Fabric designer by day…watercolor artist by night!
Karen Roti, one of the fabric designers for Clothworks also spends her time creating watercolor paintings. She has been designing fabric for about three years and now uses her artwork for both venues. Her new fabric design, Garden Joy, is available for ordering and will ship in October and her paintings are currently on display in West Seattle!
“Not all my paintings turn into fabric and so I started painting, just for fun. I was surprised when people starting asking about them.” says Karen. “It’s just one of those things that started to happen. At first I wouldn’t sell anything, but then my sister went through my “discarded” file and took home four paintings for her own home. I was shocked at first, but then decided to try to sell the rest of the paintings and it took off from there. It’s funny how life works. Who knew the paintings would sell?”
Karen continues to specialize in flower images and is currently showing at the Hotwire Coffeehouse in West Seattle. 4410 California Ave SW 6:30 AM – 7 PM daily. The coffeehouse is next door to the West Seattle Post Office. Hotwire was voted the best coffeehouse in Seattle two years running.
If you can’t make it to West Seattle, you can see many of her paintings on her website karenroti.com and email her if interested. She also dabbles in photography, needlepoint, and gardening. She would be happy to hear from you. Expect the Unexpected!
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!!)
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.
Good morning everyone and welcome to the first of three Blue Morning Mondays! My name is Sally Griswold and I’m the better half of Iron Orchid Designs aka IOD. My sister (the other half) might disagree but one who does not participate in blog posts does not get to object.
Let me just say that I cannot tell you how excited we are to be designing for Clothworks! It’s been a dream of ours for a long time to see our designs in fabric but we never imagined it would be with such a stellar company as Clothworks! Blue Morning is our very first line with Clothworks, but we have been designing in the paper crafting world for many years now and are blessed to also have a line of home decor and art in stores like Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohls, Kirklands, Homegoods, Target etc. If you want to know more about us, feel free to read our bio and see our other collections here, or take a jaunt over to our humble little home on the web here.
On to what you really came here for and that is FABRIC LOVE! To start off our Blue Morning Mondays we have a very special little project as well as a way you can get your hot little hands on some Blue Morning yourselves!
First, the project. I guess you might call this a guest with guests post? I have a couple of friends who are amazingly talented and I wanted to include them in the fun. Besides, many hands make for light work right?
I give you my daughter Phoebe wearing the “Flouncy Tiered Dress” over the “Sweet Petticoat Slip Dress” designed by my friend Kate of Monkey’s Bug Patterns and sewn by another talented friend, Jennifer of Alli’s Auntie Designs. The adorable hat is Jennifer’s addition. Please take a minute to go check out their designs. They’re just absolute loveliness!
As promised, a chance to secure for yourself some of the fabric loveliness you see above. We are giving away 2 sets of the whole Blue Morning line in fat quarters!
Here is how it works. First, post a comment here (on this blog post) letting us know what fun project you plan to make with the Blue Morning fabric if you win or what you love about the fabric. That counts as one enry. To enter again, go like IOD’s facebook page and come back here and post again letting us know you “liked” the page. That counts as another entry… ( each comment is an entry, you’re getting the picture!) to make sure the contest is fair and to differentiate between entries and other comments, please post ENTRY before any qualifying comment. If you just want to comment for fun feel free too, just don’t put ENTRY. For a third entry head on over to the IOD blog and leave a comment there as well! Those comments will be counted seperately for the second set of fat quarters! So many chances to win, we will announce the winners on our next “Blue Morning Monday” post on February 18th! God blessings to you all this week!
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.
We are very lucky to have Cheryl Kuczek, the mind and hands behind Paradiso Designs, right in our backyard! She has a beautiful line of bag patterns, apparel and teaches classes around the region and beyond. She is a pretty busy gal traveling to trade shows and presenting workshops for Paradiso Designs, but she was able to squeeze some sewing time in for us using our beautiful Laurel Burch Basics that just came out with Fabulous Felines. She also used our recently released Laurel Burch Signature thread set from Aurifil. She picked up on the gold flecks and used some really beautiful pleather to complement the colors. I just love what she did here. If you’d like to see this pattern, head out and pick up a copy of the Winter 2012 Quick Stuff to Sew magazine (made by the folks who do Threads magazine) And, for lots of great tutorials, head on over to Cheryl’s blog. It’s amazing how many patterns and goodies designers give away for FREE on their websites. Cheryl is truly a teacher, you can tell by how many posts show techniques and tips that she knows her stuff and wants to share what she has learned. Thanks Cheryl for sharing this with us and we look forward to more great ideas and patterns from Paradiso Designs. Her patterns are available wholesale or retail from her website.
Fabrics featured: Laurel Burch Basics Hearts
Interview Questions:
Q: What is the best advice you have ever received, and what is the one piece of advice you would offer to a young artist/designer?
A: I stumbled across this quote that was told to a master painter by his mentor, and it has stuck with me : “One of these days, you’re going to have to get tight and paint loose … “. It reminds me to remain disciplined so that I can build a structure upon which to freely create. This is the trick of being self-employed! I would extend this to any young designer as well; you have to value your artistic development by organizing your life in a way that fosters growth. One thing is to have an idea, another thing is to make it happen; this requires practice, follow through, research and stretching ( mental, and sometimes physical, too ! )
Q: What is on the top shelf or your design inspiration library?
A: I just lifted my eyes to the bookshelf behind my desk and see books about Eva Hesse, Gustav Klimt, Andy Goldsworthy, Lee Bontecou + Gunther Gerzso.
Q: What do you do when you feel a block?
A: Take a walk ! Getting outside, even if it’s not in nature as I would prefer, helps me clear the decks and re-open my senses. I think literally moving through space helps me leave behind whatever I was stuck on or move past whatever block is ahead.
Q: If you could meet any designer or artist and see their studio, who would it be?
A: Oh, my! What a thought … If time travel were possible, I would visit Picasso, Matisse or maybe Maija Isola when she was at Marimekko. Currently, I would love to live a day with Hella Jongerius.
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Hello there—This is Elissa Barbieri, the designer of the collection Cultivate that came out in November. I have, with the help of some crafty family, created some tutorials on Furoshiki, a Japanese traditional art of fabric folding and tying for wrapping. You can use it for gift wrap as I have here, or you could use it for making a lunch sack or grocery tote(enlarged, of course.) The first instructions are for the folding and wrapping technique and the second set are for sewing a double-sided cloth wrap. Furoshiki can, of course, be done with any piece of fabric so don’t be limited by making a double-sided one if you don’t have time. It works great with hankies and scarves, too.
The first tutorial here requires a square piece of fabric and can vary based on the size of the item you’d like to wrap. To make the wrap, scroll down for more details.
Folding with a variation of the Basic Wrap from Furoshiki.com
(Another great source for furoshiki folding is from Betz’ White’s Sewing Green book, page 65.)
Double-sided furoshiki cloth construction:
1. Wash and size your fabric, ironing and de-threading each piece
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