The geometric designs and vintage fabrics of quilts have long captured my heart and eye. Inspired, I set out to make a letterpress quilt using antique metal ornaments and spacing material. I wanted to mimic fabric patterns as well as quilt patterns in the design. I proof printed ornaments in my studio, then digitized them to work on a layout in Adobe Illustrator. This helped me plan the sequence of print runs and type lockups. I used metal spacing material to print the quilt blocks by raising them to type high. I designed the quilt to use five different ink colors, hand-mixing several of the colors to get the exact hue I was looking for. Printing commenced in order from lightest to darkest color: yellow, orange, gold, purple and finally violet. Great care was taken to ensure colors aligned with one another as intended. A limited edition of 60 signed and numbered prints were made. Printed on a Vandercook SP15 on Crane Lettra Pearl White, 110lb.

Letterpress printing

Christy Nesja