To Market, To Market

Hello Pieceful Quilters!

Next week we leave for Spring Quilt Market in Minneapolis.  We are pretty excited this time, since Diane and I will be talking a little bit about Diane's wonderful American Summer BOM at the Penny Rose Schoolhouse session.  The quilt is all finished, and Teresa is quilting it now:

 We are hoping that showing the finished sample will convince some other shops around the country to pick it up for a BOM project.  Diane did such a great job of writing the pattern and putting together great kitting instructions for shops.  Since we have our own shop, we know what kind of challenges shop owners face when trying to kit things.  There is a fine line between having enough fabric in a kit to allow for operator error, or having too much so that people feel like you are overselling to them.

American Summer starts in our shop in June, so if you are planning on doing it, either in the shop or by mail, please sign up soon!  We will probably start cutting the kits when we get back from Market, since the fabric arrived yesterday!   Katie does have it set up so that you can sign up on our website at www.piecefulgathering.com under Shop Online/Block of the Month Quilts & Clubs.

My next fabric line, Samantha, is not coming out until September, but Penny Rose sent me some small pieces of the strike-offs to do something for Market.  Here is what I have so far - I am still doing some borders, but I am really loving this fabric!  The double pinks may look a little bright in this picture, but if the fabric prints the same as the strike-offs, you are all going to love these double pinks.  They are dead on authentic colors, and they look so great with the deep rich browns and tans.  I have a couple of real quilt designs for this one, but I have been playing with ideas for a BOM for this one, too.  (In my spare time - hah!)  We will also take pre-orders for Fat Quarter bundles of this line.  You can see both of these lines at Penny Rose Fabrics, and order on our website.

So there you are - I have not blogged twice in a week!  Stay tuned for more Pieceful Babble soon!

Happy Quilting - Carrie

Americana Fabric Line and American Summer BOM

Hello Pieceful Quilters!

So - after vowing to post a couple of times a week, it has been 5 months - Wow- how did that happen?  I could have sworn it was less than three - which is also horrible - but 5????

Anyway, my new fabric company, Penny Rose Fabrics, is doing a blog hop or something, which I said I would participate in.  I am not sure what that really means, and I am guessing that they have probably taken a look at my pathetic blog and dropped me off the list - totally understandable!  But, on the outside chance that I am still in this - I thought maybe I would post something! 

I guess I should start with my fabric lines that are coming out.  First, coming soon to a quilt shop near you, we have Americana.  Being a total sucker for anything patriotic, this was a natural for me.  I learned to be patriotic from my dad, who woke us up on the 4th of July with LOUD Stars & Stripes Forever on the record player.  I didn't always appreciate this - particularly in my college years - but I would give anything to have him around to do that now.  Lesson:  Appreciate your parents while you can - they won't always be around to annoy you!

So, I design fabric - or do I?  Although I have been known to take out a dot here and there, or change the scale of a design, my fabrics are authentic reproductions of antique fabrics.  Most of these fabrics are from quilts, quilt tops, blocks and fabric pieces that I have collected.  I have a special affinity for fabrics from the Civil War era, but I like from the 1800's up to the turn of the century. 

Reproduction - what exactly does that mean?  Basically, I choose fabrics I like from my collection.  I do what I can to enhance them - sometimes that means making the print sharper, as these fabrics are often pretty faded, and sometimes I don't have big enough pieces to make out the entire pattern, so I piece together what I can, and fill in the blank as best I can.  Once I have the print the way I want it, I come up with alternate colorways.  Usually, I have a plan - patriotic, pink & brown, blue & white - or anything that Penny Rose needs!  I always try to make the colors work together, and throw in some neutrals.  Since I own a quilt shop, I know what I need to have in a fabric line for it to sell in my shop.  Whenever we order a complete line, it seems like there are a few dogs that I know will end up in our sale room.  My goal is to produce a line with no dogs.  Hah!

I believe I have digressed - back to Americana.  The Storyboard is below.  As you can see, there are 7 different prints, and each is done in 3 different colorways.  There were other prints that the company decided not to use, and other colors that they had do choose from.  Once they have decided what to do, a stylist (read that - someone that actually knows what they are doing) fixes everything so that it will print correctly on fabric and they send it out for test prints (strike-offs).  Sometimes they get sent back a few times before the colors are just right and the prints are sharp or soft enough. 

 

With the Americana line, we have done a Block-of-the-Month.  Diane Nieman designed this awesome quilt and I think you will agree that it works perfectly with my fabrics.  We are extra excited that Penny Rose is helping us in offering this to other quilt shops.  Ask your local shop if they are going to do it, or do it online through our shop.  You can find all the information at: www.piecefulgathering.com under "Shop Online - Block of the Month Quilts and Clubs.

 

Until Next time...  

 

Happy Quilting - Carrie