NEW...Modernology from Art Gallery Fabrics!   

Check out Pat Bravo's new sample quilt... Quiltology!   

We've kitted this quilt up in both color ways--vogue blue and chic pink.  The pattern is a free download available on the      Art Gallery Fabrics web site.

Visit the shop on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays (noon to 7pm) and on Saturdays (10am to 5pm.)    

Fat Quarter Fridays....all fats on sale for just $2.50!

So with all the new fabrics arriving into the shop last month, we launched into baby quilt mode and produced some new versions of our popular quilt patterns. 

Happy Dance 2.0 is the latest version of our City Blocks baby pattern.  Here we used a mix of Tula Pink’s yellow and aqua fabrics from the Prints Charming collection.  And just to add some additional pops of color, we added in Kaffe’s fun pastels like roman glass, cogs and lots of spots and dots. 

Our shop sample is quilted in one of Sally’s newest designs—simple loops inspired by Denyse Schmidt.  Lovely! 

The new geometric print from Benartex’s Bold & Beautiful collection reminds me of something my mother wore back in the era of all things groovy. 

Bright, bold and totally 70s inspired, our new Groovy Boogie Woogie is definitely a girlie girl quilt with lots of colorful patchwork in hot pink, lime green, yellow and orange. 

Our shop sample is backed in lime green minkee.               Can you dig it? 

And for baby boys, we return to the land of urban zoology prints with Monkey Business. We used our Animal Crackers pattern, which is perfect for showcasing fun novelty prints.

Need a baby quilt on the fly?  This quilt is fast, fun and so easy to make.  

And for all those mod babies out there (and their contemporary parents) Posh Tot from the Blue Underground Studios is one of our most popular baby quilt patterns.  

In our new Mod Posh version we’ve used a super sophisticated grey dot as the focus fabric in the big squares and set it against a Kona white setting fabric.  Then we finished it off again with the same grey print as the quilt’s binding.  

This is definitely one of those quilt patterns where the quilting makes the quilt.  So why not do something really special?

We selected a contemporary geometric design called connected circles and asked Sally to stitch it our in a high contrast grey thread.  Talk about the drama!

All our baby quilt pattern and kits are available in the shop or online.  If you already have a copy of one of our patterns, just email us and we'll deduct the price of the pattern from the cost of the kit.

Happy sewing everybody….and see you soon!

Here’s Adele (pictured left) all snuggled up under the Puddles quilt that her Aunt Mary Pat made for her. 

And shop quiltologist Heather sent along a photo (pictured below) of the Urban Amish she made for her aunt, who Heather says is a real color lover at heart.   So Heather infused this project with lots of her favorite Kaffe prints.  Rock and Roll!

Enjoy the eye candy!

For those of you who haven’t discovered Quilty yet, you might want to log onto Mary’s blog and link through the “episodes” button.  This will take you into QNNTV.com where the Quilty episodes live.  (FYI—you don’t have to have a paid subscription to view Quilty!) 

Mary posts new Quilty episodes every week on Wednesdays.  She also has links to the first season’s archive so you can catch up on her previous shows. 

The idea behind Quilty was to provide lots of basic information and friendly advice to beginning quilters.  But I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been doing this for some time now and I’m still learning new things.  Case in point—this week’s episode on needles.  Rule of thumb—the larger the number, the smaller the needle.  That just seems backwards to me which is why I get confused. 

Mary and her dream team tape Quilty in the Quiltology Design Studio space, but you probably won’t recognize the shop because we move everything out of the way for the camera crew to set up their equipment.  A couple of weeks ago they came in and shot for three days so they’ve got lots of new episodes coming our way over the next few months.

Stay tuned…

...drum roll please...the color of the year for 2012 is...Tangerine Tango!

So what shade is this exactly?  Well, you can think about it this way…       what fuschia is to pink…tangerine tango is to orange.

But Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute describes it even better…

“Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it…sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive… 

Tangerine Tango is reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset and marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

Over the past several years, orange has grown in popularity and acceptance among designers and consumers alike. A provocative attention-getter, Tangerine Tango is especially appealing in men’s and women’s fashion.

Fashion designers featured in the PANTONE Fashion Color Report Spring 2012, including Tommy Hilfiger, Nanette Lepore, Cynthia Steffe by Shaun Kearney, Elie Tahari and Adrienne Vittadini, are incorporating this attractive orange into their spring collections. A fun, lively take on a traditional autumnal hue, Tangerine Tango will surely carry through to fall fashion as well.

It sounds like we'll be seeing more of this sizzling color in fabrics this year.  It may be a good time to reorder the orange minkee and mix up a pitcher of mimosas!

Cheers... 

Out with the old and in with the new.  

We’ve put all the xmas fabrics on sale to make room for the new spring collections that are starting to arrive.

30% off xmas yardage from the bolt or $2 fat quarters! 

The 2011 Quiltology Holiday quilt kits are also on sale for just $60! 

Heather did the honors this year and pieced the shop's holiday quilt with a mix of Michael Miller and Robert Kaufman prints using the Blue Underground Studio’s In & Out pattern. 

The kit includes enough fabric to make a large throw quilt top, the binding and a pattern. 

Hey, there’s always next year. 

Peace and love in 2012!

In fact I love the unholy mess of them.  There’s a charm in the odd mix of whacky fabrics in different weights, shapes and sizes.  Few of these fabrics are what I’d call “pretty” on their own, but somehow the collage of all that old repurposed garment fabric sewn together in a haphazard sort of way and then top stitched with fanciful embroidery, gives them a personality all their own. 

I’ve seen some wonderful examples of crazy quilts in quilt shows and museums, but it wasn’t until just recently that I had a chance to spend some significant quality time with one. 

Allison brought in a crazy quilt top (pictured right) to be finished.  She told me that her father found this in his mother’s attic.  Since he doesn’t remember his mom making quilts, they think that it was probably the work of his grandmother--her great-grandmother! 

The crazy quilt craze really took off in the late 19^th century during the Victorian era but we can date this quilt top to the 1920s because of the fabrics used in it.  We can also tell that this was a collaborative effort, probably made in a quilting bee by multiple ladies because the size of the embroidery stitches varies across the top. 

A close up shot of the top reveals the elegant embroidery stitching done by different hands. 

You can also see how the fabric has worn well in most places.  But sadly, time is not kind to fabric like the red satin.  Eventually it will fade and disintegrate with light and age.  But I don’t worry about “fixing” this sort of thing because I consider it to be the “patina” of an old vintage piece.  What antique doesn't have some sort of nick or ding?  It's sort of like us with our laugh lines!  Better to enjoy the piece for what it is, than to make it over into something it isn’t.  And this is a wonderful old crazy quilt! 

Cheers!

They’re looking for submissions in the following categories--Quilts and their stories and Online Tutorials.

If you've got something in the works--get it done soon because the deadline for submitting entries is midnight August 30th!

Full details are posted to their web site. 

Not a member yet?  You might want to consider joing the local Chicago chapter.  They meet once a month on Sunday afternoons in River Forest.

Good luck!

I've been quilting for only a year and half—and I love it.  My very first quilt was an Urban Amish in the Intro to Patchwork Class right here at Quiltology (taught by Colette,) but I have been sewing since I was 7 years old.  

I started sewing as a 4-Her.  My mom sewed and so did her best friends.  I wanted to learn too so I could participate in fashion review at our county fair.  I kept with it into high school, won some ribbons and even went to the state fair with a Laura Ashley inspired full length giant floral jumper!  Which, now that I think about it, had a very Kaffe like pattern to it.

In high school I quit sewing to be sullen and listen to loud music and threaten to die my red hair black, but in college I was wooed back by joining the costume staff in the theatre department.  I spent a lot of my college years sewing there and become spoiled by having access to a full costume shop worth of notions at my disposal.  Out of college I got a few small gigs at costume shops professionally, but spending 8 hours a day sewing garments was not for me.  In fact sewing at all was so hard in a tiny city apartment, that I basically stopped (except to fix a loose button or hem now and again).  

Fast forward to the fall of 2009 and a friend suggested I take a quilting class at Quiltology—and it was the best suggestion I’ve ever gotten!  I fell madly in love with quilting because it was finally a way to really indulge my love of fabric and all the joys of patterns and colors.

I've completed 4 quilts since then (three Urban Amish--my mom and my sister saw mine and NEEDED their own--and a baby quilt for my tiny niece.)  I also have 3 tops in progress—including two that will go back to back on a double sided King sized wedding quilt for my fiance and me.  Right now, I'm working on ramping up the motivation I need to complete this one.  I still don’t know if my feline assistant Steve McQueen (pictured above) is helping or hindering the project.  I'll let you be the judge.

I also have fabric for several more projects including one using solids and based on the tile pattern in my bathroom floor.  If you stick around here, I will be blogging them as work on them.  I’m hoping that my perspective as a newbie quilter trying to figure things out as I go, may inspire some of the rest of you out there.

Hope to see you in the shop sometime soon.

Heather

What exactly is honeysuckle? 

According to Leatrice Eisenman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®, “honeysuckle pink is a captivating and stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going, making it perfect for warding off the blues.” 

Honeysuckle derives its positive energy from a bond to its mother color—red—the most dynamic and visceral hue on the color spectrum.  The Pantone folks call it courageous, confident and vital—“a brave new color for a brave new world.”

If fuchsia is the bright wild child of the pink family, then honeysuckle is the older—but-wiser big sister.  Honeysuckle is strong and soulful, dramatic yet restrained—a color that inspires the spirit to meet the tough challenges that have become our every day lives.

Last year’s color of the year was turquoise, a selection designed to promote a sense of calm and serenity during those tough economic times.  Turquoise—and its cousin aqua—were supposed to comfort us.  If turquoise whispered “escape” the craziness, then honeysuckle is now telling us to embrace it in a bold “bring it on” world sort of way.

Since fashion and product designers around the world turn to Pantone for advice on upcoming color trends, you’re going to see honeysuckle turning up everywhere from the spring runway shows to the aisles of your local Target stores.  Manly men will be wearing pink ties, while business women will be carrying expensive designer pink bags.  You’ll also find lots of pink appliances like state-of-the-art coffee machines and fabulous accent items like decorative pillows designed to perk up your tired old grey sofa.  Want a lift?  Paint a wall (or your toes) pink!