Fabric Friday – New Tonga Treats

October 17, 2014October 10, 20148 Comments

I’ve always had a thing for batiks. And even though there is currently some debate, or shall we say “thoughts” in modern circles about the use of batiks in modern quilts, I certainly love them! (They are some of Jasons’ favorites, too, and he keeps pushing me to use them more!)

This week we just received a treasure trove of new Tonga Treats from Timeless Treasures: precut batik fat quarters, charms, strips, squares, and six-packs! Take a look:

The Hawaii colorway features the popular combination of aqua and red, with a pop of peach, cream, teal and light blue for sparkle. I especially like the geometrics – they remind me of free-motion quilting designs!

Cabana reminds me of the beach with surf and sand colors of blue, green and warm tan!

Reef includes gorgeous tones of purple and blue. Hmm, do you see a theme here? I think whoever named these groups wanted to get away for a little vacation, don’t you think?

Click here to see all of the luscious Tonga Treats!

Fabric Friday Feature – Denyse Schmidt Hadley, Amy Butler Glow, and Kaffe Fassett Limited

October 10, 2014October 2, 20143 Comments

It is with great pleasure that I get to share the latest designer precuts with you! They are all from Westminster, which distributes both the Free Spirit collection and the Rowan Line.

Hadley by Denyse Schmidt for Free Spirit

Isn’t Hadley just awesome? It features modern geometrics and florals in a slightly darker palette, perfect for fall! Who says brown can’t be a great modern neutral?

Amy Butler Glow from Rowan

Amy Butler’s prints are what first turned me onto modern fabrics. Her penchant for combining color, print and texture are simply unparalleled in the fabric industry!

Kaffe Fassett’s Limited Edition

Kaffe Fassett’s fabrics have been a favorite of mine for years! The riotous color and bold designs make any quilt or fabric project sing!

Click here to shop all precuts and drool over your favorites. 🙂

Fabric Friday – A Field Guide by Janet Clare

October 3, 2014October 2, 20147 Comments

Yay! It’s time for Fabric Friday – a day where I get to share with you what’s new in my precut store. I have to tell you how hard it is to decide which fabrics to feature. Sometimes I give sneak peeks on my instagram account as they arrive.

The tricky thing about that is that it may not get to my store for a week or more after I share! In fact, I already wrote another post for next Friday, hoping everything I want so show you will get there in time. 🙂

So for today, let’s take a look at A Field Guide by Janet Clare for Moda, all in stock and ready to ship (while supplies last):

Janet Clare and her children are collectors of pebbles, feathers, fossils and shells. So it was really only a matter of time before their nature collecting became the inspiration for a fabric collection. Much of her work is inspired by children and their purity of thought, their innocence and the joy they find in the simplicity of nature.

A Field Guide is available in these precuts:

A Field Guide Jelly Roll – 40 Strips, 2 1/2″ x 42″

A Field Guide Charm Pack – 42 Squares, 5″ x 5″

A Field Guide Layer Cake – 42 Squares, 10″ x 10″

A Field Guide – 28 Fat Quarters, 18″ x 21″

A Field Guide – 28 Fat Eighths, 9″ x 21″

Aren’t they pretty?

New Precuts in the House (er, Warehouse that is!)

September 20, 20142 Comments

Since I missed Fabric Friday, I want to share a few of my newest precuts with you on Showcase Saturday! Cheezy, yes I know, but what can I say, I love alliteration!

I also love the bundles of Windham fat quarters we are starting to accumulate. At last count we had 15 different collections. Here are three of my favorites:

Mormor by Lotta Jansdotter is an ecletic mix of colorful modern florals and geometrics. The bundle includes 20 prints and 3 solids in shades of eggplant, coral, grey, teal, blue, and citron.

I’ve recently become a fan of Sarah Fielke and her whimsical, colorful style. Enchanted is a 17 piece bundle that includes 13 prints and 4 solids. Don’t you just love that peacock print?

The story of Emma and Bobby deciding what to play is the subject of this delightful collection of storybook prints. With classic 30’s colors and inspired playful images of bears, ducks, dolls and other toys, plus beautiful florals, Storybook Playtime by Whistler Studios is sure to inspire your next retro quilt.

Click here to see all Windham Fat Quarter Bundles. Enjoy the eye candy!!

Fabric Friday – What’s Trending

September 12, 2014September 9, 20148 Comments

For this week’s Fabric Friday, I thought I would share with you what have been some of our top sellers. I know other shops follow my blog so I don’t mind sharing what is working well. Plus, isn’t it fun to know what your fellow quilters are trending towards? Maybe you will see a bundle of yummy color you didn’t notice before!

Some of my own personal Aurifil collection – I love color!!

First up – Aurifil Thread!! My goodness, adding Aurifil thread to our lineup has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. The colors are so vibrant, the thread is such high quality, and it’s perfect for both piecing and machine quilting.

Seascape collection by Sheena Norquay – one of our best sellers!

I love the smaller thread kits for machine applique, bindings, or when I’m just using a small amount of a particular color on my quilt. The larger spools are perfect for lots of custom quilting or when I want to quilt the heck out of anything! 🙂

Forver Amy Fat Quarter Bundle – Love It!!

Next – anything from Westminster and FreeSpirit.

Kaffe Fassett fat quarters, Amy Butler design rolls, Anna Maria Horner precuts – I cold go on and on. The bold contemporary prints are a perfect choice, every time!

True Colors by Anna Maria – I recently made a quilt from some of these.

Finally, solids, solids, solids! When I first started carrying solid precuts it was mainly for selfish reasons. But I think they have been so popular because they are so versatile.

Kona Solids Classic Palette by Robert Kaufman – Yum!

We sell a lot of solid charm packs along with print bundles and I think people are mixing them together to make a larger quilt. Also the Jelly Rolls and Rollups are perfect for sashings and bindings, and you just can’t go wrong with a stack of colorful fat quarters, arranged in rainbow order!

Elizabeth Hartman Designer Bundle

What do you have your eye on?

Fabric Friday – Quilt Market Arrivals

August 29, 2014August 29, 20146 Comments

Even though Jason and I didn’t attend quilt market this past spring, we were still able to order boxes and boxes of fabulous new precuts which are starting to arrive in stores now. (After an 8 year absence, we are headed to Fall Market again in the fall and I can’t wait!)

First let me tell you about Modern Neutrals by Amy Ellis. I love this line and I’ve been a long-time fan of Amy’s. In fact, I was able to get advanced yardage of some of this line for a special secret project I’m currently working on. My favorite print is the one on the top of the precut stack that reminds me of Star-Trek insignia. (Yeah – we are trekkies!!)

Here’s what Amy has to say about her debut line for Moda:

“While writing Modern Neutrals (the book), I fell in love with the calming sense that was found in each of the quilts. Later, when selecting a color palette for my first collection of fabric designs, I kept coming back to the neutral palettes and decided it was meant to be! I added a touch of color that can be used, if desired, in your quilts to liven up the subtle neutrals. I hope you enjoy the neutral palette as much as I do.”

Yes, Amy, I do!

Next, take a look at Best Day Ever by Amy’s pal and podcast co-host April Rosenthal. If you remember, I interviewed April about her experiences in becoming a fabric designer earlier on my blog.

I love the fun bright prints and the story behind them. Now that April’s fabrics are out, I think they would make some of the Best Quilts Ever!

Finally, I’d like to introduce you to LOL by dynamic duo Me and My Sister. This talented pair has been releasing fabulous collections as long as I’ve been in business and have consistently been one of our top sellers. 🙂

Their cheery bright pastels never fail to please!

This is just the tip of the iceberg of all the fabulous precuts that are arriving each week. Click here to see them all!

It’s Fabric Friday, Friends, and I am in Love with Solids

August 15, 2014August 9, 20149 Comments

Can I just say I am in love with solids? When I first got into quilting nearly 2 decades ago, solid fabrics did not catch my eye. Sure, I appreciated Amish quilts in all their simplistic beauty and I loved the value of a good tone-one-tone blender; but I was not ready for solids – or maybe they just weren’t ready for me…

At any rate, I’ve fallen in love with them over the last few years, partly due to the fact that I love how quilting really shows up on them. Also, when working with solids, the design of the quilt is much more important and makes a much bigger impact.

So it’s no wonder that I jumped at the chance to carry the motherload of solid precuts: Denyse Schmidt’s Modern Solids bundle from Free Spirit. It’s a box full of 75 tantalizing solids in every color you could imagine!

I mean just look at all of these pretties!! I could seriously ditch my stash and work with only solids if given the chance… (but don’t worry – I have no plans to take such a drastic step!)

I only have a limited number of these boxes, since they are pretty hefty. But hopefully FreeSpirit will keep them around for awhile and maybe, if we are lucky, add to the collection as time goes by!

Click here to shop my entire line of solid precuts.

Are you a solids-lover like I am? Or do you prefer prints?

Precuts on Clearance

July 31, 2014July 31, 20141 Comment

I have some fun fabric news to share this week. Jason has set up a section of our precut store exclusively for precuts on clearance. This will give us a chance to drastically reduce prices on precuts that we either bought too many of, or those that haven’t sold as quickly as we would have liked.

Here a few examples of some fun eye candy clearance for your stash:

Dr. Seuss The Lorax Quilt Kit. Clearance price $59.95.

Hoffman Bali Pop Parfait – Clearance price $28.95 (regular retail price $41.95)

Flats Jelly Roll by Angela Yosten. Clearance price $26.95 – Just a few left!

Contempo Layer Cake – Clearance price $28.95

Greener Pastures FQ Kona Solids Bundle – $32.95 on Clearance

Click here to shop our entire precut clearance section!

Fabric Friday – Artisan Spirit Shimmer Metallics

July 25, 2014July 22, 201416 Comments

I enjoy a good metallic fabric, don’t you? I love that fabrics with a bit of sparkle are making a comeback. When I first started quilting around 20 years ago, metallics were hot and everyone loved to call them, “quilter’s gold” because they added just the right touch of elegance to any project.

Hibiscus – Artisan Spirit Shimmer in Shades of Pink

Northcott has just come out with a beautiful line of shimmery basics called Artisan Spirit. The 9 piece fat quarter bundles include a carefully selected gradation of colors in several rich color families.

Peacock – Artisan Spirit Shimmer in Shades of Teal

Aren’t they just stunning? I am a sucker for color, and I tend to prefer solid or tone-on-tone fabrics that “read” solid from a distance.

Earth – Artisan Spirit Shimmer in Shades of Grey

Click here to see the entire collection of Artisan Spirit Precuts

What’s your favorite color to play with?

Fabric Friday – Paintbrush Studio Fat Quarters

July 18, 2014July 15, 20144 Comments

I’m excited to share a fun find for this week’s Fabric Friday. Please let me introduce you to Paintbrush Studio fabric bundles.

Marblehead by Ro Gregg – 55 tantalizing tone on tone textures.

Designer Ro Gregg has created dozens of colorful collections including her signature tone-on-tonal Marblehead line, along with fun themed novelty groups.

I am a sucker for fun, bright geometrics…

Rio 12 piece fat quarter bundle by Ro Gregg for Paintbrush Studio

And classic black and white prints with a pop of red!

Black Tie Affair by Ro Gregg- 10 fat quarters

Neutrals have been making their way back into the quilting scene, and who can resist a modern floral bundle like this??

Elemental Lines 12 piece fat quarter bundle.

You know, one of the reasons I love running my precut store is that I know I’ll never be able to make all of the quilts I want to. Playing with fabric gives me a good excuse to imagine the possibilities, even if there’s no way I will get to them all in one lifetime!