jcaroline's blog

Woodland Friends by Ellen Crimi-Trent is here

Ellen's debut collection Woodland Friends is here!  Blue, green, yellow and orange hedgehogs, mushrooms, birdies and other woodland creatures.  Ellen is a prolific licensed artist and creates darling characters.  Ellen also offers her hedgehogs and other illustrations as prints in her Etsy shop.  I bought some of the birdie prints, which are my personal favorite.  (And rumor has it they might be a future fabric collection!)

Ellen is a prolific twitterer, so don't miss her there either.  I think she types with one hand and draws with the other!

Enjoy Ellen's first foray into fabric!  She promises more to come.

Fabric Sneak Peeks

Quilt Market starts October 9, so fabric designers are starting to show sneak peeks of their new lines.  And, of course, the Michael Miller gang is no exception.

Sandi Henderson revealed her Meadowsweet line this week.  30 pieces in 2 colorways:  peach and pear.

Paula Prass revealed Woodland Delight.  25 pieces in 3 colorways:  brown, pink and gray.

Patty Young introduced us to Flora & Fauna. 44 pieces in 4 colorways:  turquoise, raspberry, mustard, stone.

I made a girl's dress out of the Woodland Park using a new Paula Prass pattern that will debut at market and it is darling!  (Pictures later.)

I must now scurry and finish a chair cover in Meadowsweet for Miss Henderson.  She expects it tomorrow and I would hate to disappoint!

Summer Soiree & Messy Hands

Who says summer is over?  It was 88 degrees today in Houston, so I think summer is still in full force.  Besides, I'm not going to let a little issue like timing stand in the way of Paula Prass's latest fabric, Summer Soiree.  Bright pinks, turquoises, golden yellows in a variety of floral and graphics.

We also just received Messy Hands from Michael Miller, a darling new juvenile print.  My favorite of that group is the Megatropolis, shown below.

Organic Canvas is here- Oasis from Marcus

We just got in Marcus Fabric's organic canvas, called Oasis.  It is a light canvas (I would say approximately 5 oz.   Definitely lighter than a 7 oz. canvas.)  woven of Certified Organic cotton and using eco-friendly dyes. 

Certified Organic canvas has been grown in a field that has been chemical and pesticide-free for the previous three years.  The Eco-friendly dyes are free of toxins and are disposed of properly.  The dying process minimizes energy and resources and also requires safety for the workers and fair wages.

We're currently carrying this fabric in eleven colors.

Shade Garden is Here!

Michelle Engel Bencsko's Shade Garden Fabric is here!  This is Michelle's second collection for Henry Glass Fabrics.  You may remember her first group, Dogwood Blossoms.  The small scale and soothing colorways of Shade Garden make it perfect for children's clothes and bedding. 

Michelle is fairly new to the licensed design of fabric, but she's been doing her own for quite some time at Cicada Studio.  She is yet another independent designer who has designed, produced and distributed her own fabric.  She sells her digitally printed designs in her Etsy shop.  Her prints are linen/cotten blends in beautiful graphics that would translate great into throw pillows or handbags.

But don't think she has stopped there!  She and Gina Pantastico recently launched Cloud9 Fabrics, a fabric company focused on organic cotton prints.  And their first fabric collection just came in!  Michelle designed My Happy Garden and she and Gina joined forces to have it mass produced on organic cotton and printed with organic, solvent-free dyes which are OEKO-TEX certified.  Look for it to be out and about (and here) soon!

In the meantime, soak up some of the prolific designer's goodness with Shade Garden.

New Bamboo Felt

We just got in new XoticFelt, which is 50% bamboo and 50% rayon.  It is the new "sustainable" felt, but quite frankly, I don't know why wool felt isn't sustainable.  The sheep isn't killed, just sheared, right?  Anyway, the nice thing about this felt is it is super soft.  Not itchy at all.  We sell it by the yard and fat quarter. 

So what is that conglomeration of stuff you see in the picture?  Well, it's a felt pillow project that if I ever finish, you'll get to see.  It's from the cover of Anne Kyyro Quinn's Felt Furnishings.  The book is full of home dec projects using felt.   I sent her some felt and she wrote a book.  Well, not exactly in that order...

She did it in one color and I thought, "Hey!  If one color is good, five must be even better!"  Isn't that how must design disasters start?  Anyway, I will take a pic if I finish, but give me a few weeks.  My little helpers at home haven't given me much time.

Betz White's Family Cottage Organic Canvas

 

Betz White of Sewing Green fame, released her new fabric this summer, Family Cottage Organic Canvas.  Not only is the fabric darling and on canvas (you know how I love that stuff!), she is producing it herself and selling it in her Etsy shop.  She sells it in fat quarters (18" x 26"), 1 yard (54" wide), sets of "home dec squares" (18" x 18"), and she just added a 4-pack Sample Set (9" x 13") for smaller projects.

And she isn't the only one doing this sort of thing.  It is part of a quickly growing trend of designers that are not partnering with a major fabric manufacturer who mass produces fabric or going the route of print-it-yourself sites like Spoonflower.  Basically, as these designers are not finding the designs, quality or cloth that they want, they are creating their own.  And not just designing it, but producing it and distributing it themselves.  The disadvantage?  The goods are a pricier, because they are not mass produced.  Most designers are professionally digitally printing or hand screening their fabrics, so the economies of scale of rotary printing thousands of yards doesn't kick in.  The advantage?  Unique designs that, instead of gathering dust on a design director's pile of submissions, are out there and available for you to enjoy!  And they are truly the designer's vision-- completely unedited by a manufacturer.  It's a bit like owning an original painting, but one you can sew with!

This fabric is fantastic!  My personal favorite is the Lawn Chair print and the Picnic Floral.  The fabric looks darling on her reversible bucket hat, the pattern also available on her Etsy shop.  Check out the hat she made for her son out of refashioned shorts- she was able to reuse the back pocket!

Patty Young's Mezzanine is here!

 Patty Young's second fabric line Mezzanine is available now!  It's a lovely combination of pinks, greens and aquas in some traditional florals and lots of graphic stained glass inspirations.   Traditional, but graphic, if that makes sense.  She made those gorgeous pillows that really show off the interesting designs.

Look how great her display looked at Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, debuting Mezzanine and her patterns.

And she has two new patterns out that we got in last week, Sophie, three way pants and Sydney, Euro hoodie dress.

 

(Those are her daughters, by the way.  Aren't they darling?  I'll let you guess their names... )

Full Bloom is Here!

Bari J. Ackerman's debut fabric line, Full Bloom, is here!  It is a gorgeous combination of teapots, flowers and birds in soft blues, pinks, greens and yellows.  You can read more about her fabric collection on her blog,  Bari J. and you can also order a handbag made from this fabric (and others) on her handbag  site Bari J.  Check out this darling wristlet bag you can purchase there:

Snatch up some of this fabric!

I just returned from Blogher in Chicago.  I'll update you on that later.

Lily Pond by Wendy Slotboom

A new collection from Wendy Slotboom called Lily Pond.  A delightful mix of simple graphics and your basic pink, green, blue and brown.  Perfect for kid's clothes!

And congrats to Misty of Kentucky who won the Lantern Bloom fat quarter pack.  She responded to my email announcing her win with "Holy Cow, I never win anything. Yipee Skippy!"  Yipee Skippy, indeed, and enjoy those little works of art.