Fabric Friday (New Kona Solids) and a Thank You

June 19, 2015June 13, 20157 Comments

Before I dive into some new fabrics, I want to give you all a big thanks and a huge hug for supporting our online shop. I’ve been running it now for almost 12 years and Jason’s been with me full-time for the last 8 years. Our switch to selling only precuts and thread (and now my own patterns) was an exciting but scary change. However, our niche focus has given me much more time to design, write, and teach, which I love doing. So big smooches to all of you!

New arrivals – Kona Solids

Robert Kaufman has recently organized all 303 of their Kona Cotton Solids into a plethora of new color ways and we have them all (at least… I think we do!) The color assortments are available as charm squares (42 – 5″ squares), ten squares (42 – 10″ squares), and roll ups (40 – 2 1/2″ strips). There are at least 2 dozen different groupings, not to mention the single color-precuts! Check out a few of them below:

Cherry wood

Gray Area

Lush Lagoon

Mustard Seed

Powder Room

Yucca Tree

These are a few of my favorite colors – what are yours?

Click here to view all Kona Solid Charm Squares

Click here to view all Kona Solid Ten Squares

Click here to view all Kona Solid Roll Ups

Fabric Friday – Free Spirit Style

May 15, 2015May 9, 20159 Comments

Here are some new fabrics I have been crushing on!

Franklin by Denyse Schmidt is available in full-size design rolls, 10 squares, and coming soon – fat quarter bundles! I love how the precut collections include an assortment of solids to go with the prints. Personally, I hope Free Spirit continues with the full size precuts, rather than the smaller bundles. 🙂

Franklin by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit

Folk Song by Anna Maria Horner is a colorful array of cheerful florals mixed with a few bright geometrics. It’s a nod to her earlier collection Good Folks from several years ago.

Folk Song by Anna Maria Horner

Clementine, Heather Bailey’s newest line mixes well with her other collection and features the same fresh mix of pink, aqua, and orange. I especially love the butterfly prints!

Clementine by Heather Bailey

Finally, you can’t go wrong with anything from Tula Pink! Moonshine is still available (until it sells out). Her designs and unique color palettes are so popular, it’s hard to keep them in stock!

Moonshine by Tula Pink

I hope these delicious looking bundles can tide you over until I return from Quilt Market with a full report on the latest and greatest coming you way!

Do you have a favorite fabric brand? If so, which one?

Fabric Friday – Riley Blake’s New Penny Rose Brand

April 17, 2015April 12, 20154 Comments

Have you seen Riley Blake’s newest brand of fabrics? It’s called Penny Rose and features reproduction fabrics like 30’s and traditional Civil War prints. For Penny Rose, what’s old is new again!

Here are some of the latest Penny Rose collections, now available in our precut store:

Paper Dolls by Sibling Arts Studio

Aesop’s Fable by Erin Turner

Milk, Sugar, and Flower by Elea Lutz

Aren’t these so sweet? What do you think of the new brand?

Fabric Friday – Sharing the Moda Love

April 3, 2015April 3, 20157 Comments

I try to balance my Fabric Fridays by sharing new arrivals from all of the different manufacturers we carry in our precut store. Sometimes I can’t help but go a little overboard with a certain company from time to time. Moda is definitely the top dog when it comes to precut offerings. They are our top-selling brand, I think because they have done such a fantastic job offering so many choices and getting the word out about their fabulous designers. So without further ado, I will share a little Moda precut love today:

Poems from Pebbles by fabulous designer (and new friend) Malka Dubrawsky

I’ve been a fan of Malka’s amazing geometrics even before I met her in person at quilt market last fall. We immediately hit it off and then were able to reconnect at QuiltCon earlier this year. Her style is so great and I’m actually working on a scrappy quilt now, incorporating some of her bright cheerful precuts. I just love them!

Malka Dubrawsky in her colorful booth at QuiltCon 2015.

Speaking of geometrics, I can’t get enough of Quattro! It comes in all the standard precuts we carry: charm packs, layer cakes, jelly rolls and fat quarter bundles. Isn’t it just heavenly?

Quattro – in 2 sizes by Studio M for Moda.

Another modern line I’m dyring to try out is Mixologie, also by Studio M. In addition to regular cotton, it also comes in a linen fat quarter bundle, shown below. I still have yet to try linen, but I just love the texture!!

Mixologie in linen – don’t you just love it?

Finally, take a look at Moxi. It’s the perfect springtime combination of reds, pinks, yellows, teals and greens! MMM that puts me in the mood for yummy Easter candy…..

Moxi by Studio M.

I don’t know what you have planned for the weekend, but I’m ready to sew (and maybe indulge in some sugary sweet treats)!

QuiltCon Swag Winner and a Quick Update

March 7, 2015March 7, 20156 Comments

I owe you guys some winners! Congratulations to Karen W. who won the copy of QuiltCon Magazine and to Elizabeth B. who won the Charm Pack.

I’ve had a busy catch up week! After getting home and settled from QuiltCon it was time to quickly finish a quilt for an upcoming magazine deadline, and then pack and get ready for my week-long class at the Folkschool coming up. What a fun kind of busy right?

Sneak peek of what’s been keeping me so busy this week!

I love teaching so much that I’ve been booking more workshops for the spring and summer (see my updated teaching schedule here). I’ve even had a few inquiries for next year, so that’s pretty cool, too. I’m not ashamed to admit that I still like getting asked out. 🙂

I got some fun new “quilty” luggage just for the trip!

I’ll be posting plenty of real-time Instagram updates (follow me @christaquilts) and I’ll try to sneak in a blog update or two while I’m gone. Part of my workflow involves getting my weekly newsletters ready ahead of time, so be sure sign up for my email list so you don’t miss a thing!

I will leave you with a little bit of novelty eye candy, newly arrived precuts from our store….

Diary of a Wimpy Kid Fat Quarters – aren’t these fun??

Star Wars bundle – you know you want it!!

Spiderman – need I say more??

Thank goodness Jason and the kids can hold down the fort while I’m away!

Fabric Friday – The Great Destash of 2015

February 13, 2015February 12, 201537 Comments

Do you guys remember when I did the great fabric destash of 2013? Well guess what? It’s time to do it again in 2015!!

I spent last weekend clearing off my entire shelf of novelty fabrics. I finally realized that as much as I love a good novelty print, I just don’t use them in my quilts. I’d rather sell them to you super cheap than let them languish on my shelves, unused. So here’s the deal:

I have a total of 12 flat rate boxes, crammed full of novelty prints that I’m offering for just $50 each, shipped to the US ($75 to Canada and $95 international). The boxes have at least 15 yards in them and probably even more. So that makes them under $3.50 per yard – shipped!!

Here’s the fine print: these are all quilt-shop quality fabrics that have been prewashed. Some may have edges that are a little raggedy and some may be a little wrinkled. A piece may have been cut out here and there. They are all in excellent condition and sizes range from about 1/8 to 1/4 yard all the way up to 2-3 yard pieces.

Each box will be randomly stuffed with a variety of novelty prints, most of which are shown here. Each box with be different and will include some fabrics from each group of pictures shown, plus a few more that didn’t make it into the pictures.

To claim your mystery box, just leave a comment below indicating how many boxes you want. I will select the first 12 buyers and payment will be via paypal. When you comment, It shows me your email address (but no one else can see it), so I will contact you that way to send you an invoice. So no need to share personal info here online.

I’m sorry, but I can’t accommodate requests for specific fabrics or smaller amounts. It’s all going to be random, but that will be half the fun of getting your box, right?? These prints are perfect for eye-spy quilts, charity projects and fun pieced backings!

To recap: leave a comment to claim your box for $50 shipped to the US. It will be a random assortment and all boxes will be stuffed with a good variety of novelty themed prints.

Thank You!

Fabric Friday – New Tonga Treats Batiks

February 6, 2015January 30, 20157 Comments

One of the hottest sellers in my precut store are Timeless Treasures Tonga Treats.

Although I don’t personally use batiks very much (which I hope to improve on), my customers can’t get enough of the luscious vibrant colors. Tonga Treats come in all of the usual varieties: strips, charms, fat quarters, and 10″ squares. Plus they have created an exclusive precut called 6-packs – precut strips that are 6″ wide by the width of fabric.

Here are some of the newest treats:

Carnivale 6 packs – comes in all the other sizes, too!

Hawaii Colorway – trendy coral and aqua.

Reef Colorway – gorgeous blues and purples!

Cabana Colorway – so beachy!

Aren’t they luscious??

Click here to see the full collection of Tonga Treats!

Giveaway Winner

January 20, 20155 Comments

Congratulations to Lori M. who is the winner of the Kaufman Skinny Strips and Moda Charm Pack shown below! I’ve sent you an email directly. Thanks also to those of you who participated by reading my weekly email newsletter. 🙂

If you haven’t yet subscribed to my Friendly Threads newsletter, click here to join!

Fabric Friday – Global Shipping for Precuts and a Giveaway!

January 16, 2015January 10, 201554 Comments

For this week’s Fabric Friday, I thought I’d do something a little different – let’s have a giveaway!!

But first, I have some great news for my international friends: most of our precuts are now available for global shipping! Whoo hoo! I believe this is a pilot program, which if successful, will hopefully mean that all items will be available for international shipping in the future.

Click here to see which precuts this applies to. 🙂

One of you will win these precut bundles by signing up for my newsletter!

And now for the giveaway…

One lucky winner will receive the precut bundles shown above: a Skinny Strip (1 1/2″ x 40″ strips) of Valori Wells Blueprint Basics in Summer, plus a charm pack of Bella Snow.

Enter to win!

Click here to subscribe to my weekly email newsletter and you’ll be automatically entered to win! I use a double opt in system which means you’ll receive a confirmation email once you’ve added your name to the list. Be sure to find that email (check your spam box just in case) and open it to ensure you’ve been registered.

Fabric swatches from Blueprint Basics – Summer

If you are already signed up for my newsletter, you don’t have to do a thing – you are already entered. Imagine that – you don’t even need to leave me a comment! Though of course you still can if you want to. 🙂

The giveaway is open to everyone worldwide through Monday, January 19th at midnight PST. I’ll draw a winner’s name and announce it on the blog during the day on Tuesday.

Have a happy sewing weekend!

Fabric Friday – Junior Jelly Rolls and Layer Cakes

January 9, 2015January 8, 20152 Comments

It’s the first Fabric Friday of the year! Whoo hoo! That means it’s time to introduce you to some fun new precuts. Moda has recently introduced junior precuts – smaller bundles of precut strips and squares.

The Junior Layer Cakes include 20 squares, precut into a convenient 10″ x 10″ size. Right now they include the most popular bella solid colors, with all the squares being cut from the same fabric. These are so versatile for backgrounds, or to combine with other layer cake squares.

Click here to view all Junior Layer Cakes.

The Junior Jelly Rolls include 20 precut 2 1/2″ x 42″ strips that are all the same color, also bella solids. I think if these are successful, Moda will probably expand to include the print strips.