Some places are lovely to visit.
And some places apparently have absolutely no intention of letting you leave them behind.
Rome was one of those places for me.
I went there last spring, expecting a beautiful city, wonderful food, a lot of history and probably rather too much espresso. I totally fell in love with this city. I came home with all of that — and, without quite knowing it yet, with a fabric collection.
Dolce Roma is my love letter to Rome.
Not the postcard version of Rome. Not a collection of obvious Italian symbols lined up neatly on fabric.
I wanted to capture what the city felt like.
The warmth. The faded colors. The noise of a little café. Old plaster glowing in the afternoon sun. A Moka pot in a kitchen. Ancient stone sitting quite happily next to very contemporary Italian design.
And yes. There may have been gelato involved.
That little three-minute film probably tells the story more quickly than I ever could in words. But if you'd like to know how all those Roman moments found their way onto fabric, come along.
From Roman Moments to Fabric
When I design a collection, inspiration doesn't necessarily arrive as a neat little thought saying, This would make an excellent fabric print.
Wouldn't that be convenient?
Instead, I notice things.
In Rome, I kept looking at the façades.
Not the perfectly restored ones, necessarily. I loved the buildings where layers of color and plaster had aged together — terracotta beside dusty pink, warm ochre, chalky white, weathered stone.
There was history everywhere. Sometimes very old history. You can stand beside something built nearly two thousand years ago and then turn a corner and find beautifully modern Italian design.
And somehow, neither feels out of place.
Then there were the everyday things.
Espresso cups lined up on a counter. The little Moka pot that seems to belong naturally in an Italian kitchen. Pasta curling across a plate. Street life. Signs. Shadows. Colors.
Those details eventually became prints.
But I didn't want Dolce Roma to look as though I had simply made a list titled Things You Find in Italy and drawn them onto fabric.
I wanted the prints to feel as though they had been collected from the city.
That distinction became important to me.
Because inspiration isn't always about the object you're looking at. Sometimes it's the atmosphere around it that you want to keep.
And Rome gave me plenty of that.
One City. Two Completely Different Moods.
Very early in the design process, I realized that my Rome didn't have just one color story.
It had two.
Rome on a Hot Summer Afternoon
Imagine walking through Rome when the afternoon air is hot and the sun is bouncing off those wonderful old façades.
Everything seems warm.
Terracotta. Red. Ochre. Dusty pink. White.
And then, just when you think you may actually melt into the pavement, a little cool blue sneaks in.
Or, even better, raspberry gelato.
That became the first half of Dolce Roma.
It's sunny and warm without being loud. The colors have that slightly faded, sun-soaked quality I loved so much in the city.
But here's the thing.
Rome isn't always sunny.
I know. Very inconsiderate of it.
Rome on a Rainy Day
I saw quite a bit of rain while I was there, too.
And suddenly Rome was an entirely different city.
The sky became heavy. The streets reflected the buildings. Colors that had looked warm and glowing in the sunshine became deeper and quieter.
Stone. Dusty blue. Sage. Weathered green.
Almost autumnal.
But I didn't want this second palette to wander off and become somewhere else entirely. So that unmistakable Roman orange still glows through it.
Same city.
Same collection.
Completely different mood.
And I think Dolce Roma became much more interesting because I allowed both experiences to belong.
A collection doesn't always have to tell one perfectly coordinated story. Sometimes the contrast is the story.
And Then, of Course, I Had to Make Quilts
Twenty-four prints are lovely.
But I'm a quilt designer. Eventually I need to know what happens when we cut them up. 😉
And this is where Dolce Roma really came alive for me.
These three new patterns interpret the collection in quite different ways.
And that's one of my favorite moments in developing a fabric line: seeing how much personality was hiding inside those little swatches once they become a full quilt.
Suddenly the collection isn't 24 prints anymore.
It's possibility.
Meet Whisp — the Quiet Supporting Cast
After all that espresso, spaghetti, Roman architecture and dramatic weather, perhaps we need a little quiet.
Enter Whisp.
Whisp began as my blender collection, and for this release I've added twelve new colors designed to coordinate with Dolce Roma.
Whisp has a very subtle texture and no strong stylistic or directional motif. I like to think of it almost as a solid that decided being completely solid was just a little too boring.
It gives you quiet without giving you flatness.
And the new colors were chosen very deliberately.
Some sit beautifully beside the warm, sun-soaked Dolce Roma palette. Others move into those cooler, rainier shades of blue, sage, stone and green.
So you can combine the two collections naturally.
But Whisp doesn't need Dolce Roma to justify its existence.
It can quite happily take center stage itself.
When the Colors Do the Talking
For the two new Whisp quilts, I went in a much quieter direction.
They're graphic. Modern. Calm.
There isn't a print shouting, Look at me! Instead, the shapes and colors get to do the work.
And that gives me two very different tools in the same fabric world.
Dolce Roma brings the story. Whisp gives it room to breathe.
Use them separately, or put them together.
Expressive prints plus quiet texture.
That combination opens up an enormous amount of room to play.
Your Own Version of Rome
It's funny where a journey can end up.
Mine began with a plane ticket to Rome.
Then came photographs, colors, sketches, memories, fabric samples and eventually quilts.
And next May, that journey continues into quilt shops.
Dolce Roma and the twelve new Whisp colors are coming in May 2027.
This is still an early preview — we're not quite at the point where you can rush out and fill your sewing room with Rome.
But you can watch the showcase video, decide whether you're a hot-summer-afternoon Rome person or a rainy-day Rome person, and save your favorites for later.
And if Dolce Roma has already made you crave fabric — or possibly raspberry gelato — tell your local quilt shop.
They'll know what to do. 😉