Working With Bella Bella Quilts By Norah Mcmeeking
Norah McMeeking designed the Bella Bella collection for Moda Fabrics as a coastal-inspired fabric line reflecting the Pacific Northwest coastline near where she lives. The collection launched around 2021 and includes both printed fabrics and a matching Moda Mix bundle. It's not a special technique or software tool — it's a fabric collection, which means everything you need to know revolves around working with those specific prints in a quilt project. The collection sits in Moda's standard retail distribution. You can find it at local quilt shops, and it's available through online retailers like Fat Quarter Shop, Moore Quilts, and directly from Moda's dealer locator. There isn't an official "download link" because you're not downloading anything — you're purchasing fabric. If someone is selling a digital pattern or file under this name, treat it with skepticism. The authentic collection is physical fabric. The color palette runs predominantly through deep teals, ocean blues, sandy neutrals, and touches of coral and cream. The prints include coastal motifs, botanical elements, and abstracted nature textures. For context, Norah McMeeking is known for her painterly, somewhat moody aesthetic, and this collection reflects that. It's not a bright cheerful cotton-candy quilt collection. It's moody and coastal.
What's Actually In the Collection
The Bella Bella line consists of approximately 25-30 yardage prints, plus coordinating solids from the Moda Hybrid solid line. There are also jelly rolls, layer cakes, and charm packs produced for the collection. The individual fat quarters typically retail around $7-9 depending on the retailer. Full quilting bolts run standard Moda widths of about 44 inches usable width. The coordinating solids are important because they're not generic off-the-shelf Modas — they're specifically matched to the Bella Bella palette. Using them gives you proper binding and backing options without fighting color mismatches.
Building a Quilt From This Collection
Most people use this collection for traditional quilt layouts — log cabin variations, half-square triangle blocks, or simple patchwork where the fabric prints do the heavy lifting. Because the collection has a cohesive but varied tonal range, it works well for scrappy-style designs where you intentionally pull from light, medium, and dark prints without a strict placement plan. Here's the practical part that most tutorials skip. When cutting from this collection, the dark teal and navy prints tend to show every seam allowance inconsistency more than lighter fabrics. I learned this the hard way on a queen-sized log cabin where I was using a standard quarter-inch presser foot and not checking my actual seam allowance. The dark fabrics made every deviation visible, and I ended up ripping out roughly 30% of the pieced rows because the blocks were coming out slightly crooked. Switching to a true quarter-inch foot and doing a test strip on scrap fabric before committing to the full quilt saved the project. Another thing worth knowing: the print scale on several of the Bella Bella designs runs medium-to-large. If you're doing a small block pattern like a nine-patch or a paper-pieced mini block, some of the prints will swallow the detail entirely. I measured this once — the largest botanical prints in the collection have motifs that repeat every 6-8 inches. Anything smaller than a half-inch unit in your block design will lose definition. Stick to block sizes where your smallest unit is at least an inch, or accept that the fabric will read as mostly color rather than pattern.
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Pattern Recommendations
The collection doesn't come with a single official pattern, which is normal for Moda fabric collections. Moda usually releases one or two featured quilt designs per collection drop, but those are typically showcases rather than the definitive use case. Most quilters pair this collection with their own block preferences. Patterns that work well with this kind of tonal coastal palette include any variation on a river race, driftwood, or ocean-themed block. A simple nine-patch with alternating solid and print squares lets the fabric speak for itself without competing patterns clashing. If you want something more structured, a lattice or sashing design gives the eye rest between the busier prints.
Backings and Binding
For backing, I'd recommend pulling from the coordinating Moda Hybrid solids in the deeper teal or a neutral sand tone. A busy backing fabric will compete with the Bella Bella prints rather than frame them. The solids are worth the extra cost here because the color match is precise. Binding should follow the same logic — a solid in one of the collection's anchor colors works better than another print. If you're doing a mitered binding, the solid gives you a clean edge that doesn't fight the block patterns.
Common Problems and What Actually Helps
The main issue I see people running into with this collection is that it looks more exciting in the bundle than it does once cut and spread out. The packaging and pre-cut bundles make the colors pop together because they're compressed. Once you spread them on a design wall, the tonal range can look narrower than expected, especially if you grab only the mid-tone prints. Pull from the full light-to-dark range when you're selecting fabric, not just the prints that look good next to each other in the package. A second issue is that several of the Bella Bella prints have a slight sheen to them due to the dye process Moda uses for this line. This shows up most when you're pressing seams — the shine can make it harder to see exactly where a seam line falls during topstitching or quilting. Iron on a lower heat setting than you normally would, and use a pressing cloth if your iron has a steam function that tends to leave water spots on darker fabrics.
Where to Buy
Check the Moda Fabrics dealer locator on their website to find local shops carrying the collection. Online, Fat Quarter Shop and Moore Quilts have historically stocked it. If a shop is out of a specific print, Moda's warehouse can usually fill orders for individual yardage, though lead times vary. Pre-cut bundles tend to sell out faster than individual yardage, so if you're planning a specific project, ordering early matters more than it does with generic solid fabrics.
