Spring Fabric is Starting to Arrive: Nani Iro, Echino, Amy Butler...

It's our favorite time of year! All the fabric we ordered at last fall's Quilt Market is starting to show up at the shop - deliveries almost every day! Here's some of the newest:

Organic canvas from Rashida Coleman Hale for Cloud9:

Goodnight Moon organic cotton!

Carolyn Friedlander's Botanics and Architextures collections:

Organic cotton knits from Monaluna:

The latest from Echino:

Tomotake for Kokka:

The always-amazing Nani Iro:

Joel Dewberry:

Martha Negley:                                                                                         Denyse Schmidt:

Parson Gray's 'Vagabond' collection:

Amy Butler's 'Hapi'

From Anna Maria Horner's 'Dowry' collection:

...and more coming soon from Alexander Henry, Robert Kaufman and Yuwa!

Spring Quilt Market 2012 - Kansas City! Part One

It's that time again... Quilt Market time! This year, the spring market was in Kansas City, MO from May 18 to May 20. This is where we get all of our late summer / early fall fabric, and it's where designers debut their latest collections - so it's pretty exciting if you're a fabric junkie like me!

Christine and I both made the trip this year, and it was fun for me to introduce her to all the great folks who make our fabric-buying job so pleasant. Plus, it's great to meet up with other shop owners across the country and gossip! 

What's Coming: New Nani Iro and Assorted Cuteness!

I got to order some lovely Japanese fabric for the shop recently, and here's a sneak peek at what I picked out. Keep in mind that it will be about six more weeks till this fabric actually gets here - and rest assured that I will tell you all when it arrives! First off, some new prints from on of my favorite designers, Naomi Ito of Nani Iro. She's come up with a gorgeous knit in three colorways - perfect for our Serger classes!

Ivory

Slate Blue

Gray

 

And of course, I love it when she gets graphic - here are both sides of a new border print.

    

    

  

 Two versions of polka dot double gauze... 

From Kokka: Hedgehog / Ladybug / Shamrock

And two large scale abstract florals to round out the goodies!

Colette's Macaron Dress and a Quick Skirt Change

Dress post! I finished my Macaron dress just in time for my friend Jimm's wedding. As usual, I was handsewing practically in the car on the way to the ceremony... this seems to happen at every formal event I ever go to. I have had my eye on this dress ever since it was released by Colette - especially after seeing all the cute versions of it being made all over the country - and when Christine decided to do it as a class I thought I'd try it out.

The pattern features a top contrast yoke and a really cool sweetheart illusion neckline. It has little cap sleeves and a bit of a bubble skirt with pleats with secret pockets. The bubble part was the only thing I changed as I really don't need that shape on my body. It looks great on a lot of peeps though! I chose fancy fabrics since this is a more formal dress - Nani Iro's 'Fuccra Rakuen' in peach and a silk/cotton blend in espresso for the contrast:

Oh I love a NEW COAT!

Hooray for fall! And of course fall means that we all have to drop what we are doing and make coats. I was looking at several coat patterns when I started my "Fall Wardrobe" series, and I ended up making muslins for two of them. I can't seem to stop looking at coat patterns, however, and someday I am going to make a coat like this, from Japanese designer Atelier Boz:

Since I need a coat right now, though, this is not the coat I will be making. So, I whipped out my trusty pattern books and came up with two patterns to test as muslins.

The first one is this coat, from the Daily Sewing book:

It's a relaxed cover-all type of jacket, unlined, with a hood and patch pockets. One of our canvases or twills would look fantastic - either a solid or one of the prints, sophisticated like Nani Iro's Painting Muji or fun like Echino's London! Sometimes it's nice to dream of all the jackets you could make...