Alyssa Thomas of Penguin + Fish is not quite a veteran in the fabric design industry, but she’s on her way there. She is introducing her third gorgeous and playful collection, Critter Patch Organic, to rave reviews and lots of interest. She has an embroidery and craft book due out this spring and she’ll be hosting her own booth and schoolhouse at International Quilt Market 2013 in Portland. To celebrate all of this, she’s sent me a stack of process sketches and images from her work on Critter Patch Organic. Enjoy these and look forward to the September arrival of this collection. If you’re at market, you’ll find her in Booth 1319, right around the corner from Clothworks in booth 1314.
Critter Patch Organic started in part from our Penguin & Fish characters from our embroideries.
Here you see bunny sketches. It’s kind of more like thinking in sketches, versus actual drawing.
These show some of the early renderings, with a some different patterns and some different colors.
I’m working on a test cheater quilt that I will use at Quilt Market because the fabric doesn’t come in and get to stores until September. This is a good way for me to see the prints next to each other in a quilt. It will be printed at Spoonflower and I’ll quilt for Quilt Market.
And, drumroll…the final swatch page! It’s pretty exciting to see them all together, laid out nicely and getting along.
Marsha McCloskey, designer of the ever popular Staples, is back with a collection in deep blue. This is how she describes Everything Blue:
Think of a fabric collection gathered over time where the colors look great together, but don’t quite match. Everything Blue is a line of over 30 pieces in just blues. It includes light, medium, and dark values in prints from small dots to large-scale romantic florals. The palette of warm white, to Chambray, to Indigo, is a delight to the quilter who loves blue and is always looking to enrich the fabric collection.
Here is a snapshot of her full collection (and a little sneak peak of our new website which will be launching in summer!)
For those of you who will be at Portland Quilt Market, Marsha McCloskey can be found in Booth 1318, not far from Clothworks in Booth 1314.
For Everything Blue, McCloskey has developed 3 new quilt patterns that she will be launching at Quilt Market in Portland. Each one reveals her love of stars and are heirloom quality.
Marsha sent me a sneak peak of those patterns which I will share with you here. She had done such a beautiful job of adapting her feathered star patterns to feature all blue–she calls them two color, but I see quite a few shades of blue in there. You could easily substitute any color of your choice in there if you want to make a quilt in a different shade.
The first two patterns come with full instructions and a custom ruler. The third pattern is more involved and is in book form. The Feathered Star Ruler is recommended.
FSSP1 Massachusetts Cross & Crown with the Precision Trimmer 6 ruler by Marsha McCloskey. Step by step instructions for 65″ x 76″ quilt.
FSSP7 Blueberry Delight by Marsha McCloskey Easy Piecing with the Precision Trimmer 6 ruler. Step by step instructions for 60″ x 60″ quilt.
FSP14- Star of Chamblie: A Feathered Star Sampler Quilt by Marsha McCloskey Step by step instructions for a Feathered Star Sampler Quilt in six different sizes. Feathered Star Ruler recommended. AVAILABLE JUNE 2013
In addition to these gorgeous patterns, Everything Blue has already inspired one of our favorite pattern designers, Rochelle Martin of Cottage Quilt Designs. This quilt is called Argyle Blues which is what I felt when I shrunk a beautiful wool argyle sweater, but this quilt puts a different meaning to the blues! Click here to purchase this pattern and see all the other beauties for sale at Cottage Quilt Designs.
International Quilt Market is already here again and we are seeing quite a bit of preparation happening at Clothworks. Capsets and sales boards are getting cranked out, fat quarter bundles are being cut and tied, meetings are being set, quilts are being made for the booth AND we are talking with a handful of wonderful Clothworks designers who will have their own booths in Portland. There will be a series of posts about the designers who will be there, booths that will be featuring quilts and projects made with Clothworks fabric, classes that will be offered by Clothworks designers (they’re called “Schoolhouse”) AND some tidbits about the chaos here.
Here is a little summary of what I know so far about spring market.
What: International Quilt Market
Where: Portland, Oregon
When: May 17-19, 2013
Who: Quilt Market caters to the trade, so it’s packed with fabric companies like us, pattern and textile designers (like many of you) and all kinds of other folks who make great stuff for quilters–like sewing machine makers, thread makers, batting makers, ruler makers, and all manner of gizmos to make our lives easier and get us to sew more!! And, then, occasionally, there are some moms and kids and husbands and friends who have guest passes so they can see their loved ones in action.
And, since it’s in Portland, Clothworks will have the honor of bringing a bunch more of our lovely staff to see the Market and talk with a handful of designers who make fabric designs for us. One of the best parts of market is walking the show floor and looking at all the beautiful quilts and projects, getting new ideas for projects and talking to folks who might want to share patterns and ideas with you folks via The Works. I’ll be posting pictures on facebook while I am there and hopefully recapping all of that once I get back!
To start you off, here is a list of the folks who will be at Quilt Market and these links go to the collections that they’re launching at Market.
Feathered Star Productions
The Quilt Patch
Beach Garden Studio
Penguin & Fish
La Todera
Secret surprise! I can’t say more than that, but we’ve got some pretty good stuff up our sleeve at Clothworks. Stay tuned for that (and it WILL include giveaways, of course!!)
The Seattle Modern Quilt Guild and Clothworks are collaborating on a charity quilt!! I am pretty excited to have such a wonderful group of dedicated quilters working on a project for a local charity in Seattle. Monday night, I had the honor to be a guest at their guild meeting. It is a really wonderful group of gals and they have been tasked with using the little bundles of fabric you see above (thanks to one of the members for cutting and tying all those little beauties) into square/rectangle blocks that are anywhere from 6.5″ to 12.5″ wide and long. The only other guideline is that the blocks are meant to be modern in character and Katie Pedersen read the most recent definition of modern quilting that the national Modern Quilt Guild has formulated. Defining is tough business, so the national board has been chewing on and reorganizing their definition since they came up with it. If you’re interested in this process, you can read more about it here.
The quilt itself will come together some time this summer when the Seattle members get together in July to bring their finished blocks. I think they handed out 32 bundles or thereabouts so that sounds like more than one quilt to me if they use sashing! I can’t wait to see what they make. I love seeing Bee-style quilts for their variation an a theme and to see different character blocks unified by a theme or set of colors. This quilt will be donated to the Genesis Project.
The Seattle Modern Quilt is always welcoming new members and membership comes with some serious perks. They organize sew-ins at shops and studios around the area–some are free, some cost a small fee. It sounds like some of the sew ins even offer machines, most offer ironing boards and cutting mats AND you get to take advantage of the good company and significant expertise of the other attendees. They organize quilt shows for the guild and retreats, too.
And, for those readers elsewhere, the parent Modern Quilt Guild website provides resources about guilds around the world.
As a teaser, one of the organizers made her block already to get folks inspired.
Featured Fabrics: Everyday Organic Solids
Wowee!! We are finally getting an honest-to-goodness rainbow which feels really good. I hate to be immodest, but Clothworks Everyday Organic Solids are so soft and smooth and delicious to sew on, it is really tough to beat their quality. Recently, we expanded the collection to have even more colors and a regular rainbow is shaping up very nicely. This round we added, hot pink, chocolate, forest green, turquoise/teal, medium gray, true red and navy. Together, those colors are bit of a jumble, but when I laid them all down it a row and organized them by color I think all of the bolts exhaled to be next to their palette neighbors.
This one is from Katie Did and I found it on Pinterest, but tracked it down to her blog. Lovely!
Now, let’s see some projects!! I have been doing just a little trolling on Pinterest these days–well, okay, more than just a little. I honestly didn’t use Pinterest before I started at Clothworks, but that little (or huge) bugger has gotten under my skin and I really enjoy it! It is amazing how much good stuff you can find and you can search in a really specific way. So, let’s say you’re out of ideas but you want to make a small, easy gift. It is very easy to search for just that and then you can narrow it down to tutorials for those gifts! Wow! And their new design has made the sources of the photos more apparent so it’s much simpler to find where everything came from–Thanks Pinterest! Anyhow, I have been slowly building up a board about quilts that use solids because our lovely Everyday Organic Solids are really getting filled out. Here are few of the goodies I found. I intentionally didn’t pin tons of Amish quilts because it would be so easy to do that (and I LOVE them) but I wanted to show a variety of styles. Many of them are on the simpler side so may lend themselves to reproduction by any of you at home. Enjoy the board and please look out for our solids. They really are wonderfully soft and affordable. Below is a picture of our full color card as it stands now so you can get an idea of all the colors.
In other news, the local Seattle Modern Quilt Guild will be doing a block challenge using our solids that I am really excited for. The Modern Quilt Guild is a pretty neat group and I feel really honored that they’ll be using Clothworks fabric. I’ll definitely be posting pictures here, so check back. And in the mean time, they’ve got a pretty amazing Flickr pool where you can scroll and scroll and scroll and then doze off and then scroll some more. The internet is really amazing.
Hi, Robin here from Create Kids Couture. We are so excited to be visiting the Clothworks Blog today. If you’ve never heard of Create Kids Couture, we publish PDF and paper boutique style sewing patterns. We’ve got over 120 patterns for girls, boys, dolls, and tweens. We’d love it if you visited our Facebook page and our companion sewing support group where our wonderful fans come together to share tips, photos, questions, joys and sorrows.
We’re loving this colors for spring! And the birdie print is just so fun!
We decided to use it to make a free pattern just for you!
And it’s just what every little girl needs….
A purse, just her size!
We’re also sharing the dress pattern free…
Because what good is a purse if your outfit doesn’t match?
These are both beginner patterns, so don’t be scared!
You can download the purse pattern and instructions
HERE.
and
You can download the dress pattern and instructions
HERE.
We hope you enjoy our patterns and find the perfect Clothworks fabrics to make your own versions!
Please share them on our Facebook page; we’d love to see your work.
Happy Sewing from Create Kids Couture!
I don’t know about you, but these winter days make me feel like it’s time to do a little Laurel Burch giveaway to brighten up the dark skies! And, it just so happens that our lovely Stephanie has recently made a gorgeous necklace using Laurel Burch Basics along with a bunch of darling ric rac and buttons. The picture above is her and you can read her blog post about how to make that beautiful necklace by clicking here. Stephanie’s darling blog is called Needles Groove and adds a musical touch to every post. Please check it out if you haven’t already!
Now, onto the giveaway! I know the necklace doesn’t require much fabric so if you win, you’ll have plenty of Laurel Burch fabric to make all kinds of other goodies. And, after the success of the last giveaway, I learned my lesson–we’ve got 3 awesome prizes this time. Each person who wins will get a darling purse (made by Whistlepig Creek Productions) AND a stack of Laurel Burch Felines/Basics Fat Quarters. The pattern is called the Flip Flap Bag just in case you are wondering. That’s quite a kitty–no pun intended. Here is how to enter.
1. Start by sharing this on Facebook so your friends and family can enter!
2. Enter using the Rafflecopter widget below. Contest ends March 12th at Midnight.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
3. Hold tight!! We’ll announce the winners on Wednesday, March 13th, 2012.
4. Please, only one entry per person.
I think I have to give my Mom credit for this idea because I vaguely remember her mentioning it. That said, the cobwebs around the idea make me think I have been carrying this one around in my back pocket for a while! But, when Photochrome Petals by Julie Creus of La Todera landed, I knew I had found the right fabric. Bright, playful and full of hot colors, this collection is a great stash builder for those of you who have a soft spot for vibrant hues.
I have got some mental block, when it comes to bias tape. I have a big stash from my Grandma Pearl that she didn’t get to use in her 90+ years of sewing quilts, aprons and hot pads (among other things!) that I have nearly moved through, and I do pick it up from time to time at thrift stores because they always have grab bags of 5-10 colors for 1.99! I use it bind seams inside dop kits, on hot pads and other small projects. However, when I sew a quilt, I just can’t use pre-made bias tape or pre-made binding. I don’t know what it is. I guess a little piece of it is that making bias tape or binding at home is SO easy if you have a tool (I have a Clover one and this is not product placement!! My Mom gave it to me and I just LOVE it!) And, it’s so fun to custom select fabrics that match (or contrast) with the quilt and it gives quilts a little extra special character. So, after years of making bias tape and binding, I have quite a few odd sized smaller pieces and I have been puzzling about what to do with them. This project answers that question and is just a fun small project to add a little flare to some shoes.
Now, to the directions.
Fabric Featured: Photochrome Petals by Julie Creus of La Todera, Y1098-36
Check out Julie’s new collection, A Closer Look, for more fun colors and good stash builders!
PS–There are many great tutorials out there for how to make bias tape. Several do a continuous loop, so you avoid sewing each piece together. Those are very nice, too. Here is a link to my favorite one from Colette Patterns. I guess I don’t mind stitching each segment because even though I have done these other methods, I always go back to my old way!! If you have a large quantity to make, I think the continuous loop method that Colette Patterns describes is probably REALLY helpful.
Boy am I happy to be doing this post. This is something I have often wondered, but I have never sat down to try and figure out the math. Alas, Marsha McCloskey, the creator of Staples and soon to be released Everything Blue, and the author/designer of many amazing Feathered Star Productions patterns is here to answer our burning question of how to calculate how much yardage is necessary for a quilt (without a pattern). IF you are a quilter who ever looks at something and says, “I could make that”, but never really does it, this worksheet is going to get you going in the right direction. OR, if you are a budding quilt designer or just scrap happy (that’s me!), this will be an extremely useful quilting tool for you, too. Marsha’s process is very straightforward–you just need to follow all the steps. And, she even provides a way to proof your estimated yardage in sort of a ballpark fashion at the very end. So, if you try this out, scroll all the way to the bottom to see the conclusion and proof your work. And, if you really just need a ball park and don’t care if it’s over/under, you can use that proofing method to get a very loose estimate without moving through the more detailed steps laid out in the primary method. I also included a pdf for easy download/print so you can just print these instructions off, keep them in our quilt tote and use them at the fabric store, swap meet, thrift shop, grandma’s attic or where ever you source your material!! And the final kicker is that Marsha has included an inches to yards conversion chart for quick reference. It is totally useful, so I put it on the last page of the method worksheet. Now, quilt students, get our your pencils, calculators and notepads and let the math-ness begin!
See how to figure yardage for your quilt or scroll down to to see it here.
Oh my!! There was an enormous response to this giveaway!! Thank you all so much for participating. IF I had known, I would have put together more than one prize, but I’ll have to just learn from it and do that next time! In the mean time, if you all liked that pattern, please head over to Meags n Me and order one. They have a bunch of other darling patterns on their site, too, so you just might find yourself buying more than one. And, you can certainly find Hug Me in shops or online if you’re in search of some Valentine goodness!
So, the lucky winner is Sheila, and I picked that number with a random number generator. You can see it all below.
