Spring 2011 Quilt Market: Tula Pink, Joel Dewberry, Anna Maria Horner and Amy Butler

So I thought I'd start out today showing you some fabric that you CAN have right now... we just got Tula Pink's latest collection in at the shop! We saw her beautiful prints a little before Market and were able to get this order out ASAP. The collection is called 'Prince Charming' and the indigo toile below is my favorite! (psst... the scallop fabric has snails on it...)




Joel Dewberry's newest fabric - the 'Heirloom' collection - utilizes the geometrics that we all love, and we have some large scale florals in unexpected colorways as well. I'm very excited because these prints are available on quilt weight cotton as well as voile! This fabric will be shipping to us in July.







Anna Maria Horner's fabric jumps right off the walls at you. It's so vibrant and different from other designers! Her newest collection is called 'LouLouThi' - on her blog she mentions that is Greek for flower. Again - quilt weight and voiles! So exciting for those of us who can't wait to make more Violet Blouses! The best news is that it ships next week, so it will all be here before you know it.







Another exciting trend has been towards printing fabric on rayon. Even though it's a little harder to work with, it looks so fantastic that we put up with it! Amy Butler has printed certain fabrics from her 'Soul Blossoms' collection onto both rayon and corduroy, and we'll be getting it all in June!




Continuing the not-just-plain-cotton trend are these two designs from Valori Wells, printed on LINEN! It's easy for us to find solid linen, but oh, so hard to find nice prints.



At the end of a very long day looking at millions of little pieces of fabric, I finally met up with Lizzy House in person! She's a designer that I have admired for years, so it was thrilling to say the least. Turns out she lives in the area so she and her lovely sister had some great suggestions for where to walk/eat/caffeinate/art in SLC. Which you will hear all about in my last post!


That wraps it up for today. Over the weekend, you will be treated to the remainder of the posts I have planned, including some of the most amazing fabric I have EVER SEEN. Yep, it's true. See you soon!

Spring 2011 Quilt Market: Moda and Art Gallery

The second day of Quilt Market saw me meeting up with my lovely Moda rep, Laura, after a mad dash to the convention center. Those acre-long blocks just about killed me! The two designers that really grabbed me were Aneela Hoey and Cosmo Cricket - both had separate mini-booths in Moda-land where their fabrics were shown off. Aneela's latest collection is called 'Little Apples' and it has TURTLES!





And a wee hedgehog...


Everyone knows I am a sucker for yarn dyes, so I picked out these four with visions of Schoolhouse Tunics dancing in my head!





This next group is what pulled me in to Moda in the first place - Cosmo Cricket's 'Circa 1934'. I just love the vintage colors, and the typeset fabric is beyond cool.





We have been carrying Art Gallery fabric for a few seasons now, and can always count on them for amazing florals with saturated colors. A few geometric prints to round out the order!







Join me tomorrow for the next post - new Joel Dewberry, Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Valori Wells - and some adventures in Salt Lake City!

Spring 2011 Quilt Market: Melody Miller, Heather Ross and Nani Iro

Even though it's called Quilt Market, this is where I find the majority of the fabric that we carry at Sew L.A. There are hundreds and hundreds of businesses in attendance - most of them are still pushing quilting fabric but there is a trend towards garment-friendly fabric that has been growing the whole time I have been attending. Good news for us!

I had only ever been to Salt Lake City once before, very briefly, so I was not sure what to expect. The Market took up most of my time, but I try to take a day off whenever I travel to check out the city & talk to the people. The weather was stunning - blue sky with huge fluffy clouds, warm & sunny for the most part, and the views of the surrounding mountains were breathtaking. One thing I was really unprepared for was the blocks being a whole acre long. Since I was walking, I definitely ended up walking a lot!

There is so much new fabric coming that I'm going to divide these posts up into five sections. The first four will be all about the new fabric, and the last post will be about the city!

Here's what the market looks like from the middle of the floor:



That's a lot of fabric. And sometimes, it's a little overwhelming to find the good stuff! Never fear, though - find it I did. First stop is new fabric from Melody Miller, Kokka and Nani Iro with a few bits of amazingness thrown in.

Melody Miller's new line is called 'Ruby Star Spring', and she explains that she wanted to create two distinct collections for fall and spring, like Etsuko Furuya does for Echino. So we have insects! It's printed on a lightweight cotton/linen - just perfect for drapey summer dresses!











There were a few fabrics from Kokka that really stood out. First, two from a collection called 'Luluca':



Kokka never fails when it comes to cuteness! So we also chose two colorways in both of these next fabrics. I'm excited because the anchors & ladybugs are a double gauze!





Lest we not forget that there is some sophisticated fabric to be had, we expect the new Nani Iro collection to be arriving any day now. Here are two examples of her lovely work, followed by two colorways of Ecrulat linen:





We also ordered these two wovens from Westex - the detail in the weave is so intricate!



And finally, to top everything off, we have some pictures of the newest Heather Ross collection called 'Far Far Away III' - my favorite is the owl absconding with the underwear.







I really love the last three flower prints! Such beautiful colors - can't wait for you all to see them in person. The last little thing I'm excited about are these spring clasps for tiny purses! We got two sizes, this little guy and one that's a bit larger for a clutch. Guess what will be a class for the summer!