I reached out to McKenna Ryan, aka my new best friend (girl crush wishful thinking), and asked for a bit of insight into her latest collection for Hoffman California Fabrics, Best Loved: Recreating the Past, Designing the Future. She was inspiring, so of course I had to share!
“Every quilt I design begins the same way: on paper. I sketch until I understand the composition, until the structure feels right and I know what I’m trying to build. But the design doesn’t truly come to life until I move to my fabric table. That’s where everything begins to come together. Fabrics are laid out, shifted, layered, as color and texture slowly form a story.
In the early years of Pine Needles, my design company, I discovered Hoffman California Fabrics’ beautiful batiks and fell in love. Their batiks became the foundation of so many of my early quilt designs, and I still love and rely on them today. However, as I grew as a quilt pattern designer, I began searching for fabrics that could bring my nature-inspired designs to life beyond batiks, but what I needed didn’t really exist at that time. I was looking for subtle gradations, depth and various textures; the kinds of fabrics that could create dimensional wildlife like bears, moose, eagles and deer, as well as other elements and textures of nature. I wanted soft ombres that would make fur feel alive and dimensional, sky-tree-water prints for landscapes of pine forests and mountain lakes in all seasons, and the bark, aspens, ferns and fish textures that would enable me to create my layered appliques.
I realized that to fully express what I was envisioning, I would need to create my own print lines with the textures I’d been longing to find. That realization began a treasured partnership with Hoffman California Fabrics, as I developed collections such as At Home in the Woods, Silent Inspirations and Painted Forest. These fabrics became my signature palette, and helped me “paint” the stories in some of my most meaningful work. And while I love creating new collections and exploring new directions, there are certain textures I always return to; the ones that feel essential, which is what led to my Best Loved collection.
Best Loved is a gathering of the fabrics I’ve used the most, trusted the most and loved the longest, all brought together into a cohesive collection. Not just as individual prints, but as a working foundation for creating. They are also the fabrics customers have loved most and have asked for over and over.
When I began pulling the Best Loved fabrics together, something clicked. I could see how they all connected—not just to each other, but to the quilts they helped me create, such as Dog Park and Wind in the Whiskers and Calling Me Home. Those quilts hold meaning not just for me, but also for so many quilters. For years, I’ve been asked if my Calling Me Home quilt could be recreated exactly as it was originally designed. With my Best Loved collection, that is finally possible.
But it isn’t only about looking back, it’s also about moving forward. From these same beloved fabrics came something entirely new: Among the Birches. This design carries the same language, those nature-based textures that have defined my work, but expresses them in a fresh, new way. But in many ways, Among the Birches could not exist without everything that came before it, which is also what makes my Best Loved collection so meaningful to me.
Best Loved isn’t just a fabric collection; it’s a bridge. A bridge between quilts like Calling Me Home, which carry years of memory and connection, and new designs like Among the Birches, which reflect where my work is going. The same palette is used to tell both stories, to recreate the past, and to design the future. And to me, that’s what gives the work continuity over time. Not repeating what came before but building from something that continues to evolve. Because the things that matter to me most, story, texture, nature and connection, don’t really go out of style, they just deepen over time. And they continue to find their way into new work.”
But wait, there’s more! Don’t miss out on the new McKenna Ryan Look Book, featuring her latest collections and project inspiration. Most are in stores now, so be sure to check with your local quilt shop.
Until next time, Karen