In late 2024 I participated in a quilting event associated with the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild. The ask was to create a house themed quilt that would be shown during a homes tour in Kansas City. One of those homes was of Mid-Century Modern design. When I was searching for inspiration, I came across a pattern called “Clerestory”, by textile artist Debbie Grifka. I found it in Fons and Porter’s Love of Quilting magazine in May/June 2016. She also published a book in 2016 called Lines By Design Quilts that contains this pattern. I knew instantly that this was the quilt I wanted to make for the event!
Growing up, my parents sometimes took us to the Johnson County Museum after my brother’s soccer games. The museum has visiting exhibits (sometimes quilt related) but ALSO had a 1950’s All Electric House that you can tour, complete with, you guessed it, Clerestory windows!! I bet you will start noticing them in other buildings now!
I certainly did not know the name of that feature until I made this quilt! The museum and house has moved since I was a child to the Arts and Heritage Center. That building used to be King Louie West, another architectural icon from the 1960’s. I have so many memories of ice skating and bowling there with family and friends! Maybe you have been there on election day? The museum is fun place to visit to learn more about the history of Johnson County.
For my quilt, I pulled prints from Basic Mixologie by Studio M – 2015 and coordinating solids for the houses. The backing is from a more recent collection by Cloud 9 Fabrics, “March Balloons Frank Lloyd Wright”, in Brown. The quilting design is by Kim Diamond, Sweet Dreams Quilt Studio. One interesting feature about the construction is that the base of the houses are pieced and the roof is appliqued. I used the raw edge applique technique with Pellon 805 Wonder-Under® (paper backed fusible web). Did I go too low volume?
After you check out more of Debbie Grifka’s work head over to the Johnson County Museum and check out all of the fun built in features of the all electric house!
HAPPY QUILTING!