Mini Satsuma

by Holly Clarke

  • Finished Size: 28" x 28"
  • Skill Level: Confident Beginner
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This quilt was inspired by the Modern Traditionalist practice of taking a time-honored quilt design and updating it with modern aesthetics to create a new design that feels fresh, but familiar. In this case, a traditional Irish Chain quilt layout was updated by substituting most of the squares with curved Orange Peel blocks. The name Satsuma is a subtle nod to the orange from which the curved block takes its name. Mini Satsuma, Holly’s cropped version of the upcoming Satsuma design, is a great way to try out a Modern Traditionalist design on a small scale.

Holly Clarke

About the Contributor

Holly Clarke is a graphic designer and modern quilter from Winnipeg, Canada. Holly has been sewing since the late ’90s when she studied fine arts and graphic design at the University of Manitoba.

Holly is inspired by the world around her, from shapes in nature and architecture, to bold visual graphics she sees in various pop culture media. Holly’s design aesthetic is heavily influenced by being a child of the ’80s; her parents’ home furnished with mid-century modern furniture, her mother’s love of Scandinavian textiles, her Sanrio toy collection, Saturday morning cartoons, Archie comics, and record album artwork.

Holly’s go-to color palette is bright and bold and usually includes hot pinks and sunny yellows. She loves to play with colors, seeing where a design can go with different effects such as transparency and contrast. She also enjoys pairing beautiful prints with coordinating solids to honor her love of prints while giving the eye a bit of a resting place with the solids.

Holly leans toward symmetry and balance in her designs, so she tends to design block-based quilts. She finds that during the piecing process it can be very rewarding to focus on one block at a time, knowing that it is a small part of the whole quilt. With every quilt that Holly designs, she challenges herself to try something new, whether it is with the overall quilt design, the fabrics she uses, a construction technique or the quilting process.

Find Holly on Instagram @holdmyseamripper and her website hollyclarkedesign.com.