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Clothworks

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 #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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Quilt Kit Giveaway for Spring

by Susie on May 3, 2013

in Fabrics,Giveaway

>CONTEST CLOSED–Winner is Angela F. Thanks all for entering!!!

Hi All,
I just got wind of a really darling pattern using Clothworks fabric and thought, that’s cause for a giveaway! Meags ‘n’ Me has created a super pattern using Flowering Around by Beach Garden Quilts + Studio. Meags ‘n’ Me have been featured here before because they have a handful of patterns that use Clothworks fabric AND they also have a stack of other really great patterns for sale on their website. In particular, they do a really sweet block of the month called Squeal of which I’ve heard countless positive reviews. This pattern, Blossoms, celebrates spring with a flower-ish pinwheel pattern for each block and the kit we are giving away is plenty of fabric to make a baby quilt top.

The collection, Flowering Around, comes from some local Northwest Gals who live on Bainbridge Island and they were even featured recently in the local paper there. The collection is pretty hot off the press, so if you’re looking for something springy and light, stores have got this on their shelves. Here is a screen shot of the full collection.

Here is how this giveaway will work. Rafflecopter worked pretty well last time, so I am sticking with it. Click here to enter!

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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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Seattle Modern Quilt Guild Charity Quilt for Clothworks

by Susie on April 10, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Fabrics,Show and Tell

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

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The Wonderful Folks of the Works: Meet Candice

by stephanie on February 15, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Show and Tell,The Clothworks Team

Greetings my friends! Welcome back to another installment of the Wonderful Folks of the Works. Everyday it’s a pleasure to work alongside people who are so creative, talented, and come from such diverse backgrounds. In some ways, the employees of Clothworks remind me of a vibrantly colored patchwork quilt. Each employee represents their own uniquely-designed fabric piece, and when united together, they create one eclectically stitched quilt. The next person that I’m going to introduce you to has the pleasure of working with all the wonderful artwork that goes on to be printed into beautifully designed fabric. Please meet, Candice, the Creative Director.

Candice has been with the company since 2006, when she and her husband Ted purchased Clothworks from the previous wonderful owners, David & Julie Peha. Ted had dreamed of being his own boss and when they came across Clothworks for sale, he was thrilled because he knew how much Candice loved fabric. Another big plus in becoming new owners of the company, was that Candice could set up a safe, chemical & fragrance free environment at Clothworks. Since being diagnosed with Multiple Chemical Sensitivities back in the 1990’s, it was difficult for Candice to work outside the home and not get sick, due to severe allergies to chemicals and fragrances.

As Creative Director, Candice oversees the Design Team at Clothworks. They plan their collections at least one year in advance and take design submissions from artwork on paper to an approved strike off printed on fabric. For those who don’t know what a strike off is, it is a swatch of printed fabric sent from the mill to be approved for color & printing quality. As an owner of a company, every day is a work day for Candice. She begins her days at home by checking email on her phone while eating breakfast, and immediately addresses any urgent concerns since she works with many international folks. Next, she prioritizes her day based on “projects”: what needs designing, what needs to be reviewed, what new issues or initiatives need to be analyzed or resolved and then goes from there. As a non-artist, she loves looking at art and fabric all day, and every day! She also enjoys working with our sales reps and customers, finding ways to help them be successful in their businesses. And her newest favorite thing is participating in Clothworks Health Club, a weekly session where participating employees meet to encourage & support each other in their personal health & fitness goals. The Health Club is the brainstorm of our fellow employee, Angela, who even leads us in a 15 minute arm toning workout in the warehouse a few times a week. It’s quite a hoot!

Like many of the other employees here in the office, Candice is just as busy in the office as she is in her free time with craft projects. And like many who have the sewing bug, she acquired her passion from her mother. Growing up, she did a lot of needlework and sewed most of her clothes in high school. Like every sewer, she has a lot of UFOs (Unfinished Objects). A couple of years ago, she set a goal to complete one project a month alternating with something for someone else and something for herself. Even though she didn’t complete 12 projects, this goal allowed her to complete more projects than the previous year and also have fun in the process! This year her goal is to complete one UFO per month. She missed the January goal, but blame it on losing her glasses mid-month! A couple years ago after having finished a quilt before tackling some mending on her son’s PJs, her mind was on ¼” seams— which was not enough to accommodate the rough wear & tear of a teenager. The flannel bathrobe she’s currently working on for him will have 5/8” seams for sure! One stunning UFO project that she’s been working on and off again for the past 8 years is a crewel embroidered pillow that she hopes to complete soon. She also planned out a California King sized quilt based on Sew Be It’s “With or Without” pattern which Clothworks cross-promoted a while back. Her version will have 12” blocks and no borders, so she’s excited to get cutting!! Now if only she could just find her ruler that one of her kids borrowed for an art project.

And lastly, if Candice were ever stranded on a desert island, she couldn’t live without having some wildlife around her. Which makes complete sense since she’s an ardent animal lover and ‘mom’ to a rabbit and playful puppy!

Front & Back of a quilt designed and made by Candice. She made this for her son using Clothworks fabric designed by Jill Webster.

: Crewel Embroidery by Candice- an exquisite UFO!

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Blue Morning Monday + FQ Giveaway!

by Iron Orchid Designs on February 11, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Contests,Designers,Fabrics,Giveaway

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!

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Bias-tape Shoelace Tutorial

by Susie on February 5, 2013

in Clothworks Projects,Fabrics,Tutorials

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.

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Valentine Quilt Kit Giveaway!

by Susie on January 23, 2013

in Giveaway

It’s about time for Valentine’s Day to roll around. I can’t get enough of that holiday. I love red and pink. I love hearts, candy, sweetness and all that comes with it. And, for any naysayers, it’s not just for people in love–my favorite Valentines come from my Mom! The day will be here before we know it, so I know this kit is a little late to get done for Valentine’s Day proper, but if you hustle, you might be able to get it done. You’ll get a big stack of Hug Me fabric by Sue Zipkin and a pattern to sew it all up called Kiss Me by Meags and Me. All you’ve gotta do is leave a comment here and if you’ve got an account, share this post on Facebook to give all your friends a chance to win, too! Contest ends next Tuesday, January 30th, at midnight.

Here’s what you’ll get:

A kit with some extra to make the lovely Kiss Me quilt in baby size (though you could probably squeeze a twin out if you supplement it with some of your own bits and pieces) and the pattern from Meags and Me! Thanks so much to the gals at Meags and Me for inspiring the giveaway with their gorgeous quilt design and generous gift of a hot-off-the-press pattern! These gals are great. You might want to peep their website where they sell other quilt patterns, many including hand-drawn needlework patterns, too! Thanks ladies! You’re wonderful and keep up the darling work!

Here’s the quilt all made up! Awesome!

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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!