Author Archive

Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design, released by Chronicle Books, is by Laurie Wisbrun who you most likely know already as the designer behind such lines as Modern Whimsy, Pooches and Pickups, Tufted Tweets and many more. She began designing and printing her fabric using Spoonflower. She was quickly picked up by Robert Kaufman and since then her popularity has continued to grow with each new fabric line she releases.

In this book she shares valuable information about designing fabric patterns, printing techniques and even tips on how to break into the fabric industry. It is a lovely hardback book with a spacious layout so it is easy to digest the different chunks of information.

The book is also packed with interviews with some top fabric designers including such names as Heather Ross, Julia Rothman, Josephine Kimberling and many many more.

The book is divided into 3 sections: Designing for Fabric, Fabrics and Fabric Printing Methods, and the Fabric Business.

The first section is all about understanding fabric patterns. Laurie talks about different types of motifs, pattern repeats and also touches on colour theory. Laurie also discusses inspiration and how to kickstart your creative juices through journals, mood boards and forecasting trends.

This section also has some great tutorials on how to use illustrator and photoshop to create patterns. Examples in the tutorials are from Laurie’s own lines. I couldn’t resist having a go at these. The isntructions were clear and easy to follow and within no time I had a few pattern repeats to play with. I might just have to sned out some patterns to be printed on Spoonflower!

Section 2 is all about different types of fabrics and methods of printing. It covers fabric dyeing, hand printing and digital printing. Laurie shares some great tutorials on how to adjust your files for printing which will help with the myriad of digital fabric printing services available such as www.spoonflower.com

Section 3 is about the fabric business in general and covers marketing and moving towards mass production of your designs. This section is packed with interviews with established fabric designers such as Heather Moore, Joel Dewberry and Nancy Mims.

Laurie’s approachable writing style along with all the inspirational photos and interviews, make this a must have book if you have any interest in fabric design. It nicely complements Fabric Design by Kim Kight as a more hands on book.

Follow the book tour by visiting these sites:

Monday, March 12 – A Creative Mint

Tuesday, March 13 – Lena Corwin & Handmade Charlotte

Wednesday, March 14 – Print & Pattern

Thursday, March 15 – Centsational Girl

Friday, March 16 – A Stitch in Dye

Monday, March 19 – The Long Thread

Tuesday, March 20 – Fat Quarterly

Wednesday, March 21 – papernstitch

Thursday, March 22 – Book By Its Cover

Friday, March 23 – Simply Grove

Get your copy of Laurie’s book by visiting Barnes & Noble or Amazon.

Block 2 for Sew Red for Women

What is the hop about?

The Sew Red for Women Blog Hop is all about raising awareness about heart disease! Heart disease is the leading cause of death of women in the United States. Whether you are a women or man, young or old, statistic show that you have already been impacted by heart disease in some manner. You or someone you know has or will experience either a Heart Attack, Heart Failure, High Blood Pressure or a number of other cardio vascular illnesses.

How to Make the Block

From the white cut:
4 squares 2 1/2″ for corners
10 squares 3″ for the half square triangles
2 strips 1 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
2 strips 1 1/2″ x 6 1/2″

From EACH of Chem 37012-13, Chem 37011-11, Chem 37011-13, and Chem 37013-12 cut:
2 squares 3″
1 strip 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″
1 strip 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″

From the Bella 9900-27 (pink) cut:
2 squares 3″

Centre Pinwheel

Draw a line down the diagonal of 2 white 3″ squares. Put right sides together with the 2 Bella pink 3″ squares. Sew 1/4″ from the line on BOTH sides of the line. Cut along the line and press open. Trim to 2 1/2″ square.

Arrange the 4 half square triangles to create a pinwheel. Sew together.

Print Border

Each of the four prints Chem 37012-13, Chem 37011-11, Chem 37011-13, and Chem 37013-12 make up one of the quarters of the block. Decide which print you want in each corner.

Sew the 1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ strips together in pairs to create 2 strips 1 1/2″ x 4 1/2″. Sew to the top and bottom of the pinwheel.

Sew the 1 1/2″ x 3 1/2″ strips together in pairs to create 2 strips 1 1/2″ x 6 1/2″. Sew to the sides of the pinwheel.

White Border

Sew the white 1 1/2″ x 6 1/2″ strips to the top and bottom of the pinwheel square. Sew the white 1 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ strips to the sides of the pinwheel square.

HST Border

Draw a line down the diagonal of each of the remaining white squares.

Put each white square right sides together with each of the remaining 3″ squares. Sew 1/4″ from the line on BOTH sides of the line. Cut along the line, open, press and trim to 2 1/2″ square.

Arrange the hsts in strips as shown in the diagram and sew together.

Be sure to check out the other blocks in this great hop!

Who’s Partcipating? And when?
February 3 – Leah of Burgundy Buttons

March 3 – Fat Quarterly‘s Tacha of Hanies Quilts

April 3 – Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt

May 3 – Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting

June 3 – Charlie of Qubee Quilts

July 3 – Jessica of Twin Fibers

August 3 – Melissa of The Polkadot Chair

September 3 – Amber of A Little Bit Biased

October 3 – Amy of Diary of a Quilter

November 3 – Amy of Amy’s Creative Side

December 3 – Sherri of A Quilting Life

January 3 – Lynne of Lily’s Quilts

Carol Van Zandt is new to fabric designing and new to Andover Fabrics, although you wouldn’t think it when you see her first line Tokyo Rococo! We met Carol at last year’s Fall Quilt Market and she showed us some of her designs on paper. I was immediately drawn to the subtleties of the grey and blue colourway whereas Katy immediately went for the bolder pink and green colourway. And I can safely say that the prints look even better in real life.

Regardless of which colourway you are drawn to, the prints that make up the collection are beautifully designed with such attention to detail. There is so much going on in each print which gives a quilter lots of scope for fussy cutting!

But let’s hear from Carol herself…

What is the first thing you ever sewed?
Well, I started sewing in 4-H when I was 8, and I’m not sure it was the first thing I actually sewed but the first thing I remember sewing for myself was an A-line skirt, which turned out so well I made several and then made a lot of skirts, dresses, pantsuits, and shorts over the next several years. My mother used to take down the hem of my skirts when I was at school and then I would hem them back up again. It was a funny little game in retrospect and I got to be very good at hemming!

How did you get started in fabric design?
I was a contemporary painter for many years, and during a period where my paintings were selling very well, I just sort of hit a wall, and decided I wanted to go either digital or commercial or something that didn’t involve carting around large paintings and producing my own shows. I think I was just ready for a change. I loved textiles and had always collected them, and was encouraged by others many times to think about putting my work on textiles. So my initial idea was to learn fabric design and put my own art onto fabric, so when I had the chance to study it, I did. That opened up the whole designing collections of fabric, and licensing my art and design for a variety of products.

What was the inspiration for Tokyo Rococo?
After spending three years in textile design school, I had collected a lot of interesting classic fabrics, as well as books on 18th and 19th century textiles. I also had a real love of things Japanese as I had lived there for five years, so I wanted to combine that sort of over-decorative Rococo period look and layouts with Asian motifs but do it in a contemporary way–like putting a wave pattern where you would normally have baroque ornamentation. I have some antique kimonos that inspired the flowers.

Why the name Tokyo Roccoco?
Well I think I started describing it as European Asian Fusion, then French-Japanese fusion, then Japanese-Rococo, and I think Teliha Draheim of Image West Design who I consulted with came up with the Tokyo Rococo. For a little while it was Tokyo Roco, but I liked the bounce of the Rococo.

What are some things people might be surprised to learn about you?
Dogs, horses and children all disobey me–they take one look at me, laugh and do whatever they want.
I used to talk so fast my parents sent me to a theatre college student for after school lessons to slow down.
I studied Japanese Calligraphy formally for ten years and reached the sandan and yondan levels for the different styles.
I graduated from high school when I was 16 and went to live in Arizona to “seek” my fortune and the only job I could find was sorting and counting dirty linen in a hospital. That led to an illustrious career working summers during college doing laundry in a nursing home.
I met my husband when I was running a sales training program and he was an intern.
I used to dress in Dynasty suits when a temp job turned into fifteen years working in high tech.
I grew up in western NY and we used to spend summers at “the cottage” where we slept outside all summer and hardly put on shoes except for church on Sundays. No TV or music, we had a bonfire almost every night and my Dad would play the guitar and we would sing.
I was premed in college and did fine but so much preferred time in the art studios to the science labs so majored in art (much to the dismay of my parents)

In the spirit of Tokyo Rococo Carol also redesigned our masthead. If you read our blog through a reader you will want to click on over and take a look!

You can also download a free quilt pattern from the Andover website!

Thank you all for entering our Sew Mama Sew giveaway. We all had a lot of fun reading through what you would like to find in your stocking this year! I hope Father Christmas was reading too!

The winner of our giveaway is: (drumroll please!)

who is Valerie from http://adayinmay.blogspot.com/!! Congratulations Valerie!

Valerie please can you email us at customerservice@fatquarterly.com with your address so we can pop the CD in the post.

Thank you too to all those who entered the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop giveaway. The winner is posted on our Facebook page.

We’ve been running a giveaway of a CD version of the Year 1 Bundle over on our Facebook Page as part of the Quilting Gallery 4th Birthday celebrations and just so nobody feels left out we thought we would also offer a copy of the CD up for grabs to our blog readers.

(We know not everyone has a Facebook account or wants one!)

And what better than to take part in the fabulous Giveaway Day organised by Sew Mama Sew. The Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day is always HUGE! So many wonderful people around the world offer up supplies or even finished products for anybody to win. We just love the spirit of the online sewing community that we are a part of.

So what do you need to do to win this CD? First off pour yourself a cup of your favourite beverage (mine is going to be mulled wine – yum!) and settle yourself down, since, once you are done here you are going to want to go off and visit all the other fabulous peeps that are taking part in the giveaway. And be prepared – you will definitely want to add more than a few to your blog readers!

If you are new to our site – Welcome!!!

Right, now all you need to do is leave a comment telling us what you would like to find wrapped up in your stocking this year. I’d like to find Michael Buble but I am not sure that is going to happen *sigh*!

Would you like to win a copy of The Year 1 Bundle on CD?

We are taking part in the Quilting Gallery Blog Hop over on our Facebook Page. Pop on over and leave us a comment if you would like to have a chance at winning the CD.

We are happy to ship anywhere and we’ll choose a winner on 17th December.

Do you enjoy sewing? Do you like hanging out with like minded people? Yes? Then the Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat is for you!

We have planned a fun filled weekend of silly games, sewing challenges, tutorial workshops and more! Come and meet the Fat Quarterly team in their entirety (yes we will ALL be there!) and make lots of new friends in the quilting community.

Bring along your WIPs, or start something new! Take part in some of the tutorial workshops or hang with friends! The choice is yours! We can’t wait to meet you all.

There are many possibilities for accomodation in London! But please be aware that it is the Jubilee Weekend and hotels are likely to get booked up pretty quickly. Baden Powell House is located in South Kensington.

The Meininger Hostel is a partner hostel to Baden Powell House but has VERY limited accomodation for 2-3 June.

Other hostels can be found at www.hostelworld.com

Fat Quarterly has reserved a limited number of rooms at the Grange Strathmore hotel.
A single costs £99 plus VAT (B&B)
A double or twin costs £109 plus VAT (B&B)
(Looking for a room mate? Why not start a thread in our Flickr group!)

Please be sure to mention Fat Quarterly when making your booking.