of the American West—turquoise jewelry, silver conchos, worn leather and those wonderful colors you see when you look across a Western landscape.

As a quilter, I also knew I didn't want to design just one pretty print.

I wanted to create a collection that I would actually want to make a quilt with.

That meant thinking about the whole quilt: a focal fabric, medium-scale prints, small coordinates, plaids, stripes and those wonderfully useful little blenders that help everything else work together.

And somewhere along the way, one Concho collection became three.

Prairie Concho

Prairie is the warm, comfortable side of the collection.

Parchment, cranberry and prairie greens give this colorway a softer, more traditional Western feeling. The main Western Prairie Concho print is joined by a plaid, stripe, dots, small blooms and my little Prairie Cactus Rose.

There is something about this group that makes me think of an old ranch house, a favorite quilt and miles of open country outside the window.

Midnight Concho

And then we turned out the lights.

Midnight Concho combines black and charcoal with turquoise and warm leather tones, and it completely changed the personality of the original design.

This is the bold one.

The Western Midnight Concho is supported by Rancho Plaid, stripes, dots and several smaller floral coordinates. I especially love the way that bright turquoise jumps against the darker backgrounds.

It feels Western without becoming themed—and that was very important to me when I designed it.

Twilight Concho

Then came the surprise.

Smokey plum wasn't necessarily where I expected this collection to go, but once I saw those concho motifs against that rich plum background, there was no turning back.

Twilight combines smoky plum, turquoise and soft gray with stripes, plaid, rosettes and tiny dots. It's softer than Midnight and a little more unexpected than Prairie.

I think it has one boot in the West and the other somewhere rather elegant.

And I love that about it.

Designed by a Quilter, for Quilters

One thing you'll probably notice about my fabric collections is that I think about them from a quilter's point of view.

I've been quilting for a very long time, and when I'm looking at a collection, I'm already mentally cutting it apart.

What happens when this print becomes a 2½-inch strip?

Will that little floral still read when it's cut into a small square?

Do I have somewhere for the eye to rest?

Is there enough contrast?

Can I bind the quilt with that stripe?

That last one is very important. 😂

Those questions are part of my design process because ultimately I want these fabrics to be used. I want them cut apart, sewn back together, quilted, washed, loved and lived with.

And Now Comes the Fun Part

The Prairie, Midnight and Twilight Concho Collections are now available through Spoonflower, and seeing all of these designs together after working on them individually is pretty darn exciting.

There are more ideas rattling around in the design department—usually at about 3 a.m.—but for the moment, I'm going to enjoy seeing these three collections standing together.

I hope you'll enjoy them too.

And now I have a question for you:

Which one are you?

🌾 Prairie
🌙 Midnight
💜 Twilight

I'd love to hear which collection you would choose—and even better, what you would make with it.

Happy quilting!

Karen
Sister of The Divide
Designed by Karen Meyer