Alyssa Thomas of Penguin and Fish has been one of my favorites since I met her at her first Quilt Market, three years ago. She was one of the very first to show modern embroidery patterns at Market and her whimsically wonderful, frequently oversized designs of critters quickly caught on—they’re simple enough for new embroiderers, but so charming that they’ve captured the interest of knowledgeable stitchers, too. She’s since jumped from being a newbie to designing organic fabrics for Clothworks, to signing copies of her new book Sew and Stitch Embroidery.

“We’ve made embroidery the star of the sewing projects,” says Alyssa of the designs that incorporate embroidery floss and yarn and the sweet critters she’s known for. Her favorite project is a quilt featuring a human-sized octopus. “When you pull it up to your chin, it looks like your head is on top of the octopus’s body,” says Alyssa. Alyssa and her husband Jon were a cheerful presence in their Market booth. Look for Sew and Stitch Embroidery (published by F&W Media) later this month.

Alyssa Thomas’s third and newest organic fabric line for Clothworks is Critter Patch. The fabric imagery retains the hand-drawn feel of Alyssa’s embroidery images, and the focus fabric is a veritable peaceable kingdom of friendly foxes, squirrels, owls and hedgehogs. So sweet!

{ Free Cotton Garden quilt pattern download here }

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Linzee Kull McCray is a writer and editor with a focus on textiles and crafts. She’s a regular contributor to Etsy’s blog and to Moda’s Cutting Table blog, a contributing editor at Stitch, a columnist for Quilt Country, and her work appears in American Patchwork and Quilting, UPPERCASE, Quilt Sampler, and other publications. When she’s not writing, sewing, or knitting, you can find her rowing on the Iowa River. Visit her blog Pearl the Squirrel.

Tags: alyssa thomas, books, clothworks, embroidery, Organic Fabric, spring quilt market 2013 | Category: Quilt Market

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Andover designer Mo Beddell got hoots and hollers when it was announced that she won Best New Exhibitor at the show. Full Moon Lagoon, Mo’s first collection with Andover, takes you to that happy place on the beach where you frolic alongside of seahorses and jellyfish and breathe in the smell of fresh flowers and sea foliage. She plays with fresh colors combos including citrine and aqua, eggplant and fuchsia, and offers a range of scale in her prints, including a 23” cheater panel. Bubble Beads, which comes in five colors, is destined to become a classic. Full Moon Lagoon is available now.

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Michelle Freedman is an Oregon-based designer and author whose work has been featured in a variety of sewing and quilting publications. She is the 2013 president of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. Read about her creative endeavors on her blog designcamppdx.blogspot.com.

Tags: andover, mo beddell, spring quilt market 2013 | Category: Quilt Market

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{ Textured Solids image from Andover’s Facebook page }

Just for Fun, by Marisa and Creative Thursday, is an adorable collection of prints filled with whimsical party-clad kiddos and animals riding on scooters, wrapped up in tiny gift boxes and floating by balloons. This follow-up to her popular collection, Locally Grown, is sure to keep her fans coming back for more! Her sweet illustrations, delicately outlined in black, are colored with a mix of pale pinks, grays and aquas and popped with bright bold kelly greens, reds and yellows. There was also a sneak peak at her collection Zaza Zoo, filled with swinging monkeys, parading elephants and pink zebras (oh my!) which will be available in December 2013. Just for Fun is available July 2013.

Kyoto Garden is Portland designer Lori Mason‘s first collection with Andover. Her prints are elegant and sophisticated and have a modern Japanese aesthetic. Colors range from rich indigos, chestnut, aubergine, and Chinese lantern reds to pale, poetic greys and neutrals. Kyoto Gardens is available June 2013.

Also debuting was Mineral Forest, by Lori Mason, a collection of vibrant prints which draw inspiration from the shapes, colors and textures found in rocks and minerals. Mineral Forest comes in three colorways: browns and neutrals, cool blues with lime green, and a warm pink and orange range. Available October 2013.

Thesaurus is a chatoyant collection of perspicacious prints by Thomas Knauer inspired by his love of multisyllabic words. The vernal prints have a flower-power vibe and come in three effulgent colorways. These prints will most definitely inspire a plethora of projects and multiple trips to the dictionary. Thesaurus is available now.

Catnap is Lizzy House‘s latest collection of modern prints with her signature Scandinavian flair. This time she woos us with smiling cats, butterflies and funny little mice. According to Lizzy, Catnap is inspired by her “love of home, cats and napping.” Catnap spans a wide range of color from deeply saturated darks to pale pastels. She plays with combinations of navy, aqua and whites; forest, kelly, mint greens and golden yellows; and browns with fuschia, pale pinks and orange. These prints coordinate perfectly with everyone’s favorite Pearl Bracelets which has over 25 new colors plus new range of tone on tones. Purr! Cat Nap will be available October/November 2013.

Sun Print is by Alison Glass, a crisp, modern collection of two-color prints which plays bright clear colors off whites and halftones. Included in this collection is a fun ‘typed’ text print and coordinating colors of Glass’s popular Bike Path, which debuted in her collection Lucy Penny. Andover plans to add more colors to the range offered for Bike Path in the future. Several of the prints from Sun Print also coordinate with Alison’s collection Field Day (images on Alison’s site here), a richly colored mix of Bohemian-inspired large and small scale florals. Sun Print is available June-November, 2013. Field Day is available June 2013.

Clover Sunshine, another collection debuting by Alison Glass, is full of bright happy colors and motifs which celebrate love, happiness and relationships (think rainbows, octopi and rotary phones!) The large scale prints coordinate with her paint-sloshed ‘Kite Tail’ stripe and the sure-to-be-a-favorite, ‘Snow Globe’ dots. Clover Sunshine is available July-August, 2013.

Kim’s Hand Dyes – Series 1 by Kim Schaefer is a new collection of modern, multi-hued prints based on Kim’s actual hand-dyed fabrics. The vibrant jewel-toned mix of soft-focused geometric shapes and stripes give the illusion of being highly textured. You will be surprised that they are not!

More Andover posts to come!

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Michelle Freedman is an Oregon-based designer and author whose work has been featured in a variety of sewing and quilting publications. She is the 2013 president of the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. Read about her creative endeavors on her blog designcamppdx.blogspot.com.

Tags: alison glass, andover, basics, creative thursday, kim schaefer, lizzy house, lori mason, marisa, marisa anne, solids, spring quilt market 2013, thomas knauer | Category: Quilt Market

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We are gearing up for the Spring Quilt Market posts and it’s hard to come up with fabrics to show leading up to them, because I don’t want to scoop my own writers! But here’s a collection that I must have missed at last market and is now just arriving in stores — Atomic Bots by Silvia Dekker for Wilmington Prints. Silvia lives in the Netherlands and is a Lilla Rogers designer. This is actually her second Wilmington collection, the first was the flannel collection Winter Warmth.

Fabric stack photo from Fabricworm (they even have the collection, along with all children’s fabrics, on sale through Thursday 5/23/13!).

Tags: fabric collections, silvia dekker, wilmington prints | Category: Fabrics 2012

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Britex Fabrics: 20% off linen fabrics. (online only, through 5/31/13)

Connecting Threads: 30% off batting. (through 6/17/13)

Contemporary Cloth: 25% off selected yardage and pre-cuts, no code needed, discount appears in shopping cart. (end date unknown)

Delta Patchwork: 10% off all in-stock Solids and Tonal Category (through 5/22/13). Special of the Month – 10% off all 108″ quilt backs (through 5/31/13). Always free shipping in contiguous USA for orders $40+.

Drygoods Design: Domestic orders $35+ always ship free.

eQuilter: Ocean-themed fabrics 10% off. 1 yard minimum on sale fabrics. (through 5/26/13)

Fabric.com: 20% off kids fabrics (quilting, home dec, and apparel). 15% off fabric picks and free pattern download for Allison’s Ruffled Pillowcase Top & Dress Pattern. Additional 20% off clearance with code CLEAR513. (through 5/20/13) Always free shipping on orders $35+.

The Fabric Stash: Website redesigned – a new section of $6/yard fabric including Riley Blake and Westminster/FreeSpirit. (while supplies last) Free shipping on U.S. orders $100+ and international orders $150+.

Fabricworm: 10% off all children’s fabrics (through 5/22/13). Always $5 off your purchase of $50+ with coupon code linus5. Always 10% off orders $100+ with code bulk10.

Fat Quarter Shop: 50% off 100+ items from Andover Fabrics. 40% off Sending My Love by Marie Cole for Henry Glass and Marcus Mixers by Marcus Brothers Fabrics. Visit our Sale section for more. (while supplies last)

HoneyBeGood: Happy Birthday Bash! All Children’s Prints 15% off with coupon code KIDS. Saffron Craig’s Valley View 20% off with code VALLEY. Sara Lee Parker Textiles 10% off with code SARA. Daisy Janie New Leaf 15% off with code NEWLEAF. Nancy Mims Prints 15% off with code MIMS. Coupons can be used more than once but cannot be combined in the same order. (through 5/31/13)

Jones and Vandermeer: Echino, Alexander Henry Ghastiles, Liberty Japan, and Dear Stella in the sale section. Always free shipping on orders $60+, or $5 flat rate otherwise.

Lark Cottons: Modern Madness sale continues on Fat Quarterly’s competing collections: Simply Color and Architextures. Receive 20% off these collections with code madmod1320, 25% off with code madmod1325 when your cart totals $64 or more, 35% off with code madmod1335 when your cart totals $200 or more. Cart total is based on all fabrics in cart, not just those from eligible collections. As collections are eliminated from the Modern Madness competition, they will be dropped from the sale. (end date unknown)

Lowpricefabric.com: Organza on sale. See website for coupon code. (through 5/26/13)

Mad About Patchwork: Celebrating five years in business with lots of fabrics $5/yard! (end date unknown). 10% off Regal Spectrum bundles and yardage (through 5/31/13). Free shipping in Canada on orders $150+ and free worldwide shipping on patterns, not including clearance patterns.

nido: Melody Miller’s Ruby Star Spring $13.20/yard. Includes the record print in two colorways (while supplies last). Always free shipping on orders $50 + or just $5 for all other orders.

Pink Castle Fabrics: Comma, 23, I Like You, Salt Water, Shelburne Falls now on sale. (end date unknown)

Quilthome: 25% off all currently in-stock Riley Blake fabrics and Bella Solids by Moda with code QHARBB. 25% off all currently in-stock Jennifer Paganelli fabrics and books and Sis Boom patterns with code QHAJPSB (through 5/20/13). 20%
off PRE-ORDER of all World Tour fabrics by Parson Gray with code QHWTAF (through 6/6/13). Only one coupon code per order.

Sew, Mama, Sew! is closing up shop (but expanding the blog and forum), so all fabric is on sale, including new collections. Additional 15% off with code COUNTDOWN15. (end date unknown)

Sew Modern: Awesome goodies in our EPIC SALE section including some FQ bundles, The Red Thread by Marisa and Creative Thursday, Sweetcakes by Riley Blake and more all 20-40% off! (while supplies last)

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Get the Sale Alerts emailed to you weekly! Simply visit this link to have the sales delivered to your email. Use this link for your RSS feed reader. (If you’re already subscribed to the True Up feed or get all the posts by email, you don’t need to change anything; the sale alerts will still be included in there.)

Shops! If you’re tweeting about a fabric sale, please add #fabricsale and I’ll seek them out to add to this post.

Tags: coupon codes | Category: Sale Alerts

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Melissa Swansey Nicholson of Vineyard Haven, MA sells vintage-inspired designs on Etsy under the name oliverhenry. Her goods are printed on 100% certified organic cotton or 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper. This new collection which I just spotted via Facebook is available for sale through her Spoonflower shop.

Tags: digital textile printing, oliver henry, spoonflower | Category: Digital Fabric of the Week

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Borderline Fabrics is a London textile company producing “an eclectic collection of prints and weaves from 1730 to the present day for the upholstery and curtain trade.” This beautiful design from the 1930s by E.Q. Nicholson is called Black Goose, and it is available in blue and brown colorways on 100% linen. The U.S. distributor is Lucy Rose Design.

Tags: 1930s Fabrics, borderline fabrics, e.q. nicholson, high-end, interior fabrics, linen, sally baring, u.k. | Category: Home Dec Fabric of the Week

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Kapitza is a European design studio run by two sisters, Nicole and Petra Kapitza. They have produced two intriguing pattern sourcebooks, several dingbat fonts, several products featuring their patterns, and now they have an iPad/iPhone App called Geometric. I bought it last night after seeing it on Pinterest and thought all you pattern fans out there might like to know about it.

The reviews on iTunes are actually quite negative, but if you manage your expectations going in I think you’ll find it’s worth the price of $2.99. It generates patterns from Kapitza’s fonts and color palettes, and the only control you have as a user is to lock the font, palette, character, size, and/or sequence of the characters. After making your choices you simply swipe and the app shows you pattern after pattern. You probably have to like minimalist geometric patterns going in, and have a certain level of appreciation for 80s retro. I do, so enjoyed enjoyed playing around with this app. It is cool to see the infinite configurations that are possible with just a handful of motifs and colors.

Kapitza retains copyright to the patterns, and you really can only use the generated patterns for iPad/iPod wallpapers. (However, their website terms here indicate that the patterns downloaded from their website can be used for limited commercial purposes. I don’t know if this applies to the app-generated patterns. You can save, email, and share the patterns, but the images are low-resolution. But again, if you think of it more as an inspiration (and wallpaper) source than a tool, you won’t be disappointed.

{ screenshot showing locking/unlocking of the pattern parameters, with two of the variations based on these choices below }

{ share menu }

{ about menu with copyright }

Tags: apps, geometric, ipad, iphone, kapitza, surface pattern design | Category: Scraps

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I’m a little late to pull the trigger on this post because Alice Apple‘s sample and remnant packs are already sold out from her Etsy shop, but maybe these images will inspire you to pick up some yardage from her Spoonflower shop.

Tags: alice apple, digital textile printing, spoonflower, u.k. | Category: Digital Fabric of the Week

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Britex Fabrics: 50% off online fabric sale – 100+ fabrics including imported wool, silk, linen cotton & more! (end date unknown)

Connecting Threads: 30% off batting. (through 6/17/13)

Crafter’s Vision: Monaluna Organic fabrics 30% off (through 5/14/13). 15% off all sale section fabrics. Free shipping on U.S. orders $30+. (end date unknown)

Delta Patchwork: Special of the Month – 10% off all 108″ quilt backs (through 5/31/13). Always free shipping in contiguous USA for orders $40+.

Denver Fabrics: Summer fabric sale – cotton lawn, voile, gauze, knits, shirting, and lace $3.95/yard, activewear/swimwear $5.45/yard. (end date unknown)

Drygoods Design: Domestic orders $35+ always ship free.

eQuilter: Free shipping on U.S. orders and 50% off international shipping on orders $35+ with code MOTHER. (through 5/18/13)

Fabric.com: 50% off in the Mom’s Favorites section. 15% off outdoor fabrics. (through 5/13/13) Always free shipping on orders $35+.

The Fabric Stash: Website redesigned – a new section of $6/yard fabric including Riley Blake and Westminster/FreeSpirit. (while supplies last) Free shipping on U.S. orders $100+ and international orders $150+.

Fabricworm: 15% off all bundles (through 5/14/13). 10% off all Japanese imports (through 5/16/13 5pm PST). Always $5 off your purchase of $50+ with coupon code linus5. Always 10% off orders $100+ with code bulk10.

Fat Quarter Shop: 50% off Chambray Rose by Rachel Ashwell & Shabby Chic, Oh Deer! by MoMo for Moda, Chicopee by Denyse Schmidt, Savanna Bop by Thomas Knauer for Andover, School Days from Quilting Treasures, and It’s a Strike by Kanvas for Benartex. 40-50% off Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey for Moda Fabrics, 40% off Out N’ About by Caleb Gray for Robert Kaufman Fabrics and Life is Beautiful from Red Rooster Fabrics. Lots more in the sale section. (while supplies last)

Hart’s Fabrics: 10% off all batiks. (through 5/13/13)

Jones and Vandermeer: Echino, Alexander Henry Ghastiles, Liberty Japan, and Dear Stella in the sale section. Always free shipping on orders $60+, or $5 flat rate otherwise.

Lark Cottons: Modern Madness sale continues on Fat Quarterly’s competing collections: Simply Color, Field Study, Architextures, and Madrona Road. Receive 20% off noted collections with code madmod1320, 25% off with code madmod1325 when your cart totals $64 or more, 35% off with code madmod1335 when your cart totals $200 or more. Cart total is based on all fabrics in cart, not just those from eligible collections. As collections are eliminated from the Modern Madness competition, they will be dropped from the sale. (end date unknown)

Mad About Patchwork: Celebrating five years in business with lots of fabrics $5/yard! (end date unknown). 10% off Regal Spectrum bundles and yardage (through 5/31/13). Free shipping in Canada on orders $150+ and free worldwide shipping on patterns, not including clearance patterns.

nido: Melody Miller’s Ruby Star Spring $13.20/yard. Includes the record print in two colorways (while supplies last). Always free shipping on orders $50 + or just $5 for all other orders.

Pacific Fabrics and Crafts: 20% off your purchase of $25 or more at any of our stores or online with code MOM13. (through 5/19/13):

Pink Castle Fabrics: Comma, 23, I Like You, Salt Water, Shelburne Falls now on sale. (end date unknown)

Pink Chalk Fabrics: Lida Enche for In the Beginning $6.95/yard. (end date unknown)

Quilthome: 25% off all currently in-stock Laura Gunn fabrics with coupon code QHLGEF. 20% off PRE-ORDER of all World Tour fabrics by Parson Gray with code QHWTAF. 25% off all currently in-stock Joel Dewberry fabrics Kate Spain fabrics
with code QHAKSJD. (through 5/13/13) Only one coupon code per order.

Sew, Mama, Sew! is closing up shop (but expanding the blog and forum), so all fabric is on sale, including new collections. Additional 15% off with code COUNTDOWN15. (end date unknown)

Sew Modern: Awesome goodies in our EPIC SALE section including some FQ bundles, The Red Thread by Marisa and Creative Thursday, Sweetcakes by Riley Blake and more all 20-40% off! (while supplies last)

Spice Berry Cottage: Lots of Robert Kaufman and Freespirit designers and more in the sale section. Look for the super stash builder special each week — $1.00 for 1 fat quarter with any order. (while supplies last)

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Get the Sale Alerts emailed to you weekly! Simply visit this link to have the sales delivered to your email. Use this link for your RSS feed reader. (If you’re already subscribed to the True Up feed or get all the posts by email, you don’t need to change anything; the sale alerts will still be included in there.)

Shops! If you’re tweeting about a fabric sale, please add #fabricsale and I’ll seek them out to add to this post.

Tags: coupon codes | Category: Sale Alerts

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