From the category archives:

Quilt Market

Quilt Market recap

by Susie on May 31, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Fabrics,Quilt Market

Hi All,
I just posted a whole bundle of photos from Quilt Market on Facebook and I have to admit I am a little swamped and won’t be able to post them here, too. But, here is the direct link to that album if you want to see the bits of Clothworks all over the show floor.

The picture above is of the sneak peek window cases that I did with my Mom. I made the little village and she made the beautiful batik pillows. For the pillows, each of those has a free tutorial online from a blog that anyone can use. If you head to our pinterest board, you can see all of those in one place! But, just to simplify things, here are links to the pillows you see here.
- Chevron Pillow by Messy Jesse
- Quilted Spring Pillow by Alissa Haight Carlton for Janome
- Black and White Mountain: Okay, so my Mom went freestyle on this one a bit because it is just very simple to make a triangle pillow and she added that very delicate flange/piping around the edge for flare. This pillow was inspired by the following blog post.

And, for the little village, I just used Bosal two-sided fusible foam batting sandwiched and pressed between two pieces of fabric, then serged the edges to finish them. I zigzagged all the buildings together which allowed me to bend them at the seams and make the accordian style village that stands up! Not bad. My son is very glad the village is back! He has already conducted a Christmas celebration in May with all my chicken pin cushions and Lego guys! Everyone got empty spools as their gifts which he called “wheels”!

Fabrics featured: Fresh Batiks by Clothworks: Botanica and Minerals
Everyday Organic Solids 1, 2 and 3

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Quilt Market Everyday Organic Solids Giveaway from Clothworks

by Susie on May 17, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Fabrics,Giveaway,Quilt Market

Okay!! The random number generator has done it’s work and here are the winners:
Shawn J
Donna Rae
AND, I realized that I had to cut a second stack which means that I was going to wind up with 3 stacks so I put the random number generator back to work on a third!! YAY! I love giving away more.
The third winner is:
Rebecca H from WAshington!

I have emailed all of you and will send those puppies out soon. Thanks to everyone for playing. I noticed taht the folks who won have been dedicated followers and have entered other contests (several!) and it is always nice to see a winner who has already tried a few times finally reap the benefits! Check out the blog tomorrow for a really fun idea that we are launching!

I’m always really excited to share about what is happening with Clothworks and all the folks we work with for Quilt Market but it is also bittersweet. Most of you readers and sewers will never go to Market because it is a tradeshow for the industry and if you don’t own or work for a company in this category, you aren’t able to come in. So, in honor of Quilt Market, I would like to start a tradition of doing giveaways that EVERYONE can enter.

For this giveaway, I’d like to highlight the fact that our Everyday Organic Solids line has grown to look like a full rainbow. I have been eagerly awaiting this day because nothing gets me like a stack of fabric organized in rainbow color order–or anything rainbow for that matter. Book shelves, laundry and Legos work, too. For our purposes, though, it’s fabric. It’s a huge pile of 22 fat quarters of our lovely Everyday Organic Solids that are soft like butter and sew beautifully–and there will be 2 winners. I just made a dress out of the stuff (you can see it on Pinterest) and will shortly be posting a free pattern for a rainbow grocery tote with an upcycled denim bottom (get a sneak peek here). But I digress. As usual, this giveaway requires one thing. This time, I would like you to sign up for our newsletter. It comes fairly infrequently (it was meant to be monthly, but that has proven hard to maintain) but it always announces something really fun like a giveaway, new collections AND free patterns / tutorials. If you’ve already signed up for this, give it a try anyway because we just changed mail services and it might do us some good to get an updated address for you. And finally, please share this on Facebook to let your friends know there is a tower of gorgeously soft solids awaiting them if they win. The link to sign up to our newsletter is below, so please click on it and enter! If you are absolutely sure that you are already on our mailing list, go ahead and leave a comment here and I can check your address on our list and enter you that way.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Other rules:
1. Contest is only open to US residents. (Sorry internationals! We have had lots of trouble shipping your goods and they often come back at additional cost.)
2. If you are sure that you are already subscribed to our newsletter, but still want to enter, please leave a comment on this blog post and I will make sure your name gets in the hat!
3. Contest ends Monday, May 20th at the stroke of midnight!
4. Share this on Facebook!
5. There are two stacks to give away. 2 STACKS!! YEA!

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Introducing Fresh Batiks by Clothworks

by Susie on May 15, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Fabrics,Quilt Market,Tutorials

It’s true. We’ve been scheming a bit at Clothworks. There have definitely been some whispers and some, let’s not tell yets and all the stuff that happens when you have a BIG surprise. Well, here it is! We’re launching a 100+ strong batiks collection that is going to knock your socks off. It’s called Fresh Batiks by Clothworks and we have THE BEST people working on it to make it awesome and refreshing while staying true to the age-old traditions of batik art. With Quilt Market starting on Friday, we’ve been able to get a little bit of advance yardage and we are savoring every scrap to make some cool projects that we thing you will enjoy. If you’re not going to market, I will certainly share pictures here and on facebook of the beautiful Fresh Batiks AND we are doing a fun little window display showcasing some cushions that my Mom made. Each cushion that is featured there was made based on a tutorial that my Mom or I found on the internet for free and we have pinned them to the Clothworks Pinterest board. For those at market, there is a QR code they can snap to see all the tutorials but it’s much easier for you folks at home. HERE is a link to the pinterest board so you can have at it. And, we didn’t just pin the tutorials that we used. At this point, there are 40+ tutorials there and I hope to keep increasing the pins to make that board a really great resource for you all to find pillow tutorials. Some of them are very quilty. There are quite a few DIY/reuse ones that call for old t-shirts and the like. So, please take a look and have fun! Fresh Batiks by Clothworks will be in stores this fall (2013), so we’ve got a little bit of a wait.

Now, in the meantime, here are some photos of projects using Fresh Batiks by Clothworks and I promise we’ll have the WHOLE collection up on our website soon. It’s no easy feat getting 100+ different fabrics scanned and posted, so we are busily cranking out all our market stuff so we can move onto the regular work!! I’ll post pictures of the pillows from Quilt Market soon, and the projects shown here were created by Virginia Robertson, the designer of the collection.

If you’d like another way to get to the Pinterest board, here is the QR code:

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Clothworks Quilt Market Dispatch #5: Beach Garden Studio

by Susie on May 13, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Fabrics,Quilt Market

Beach Garden Studio is one of our delightful local designer pairs, heralding from Bainbridge Island, just across the pond from Clothworks. Here are a few tasty images of what they have been up to. The project photos below are from Esther’s on Bainbridge Island where they had a celebration in honor of the launch and the above picture is a digital mock-up of a quilt using the collection. Click on that to get to Beach Garden Quilts’ site to buy the pattern. They’ll be featuring projects and fabric in their booth 1320 at Quilt Market.

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Clothworks Quilt Market Dispatch #6: The Quilt Patch

by Susie on May 8, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Fabrics,Free Patterns,Quilt Market,Show and Tell

You’ve heard from these gals before, so without further ado, here’s the Quilt Patch Gals!

Jeanne and I are so excited to have our advance yardage of our Wallflowers collection! We’ve made three quilts using our own patterns! Front Porch is the FREE downloadable pattern available online. In addition, if you are going to Portland Quilt Market, you can have a chance to WIN this very quilt! It’s being beautifully quilted as I write this! All you need to do to be entered, is to order a full collection of our Wallflowers fabric at the Clothworks booth and your name will be entered! What a great way to have an instant sample! If you won’t be there and want to learn more about Wallflowers, click here to read more on our blog.

The next two samples we made, are Hopscotch, (shown) which is one of our most popular selling patterns, and
we also whipped up a Strip Joint quilt which I think is fabulous!! Come see it in our booth at Quilt Market! Booth number 1419!

The Quilt Patch Gals can also be found via their website and blog.

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Clothworks Quilt Market Dispatch #3: Julie Creus of La Todera

by Susie on May 7, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Fabrics,Quilt Market

Hi Folks! As part of our series on Quilt Market, Julie Creus of La Todera is joining us for a guest post about her upcoming collection.

The inspiration for A Closer Look actually started brewing years ago. I stumbled upon a book of extreme closeup photography of patterns in nature- insect wings, leaf veining etc. I bought it, just knowing that someday I’d base some fabric designs on this concept!

Since then, I’ve been filling my inspiration board with photos of all kinds of these patterns gleaned from everything from my husband’s (shagreen) stingray skin wallet to ordinary salt crystals! The collection is organized into four groupings based on the texture/design of the pattern and if you check out these links, you can read a bit more about how these came about. Here are the four groups: Salt, Shagreen, Air Dots, Purl.

Fair-Isle Quilt pattern available soon at Latodera.com

When Clothworks approached me to develop a ‘funky basics’ line, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to bring this idea to fruition!

The trick was to play with the scale of these textures enough to give them new interest, but keep it small enough to read as a small, textural repeat, and to recolor the resulting illustrations to give them a new spin, while keeping the contrast of colors low enough so that they would be useful as blenders.

When you take ‘A Closer Look,’- the possibilities are endless!
Julie Creus

Meet Julie and see her patterns and fabric in Booth 363.

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Clothworks Quilt Market Dispatch #3: Alyssa Thomas of Penguin + Fish

by Susie on May 1, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Designers,Quilt Market

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.

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Clothworks Quilt Market Dispatch #2: Marsha McCloskey

by Susie on April 25, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Designers,Fabrics,Quilt Market

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.

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Clothworks International Quilt Market Dispatch #1

by Susie on April 22, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Designers,Quilt Market

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!!)

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The Wonderful Folks of the Works: Meet Kathleen

by stephanie on January 18, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Quilt Market,Show and Tell,The Clothworks Team

Kathleen posing with a Laurel Burch quilt she made

Happy New Year, everyone, and welcome back to another installment of the Wonderful Folks of the Works! We are now into the 5^th month of this posting and I’ve decided to dedicate this to a very special employee at Clothworks! This wonderful lady gets her hands into everything here….and that is almost an understatement! Her can-do attitude, her diligence, and her heart of gold make her a real asset to the company. After 8 years at Clothworks, she has decided to retire at the end of this month. We’re sad to see her go, but we wish her the best in her retirement and hope she can finally relax. I’d like to introduce you to Kathleen, our ‘Jill-of-All-Trades’ at Clothworks!

Eight years ago, one of Kathleen’s quilting friends, asked her if she would like to lend a helping hand at Clothworks in preparation for Quilt Market. For any outsiders who have no clue about Quilt Market, it is a large trade show where we showcase our ‘latest & greatest’ fabric collections, samples, and quilts. In preparation for Quilt Market- we are assembling a multitude of sales boards to show the fabric collections to our customers, as well as fat quarter bundles, samples, etc. The weeks leading up to Quilt Market are frenetic around the office and warehouse. Sometimes it greatly aids us to have a helper jump in the mix and complete all of the necessary preparations that will be sent off to our Quilt Market booth. It also helps when the helper has an interest in fabric and quilting, as some of the preparations need special attention given that only a fabric person can give. Enter Kathleen. Eight years ago, she was delighted to have the opportunity to work the 6 weeks needed in prep for Quilt Market. The beautiful Clothworks fabrics had always intrigued her and with her quilting background, she jumped right in with no hesitation. Upon interviewing for this position with our previous owner, she was given the job on the spot and those 6 weeks turned into 8 years!

Clothworks has found a gem in Kathleen!! She gets her hands into everything here and assists many of the different teams at Clothworks: the upstairs office with accounting and customer service, the sample room, and the design team. And I’ve even seen her pick fabric orders for the shipping team!! I like to call her a ‘Jill-of-All-Trades’—as during a typical day at Clothworks you will find her calling customers on orders ready to ship, as well as helping any of the walk-in customers find fabric as they shop the warehouse. Kathleen manages donations, cuts fabric samples for sales reps, lends her quilting eye to the design team seeking extra input, and even helps check quilt pattern accuracy from time to time. Kathleen puts her heart and soul into her work, and she has quite a heart of gold, not to mention. She deeply cares about our customers, and delivers the highest customer service as much as possible!

Working amongst the beautifully designed, high quality fabric by Clothworks is a pleasure for Kathleen, as well as working alongside the highly creative team of people at the company. Those are two of Kathleen’s favorite things about working here! And it makes sense, as she too, is a highly creative person! In her free time, she enjoys working on various projects: sewing dresses for her grand-daughters, making quilts for friends, family and colleagues, and embellishing towels using Clothworks fabric. She enjoys needlepoint & cross-stitch, and takes some spectacular National Geographic quality photos on some of her many travels. She spoils the heck out of us here at Clothworks- and this quality will be sorely missed when she leaves. She makes us fantastic soups for lunch, and every holiday she will put together a carefully handcrafted bag of goodies for each and every employee in the office. Did I not mention she has a heart of gold? Her caring continues upon leaving the office-she has a lovely husband, 2 cockatoos named Shiva & Fiona, and a gorgeous garden that she tends to! Which, if she were stranded on a desert island, she could not live without plants and gardening tools so that she could add her special ‘Kathleen’ flair to the island and make it beautiful! Kathleen, from all of us at Clothworks, we wish you a happy retirement and here’s to making the world a little more beautiful with your special touch!