A Perspective | Carly Mul

H&H Americas 2026

Tue, 12 May 2026 16:35:28 GMT

The Encore of Empty Spools

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:44:38 GMT

Empty Spools Seminars 2026

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 18:12:03 GMT

Solids?

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 17:01:28 GMT

Trip to Europe

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 15:16:45 GMT

Dancing into 2026

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 15:22:25 GMT

In the spotlight by Create Whimsy

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 16:14:50 GMT

Create Whimsy shares stories of makers. On their website we can learn about creative journeys, inspirations and more! In November 2025 Lynn, the owner, approached me and this is the article she published after asking me some interesting questions!

Spotlight: Carly Mul, Freestyle Color Collage Quilter

Art Quilts Spotlight

by Create Whimsy

From growing up surrounded by fabric in her parents’ clothing shops in the Netherlands to creating bold, joyful textile collages, Carly Mul’s journey with color and cloth feels meant to be. With a lawyer’s precision and an artist’s intuition, she’s developed her own freestyle approach to collage quilting—one where the fabrics seem to lead the way.

Tell us how your story with fabric began. Where did you first fall in love with textiles?

I am the daughter of clothing retailing parents who had thriving businesses in The Netherlands. My grandfather was a tailor.

As a child, I had to work in my parents’ shops, especially cleaning up. I loved putting shirts in color order. My crib was in fabrics! I actually considered taking over the business, but my husband was totally not interested. Since law gave me plenty of other opportunities that I liked as well, I thought I was done with fabrics… how life can change!

What did you do before quilting, and how did that time shape who you are as an artist now?

I am a (Dutch) lawyer by education and that has formed my thinking! I look for balance, reasonable solutions. I think in methods and in creativity at the same time. I like details and big lines and I think that is what law has taught me

When you were young, what kinds of art or play did you do that feel related to your work today?

I could not draw. My “people” were terrible. I improved my grade to a B by scribbling lines and filling the spaces up with color. I could do that very well! I did that in Kindergarten. Now doing the same with fabrics!

Can you describe the first quilt or fabric piece that made you think, “I want to keep doing this”?

I saw the quilts exhibition for the Atlanta Olympics in1996 and was intrigued by the kindness of the quiltmakers. It sounded like a nice community. After that I looked for a class in Roswell GA. This was a traditional sampler class. I never looked back.

How would you describe your relationship with color in one sentence?

Color is my joy and therapy!

What made you decide to write Freestyle Color Collage Quilting ?

As a teacher in Houston, I was walking around at Houston Market with my class quilt in my arms. A recruiter from Fox Chapel asked me if I could write a book. I said: ”maybe I can” . That same night, she sent me a lengthy email about book writing. I started with the attitude of “Why not? Let’s give it a try”.

Writing comes easily to me. I have taught the class often, so I knew what to say. I enjoyed writing the book and was done with it more or less in 2 months. I didn’t like photographing the book, which was much more work!

How do you choose which colors go together when you’re building a collage? Any simple rules you use?

First of all, all colors can go together. There is not an impossible color combination.

I make different kinds of collages: When it is a true freestyle color collage (like Abundance and Bouquet), I only have a few colors in mind. After that, the fabric decides which colors are going to be added. That sounds weird, but in my technique, it is a matter of closely looking at fabric to see which colors get introduced by a piece already used.

If it is a more designed collage (like Alzheimer’s or Rooted in color) I have a concept of design in my head. The advantage of working with Lite Steam a Seam 2 is that you can reposition everything. That means you can try things. If I don’t like it, I move it somewhere else. There is an incredible sense of freedom in my collage and more than once the fabrics is making me something much better than my mind was planning.

Do you plan designs first or let them evolve as you add fabrics? Which feels more like you?

As said: Both ways and sometimes a mix. I definitely communicate with my fabrics and try to “listen” to what it is telling me.

Describe your creative space.

I have the most fantastic studio in the basement of my house. It is about 2000 sq. ft. and it has everything I want. I have the big cutting table and checkout table from my shop. I knew long before I sold my shop that I was going to take good care of myself and bought the last years in business everything I remotely wanted to have.

Now I have all the thread lines I can imagine, scissors, needles, rulers etc. The only thing I still need to buy is fusible, but because I have started collagefabric.com , I can still order that at a wholesale level.

What’s your approach to using “ugly” or unexpected fabrics in a collage?

I actually don’t believe there are ugly fabrics. There are ugly-designed fabrics and ugly quality fabrics...Ugly quality fabrics I won’t use, but when I don’t like a design, I cut it smaller and smaller until only color is left.

I like colors that are a mix of colors. I find them more interesting. I don’t care for primary colors. They are too much in my face. I do work with them, because I think it is good for me to work with all colors and I also know that many people just love those the most.

How do you decide when a quilt is finished? Is there a feeling or a visual clue you look for?

A quilt is finished when I run out of background material or collage material. It is much, much harder to make a larger size collage. I consider my quilts large as they are usually 40-45″, compared to what most people do (under 20″). In a larger collage one has to think about tension, balance, function of repeat of colors etc.

Often a quilt is ready because I have another idea in mind for the next one….It takes me about 3 weeks to make a quilt top and then another 4 weeks to quilt it (I only quilt in natural light between 10 am – 3 pm).

How has owning a fabric shop and working with fabrics for years changed how you choose textiles now?

I know the fabric industry very well and I am still buying fabrics that excite me. I don’t think my taste has changed over the years.

I like detail in colors, small steps in color changes. Big lines in colors! I love unusual colors and color combinations, but I know that that is the exception. When I make a work, I try to switch between (me) pleasing colors and not-so-pleasing colors. Most of the time I make a quilt for myself only, but I sometimes on purpose, try to make something that appeals to more people. Especially for classes.

Tell us about a piece that taught you the most. What did you learn and how did it change your work?

Gypsy Wife, now called The Wanderer by Jen Kingwell . Up to that quilt, I didn’t know any better than making the same blocks for a quilt. That quilt taught me that you can have really different blocks in a quilt. Exciting.

Laura Heine’s pattern Lulu came out in 2014. I saw it at Market and made a shop sample. That pattern introduced me to collage. By now, I have made so many animals, flowers, photos that I am a little bit done with objects.

That’s how freestyle color collage came to life. I think colors are powerful enough by themselves to tell a story. No object is needed, at least not for me.

What role does improvisation play in your making? How do you keep it from feeling chaotic?

All my quilts are improvisated. I don’t like to make someone else’s work, it feels like I copy someone and I have no desire to do that.

Making lines in color brings some order to a work to begin with, but I have made quilts that felt too chaotic ,and I didn’t finish them. Those quilts have slowly dissolved by using the fabrics again another time.

I often have to “tighten” a collage up. In the process of making the lines, the lines are too swirly or too thin. I rearrange the fabrics and make fuller sections.

What’s one piece of advice for someone afraid to use bold color?

Don’t use it. You don’t have to use anything. Work with what pleases you. Fantastic pieces can be created with colors that are not bold at all. There are already so many bold pieces… looking forward to meeting your not-so-bold one!

Where can people see your work?

They can see my work on my website, in my book, at guild classes and sometimes at shows.

Carly’s website: https://www.carlymul.com/

Interview posted November 2025.

Browse through more art quilt inspiration on Create Whimsy.

Houston Market 2025

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:44:50 GMT

My concerns have been realized. The Houston market, organized by Quilts Inc. is no longer a winner. The fight with H+H Americas is on and the gloves have been taken off. I'm sorry to say, as Houston has a dear spot in my heart.

People value my blog as it is my honest opinion. I am not in this sugar coating business that way too many have done for a long time. There are still people saying on social media that market was great, including companies that had much less business than other years. No, it wasn't great. It was bad, very bad. That doesn't mean I didn't have a good time seeing and talking to some wonderful people. There are many beautiful fabrics, the fact is this was the worst market we have seen in the last 25 years. How I wish I could write something else! Why was it so bad? Because many companies didn't come and even more shops stayed away. The place was empty, no line at Starbucks....

H+H had a very successful Spring show and is, step by step, sucking the energy out of Quilts Inc.'s Houston. Quilts Inc. is trying to stay relative by adding a Spring show again in 2026 (in St.Louis, Missouri), but it will be too late. If Houston is having trouble finding vendors, a Spring show for sure will not do it. I have serious doubts that show is even going to happen. Lack of vendors, lack of attendees, I am sorry to say. Let's not dig the hole deeper, because it is a financial loss for too many. Many smaller companies told me they couldn't afford a return. Market was a big loss for them.

We don't have to fool ourselves. Before Covid the Spring show of Quilts Inc. was mediocre at best. The discussion "do we need two shows per year'" is at least 15 years old and has nothing to do with Covid. Covid stopped shows, but Covid is now a long time behind us and no longer an excuse. H+H started with other crafts and really added fabrics just these last two years. It grew after Covid. Maybe we just want something new? Is H&H new? Yes, the coat is different, but the presentation of fabric is still the presentation of fabric. Networking can be done anywhere people are willing to go. What is it? I don't know. If I would know, my phone would be ringing, lol. I think there is a lot of marketing sauce happening, but I wonder how that will lead to better sales in shops from coast to coast. I probably have too much common sense. I don't think any Market can make a shop successful. It is the owner that makes decisions and a strong owner can learn from others and is informed, but is a capable, visionary professional in her/his shop on his/his own.

Next Spring, H+H will add a retail show to its market. A festival so to say, complete with teachers and classes (all Houston teachers got an invitation to apply.) The gloves are off indeed.

I wrote about H+H before and mentioned Andover and FreeSpirit. Both has successful presentations in Chicago in May and especially Andover had packed out with a much better booth than usual. It got rewarded for this. These two companies didn't show up for Market this Fall in Houston. Clearly one Market per year is enough and for these two it is H+H. Who could have thought that a few years ago? Houston was without any doubt The Show!

They were not the only ones missing: Robert Kaufman was absent as were all the other smaller Javtex companies. None of their designers were present, except Sew Kind of Wonderful, but they were also doing Festival. They are one of those that mix retail and wholesale together, a phenomenon that is also something from the last years.

Robert Kaufman has just moved its warehouse from CA to TN so maybe it makes sense they had no time to prepare a show. They also lost Elizabeth Hartman and Shannon who moved over to Moda. Pattern companies had already decided a few years ago that they can't attend Market any longer. The cost is simply too high and Houston is very expensive. By the way: entrance to H+H was free for shops. Entrance to Houston was $60.00, before adding any additional classes. Houston is in every way expensive, parking alone for vendors really adds to the cost.

When companies decide to stay away, the entire value of the show decreases: the show doesn't give the complete oversight any longer. With the absence of the most trendy companies, there was a lot of "farmhouse" style in Houston. I am not sure where all the houses are that still get decorated with that style... it is an innocent, naief sweet look, with a nostalgic flavor of the fifties. It's not what is happening on social media, Quilt Con. It is also not happening at the Houston show, where a complete different level of quilting was visible. When walking from the fantastic quilts of the show into market, you could see and even feel how mediocre market was. There was so little inspiration and most seem for beginners.

FreeSpirit and Andover are not tiny little fabric companies. They are respected companies in the industry and their decision will echo for a while. Last year, Tula Pink, designing for FreeSpirit, opened Quilt Market with the celebration of her 50th collection. It was a big deal. This year, Tula Pink wasn't even at Market! I don't know, but that doesn't feel good. It is just too drastic for me. Now that they have taken this step more will follow next year...and so the slide continues. It is a negative spiral. I think everyone felt super concerned for next year, when the date (right before Thanksgiving) is also very difficult. I don't think there is any reason for a company to go to this kind of Houston Market and shops can save time and money as well. I myself went one day later as 1.5 day is plenty of time (for me H+H in 1 day was also more than enough, as I don't care for any of the other crafts)

FreeSpirit was aggressively celebrating 95 year in business on social media. Four years ago everyone was so happy to see each other at Market... and now they celebrated it all by themselves far away from Houston. Sad.

Moda celebrated 50 years at Market. Moda is Texas and Moda is consistently present at every show in a solid way and I applaud them for this. A big player in the quilt industry, Moda always presents itself and the art of quilting in a positive way. Kind, fun, creative, even a drone show! Moda's booth was upbeat with ribbons, such a clever and creative idea, also for shops to use at home. Moda is indeed a true leader for the entire industry. The designers are actively engaging with customers. There is laughing, they are having a good time.

Only the sales reps sit, while writing orders. Everyone else is in action. Many other (not all!) booths have no idea how passive they look. People are sitting behind a table looking at their cell phones... not attractive. If they do this at H+H, no improvement is to be expected or even deserved.

So it wasn't only fabric companies that stayed away. Shops were also absent. Shops don't care for Houston at the moment. They don't get out of it what they are looking for. Is H+H giving it to them? Or are we so used to social media now that we can do it without any show? I think I could but I love seeing companies and I did get better deals because I placed orders at Market! There were market specials: spinning the wheel with Northcott gave me a free bolt of extra wide fabric - thank you, Northcott! - and I think I negotiated with Windham for extra discount + free shipping for a large collection. I would not get that placing the order online. Personal relations matter in business and that is maybe the most important part of any market, no matter where it is being held.

Sample Spree at Market was always such a hit. Moda's fat quarter bundles have always been "attacked" by greedy customers and the tables were always empty within 15-20 minutes. This year, after 1.5 hour Moda was still not sold out and I saw the bundles showing up at market again. That is unheard and has never happened before.

I wrote last year that Sample Spree was no longer worth the money because it had become smaller and smaller. Despite the hyped up videos on social media. Social media has been so misleading! Social media today was still so far from the truth. I understand companies don't want to share their disappointment, but please don't say that it was all great and wonderful. It is just not true.

I am sure Market was at a max half of what is was a few years ago. It is really a steady decline and it is facing in H+H an aggressive competitor. The catalog with all the information was so thin, I knew right away there was trouble in paradise.

H+H invited current vendors for a food and drink social on Saturday night of Market. They had booked the restaurant next to the convention center! The competition came to Houston to do what competitors do. Like a hyena killing its prey. I know, it is business.

It is a tough business. Tariffs, lack of international customers, slimmer margins, uncertain shops and a divided industry. The industry is hurting and it shows. Is H+H the beacon of light? I think all the hype for H&H is good for one: H+H itself. It will grow exponentially and make a ton of money immediately and everyone following the hype blindly, will only help this increase. That is a short term view. What is the longtime win for the quilting industry? That's a much more important question. For 46 years Houston has been the place for quilters. With all respect for all the other crafts, they are not quilting. The word Quilt Market may become a word from the past. We are losing a dedicated place for our fabric industry. That may be necessary, that may be unavoidable, but it is a loss. I think I may have been at the last Quilt Market.

The Quilt Show

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 13:57:05 GMT

Maximalism

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 11:47:39 GMT

Facebook Live

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 14:55:38 GMT

H+H Americas 2025

Wed, 21 May 2025 13:30:24 GMT

Empty Spools Seminar

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 14:45:06 GMT

Registration for the 2026 Empty Spools Seminars is opening tomorrow, April 26 at 10 am PST and I am thrilled to be part of the top of the line group of teachers for the year 2026. My session will be in group 3, from April 19-26, 2026.

For those not familiar with Empty Spools: It is a quilting retreat in Asilomar, CA. Quilters and teachers gather for 5 weeks and each teacher provides a five day workshop. Can you believe it? 5 days!! Five days of talking and working with fabric and color, combined with a great social program in the evenings. Asilomar is located right on the beautiful West Coast and apparently walking along the coastline is something not to be missed. Excellent food, comfortable beds....sounds lovely, not? Quilters with the same passion are working and being together, and I have heard many stories of lasting friendships that started at Empty Spools. There are people who return every year, there are people who had a visit to Empty Spool on their bucket list and will come for the first time. I know some Houston "Agamy Stripe" students said that they had been often and they will take my Freestyle Color Collage class at Empty Spools.

It is my first time teaching here. Such an honor! This June it has been 3 years that I sold my fabric shop and since then my teaching has become an amazing journey on its own. Empty Spools is not only one of the top places to take classes, it is also the top place to teach classes. Not an ordinary retreat, but a special place where people like to work with the best in fiber art.

Quilters that I have admired for years are teaching here and many of their classes will sell out fast. Mine is probably going to take a while as there is a difference between Jane Sassaman, Kathy Doughty, Irene Blanck (and other big names) and Carly Mul. We will see, it's nice to be a newbie somewhere! There are the absolute top international teachers and there are many teachers who I know from other national quilt shows and Virginia. The organisation is always looking for new teachers, so it makes sense to see some very well known names and names that you are not familiar with yet. Everyone has a very specific skill/style and an excellent teaching referral, otherwise they wouldn't be invited.

You can take a great variety of classes from traditional quilting classes to art classes. Collage of course, as well. Some are very strict and some are very open. There is something for everyone, for sure. Just to browse the variety of classes is already a lot of fun. In total there will be five weeks and in every week you will have the choice of eight, nine teachers. That also means that the evenings will have opportunities to connects with students and teachers from other groups. Teachers will present a show and tell and that by itself sounds like such a treat to me!

In case you think that 5 days is a long time: Yes, it is! That's why this is so special. We can explore everything that comes up and talk about balance and keeping the tension in a bigger work, replacing sections, changing the feel of the colors etc. All these things require looking at a work over and over again, discussing what you want to achieve or getting suggestions how to look at it in a different way. Brainstorming really and that will be such a luxury to have. Things I deal with when I make my own quilts, but that I can't bring up in one or two day classes. It takes me about two-three weeks to do the design of a collage, so I think 5 days will still not be enough to go home with a finished quilt, but we will be getting quite far. A quick student can always start the quilting process, which of course will be discussed as well.

Check out the Empty Spools' website and I'm sure you will understand why I am so excited for this opportunity.

Busy with fabric

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 17:10:12 GMT

Stuck in the controversy

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 18:20:31 GMT

Here it is!

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 02:05:05 GMT

Multi and dark

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 18:17:19 GMT

The year 2024 is coming to an end and the yearly announcements of the colors for the year 2025 have been published. What can we expect in 2025? Some years brought big changes, some did not. I will share some thoughts with you as I think 2025 will be interesting, especially for color!

In 2024, the trend of bringing nature inside has reached its top. Neutral colors, hints of green and brown are dominant in interior design and very popular at every level of retail. The colors are seen in furniture, accents, housewares and walls alike. I took two photos this week at Pottery Barn, but could have taken it anywhere. These warmer colors have completely replaced the cool white and grey. Grey is still a little bit present as one of the natural colors, especially the darker tones, but white is definitely out. The natural colors are combined with a pop color, usually from the orange family.

What can we expect for 2025? The nature inspired colors will stay strong but there are two new trends coming up with quite some intensity. In general we are going at a speedy pace and it is hard to keep up. In Jan of 2023, not even two years ago, white was still the leading color but I wrote that it was on its way out. It has been dumped out!

First of all: we are moving to a much darker palette. Kona color of the year 2025 is Nocturne, a deep and saturated dark purple. It has been a while we had such a dark color selected! Yes, purple is definitely more in the picture, but not one single color is jumping out. The trend is using a lot of colors: MULTI is everywhere. In previous blogs I called this the "library look" as the inspiration is coming from libraries. The covers of the books with the little letters dancing around, are making a unit held together by the bookcases themselves. Books stand for leisure, journeys to unknown destinations, adventure, expanding experiences in comfort. A library is almost the opposite of the clean and uncluttered look we had during Covid. It is a little messy and the relaxed chairs and sofas look totally different than the white and grey living rooms we had for a while.

Nocturne is a good selection not so much because of its purple but because of its depth and darkness. Very often the color of the year is not so much exactly that particular color, it is much more of an option based on a certain palette. Nocturne is selected by Robert Kaufman with quilters in mind and they could pick only one color. Purple is for many a favorite and a smart commercial choice.

Benjamin Moore, the paint company, selected "Cinnamon Slate" as the color for 2025. "Mocha mousse" is the Pantone color for 2025. All these colors are not selected for quilters, but for interior design and clothing. As I have mentioned often before, interior design is the place where the quilt industry is getting its inspiration from. The quilt industry follows interior design. These newer brown colors fit in the trend of 2024 that brought many shades of unusual browns and greens to the front. They bring nuance to interior colors. They are the colors of little accents in nature, a microscopic look at twiggs, grasses, seed pods, herbs mosses etc. So in a way the selection is totally not surprising. It fits right in where we already are and it has proven to be well received by interior design businesses from Target all the way to the top. Consumers are buying these colors for somewhere in their homes. It may be a new vase, a sofa, an accent wall, just about anything.

I expect these to be colors that are not inspiring to every quilter. Actually I read a lot of negative comments about the selection. These browns create strong opinions! Modern Quilt Studio called Mocha mousse the drugstore pantyhose color. Yes, maybe that is a good description if you talk to an audience of people over 50. But the younger generations have never worn, seen those hoses. I don't believe my daughters (mid and late thirties) have ever worn tights in those colors and a drugstore isn't their place of shopping either. They look at these natural neutrals much more positively and even use them as nail polish! Talking negatively about beiges and browns shows your age! Modern quilters are definitely incorporating these tones in their quilts and then, with a pop of color, they take a new dimension. It is not the drab from your memory.... I saw several quilts that made it into Quiltcon 2025 with these colors. Mocha mousse combined with Nocturne and maybe Aqua or Orange.... that is totally new!! Congratulations to Émilie Trahan who is a great sample of a modern quilter using modern color combinations!

Jittery

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 01:32:52 GMT

Jittery. Uncertainty. Traditionally, election years are hard for businesses. People don't know what will happen, they want things to be over with and know what it is going to be.
I have seen multiple markets and festivals in election years and it is always the same. There is a reluctance in the air, a cautiousness that makes spending more hesitant. Somehow we don't like this uncertainty. Going to a middle ground seems for many to be safest move but it doesn't bring out the best.

That is exactly what this market was: uncertain, hesitant about a direction and moving towards the middle. It was very, very safe and also a little uninspiring. Of course there are some beautiful fabrics to be found ( and I felt tempted multiple times to buy entire collections) but overall it was not exciting for the eyes. Moda, always good for a beautiful display, had a "wonderland" theme and a big focus on Christmas fabrics. Modaland is wonderful, and I hope it pleased many. With 80 plus degrees outside, I could have been less for me.

Moda is so big, you can always find something beautiful, but the displayed collection did not cover as much depth as in the past. It was less broad and quite repetitive. Here, the competition of the H&H market in Chicago can be seen and felt. That wholesale market in May has grown stronger in 2 years, which means that fabric companies will show the newest collections again in just 6 months. It makes the timeframe for Houston small and opens up - again - the question of "do we need two markets per year"? We can drive ourselves pretty crazy. On social media we have instant updates on what designers are working on as they are giving us views inside their studios. No market can ever keep up with that as it not the same real time. Social media is the friend and it is the enemy. It shows creativity, it kills creativity. Already a few minutes after opening, an avalanche of the same posts came into my inboxes. I decided that I would withhold most of my photos for later at lectures. Nobody is waiting to see me too talking to Tula Pink or anyone else.

I spoke to a big shop owner from Germany who came to Market for the first time 20 years ago, but who hadn't been back since 2019 because of Covid. She said when she looked through Houston's most famous windows that she was shocked to see how small Market has become. The booths
from the past are mostly gone and replaced by a few tables. "Why do I have to come to Houston when I can't see the fabric. They tell me to look at lookbooks online"? She has a point.

Still, I have met people, including her, I would have never met otherwise and each discussion is such a point of connection, inspiration and learning. See more below. The booths are not always inspiring, but the people always are and market gives us an opportunity to communicate face to face. I love that. Karen Bresenhan, the founder and director emeritus of Market and Festival was honored in a special toast for making this possible for 45 and 50 years. Yes, she has influenced my
life so much and I am grateful for "her" Houston. Mark Dunn, president of Moda, led a toast in the presence of many of the industry under the beautiful red/white/blue display of quilts.
Attendance at Market seemed to be down. I have seen the general opening of Schoolhouse much more packed. It is a concerning trend.

The biggest excitement for me was the Anna Marie Textiles' presentation as a new division of Northcott. She is not only designing for Northcott, she will get her own division in this company. Wow! Northcott is doing such an amazing job these last years. Coming from a strong traditional background, the last few years Northcott has added other segments of the quilting industry to its company. Young divisions like Banyan Batiks (batiks), Figo Fabrics (modern), Patrick Lose (basics) and now Anna Maria Textiles. They are covering more and more of the market and with great success.
Anna Maria Textiles clearly found joy in the work and she is full of ideas for future collections. The first collection is coming in March 2025 and I bought all fabrics for collagefabric.com because they will work for collage as well! Her collections have a vision, color, good scales. They are not hesitant, but energetic and convincing. It is fabric of the year 2025 and I was impressed. It is certainly not for everyone and that is ok. None of us can sew with everything and designers should help us with options in styles and colors. They are our inspiration, or should be! Anna Maria most definitely is, but there is a lot of fabric that is new, but doesn't feel new at all. Not only reproduction fabric. Some "modern" looked dated as well. It could have made 5 or 10 years ago just as well. Why would customers be excited about this? It is as if they are all doing the same thing. Another Block of the Month with the same layout? Very, very few new patterns don't help either and most of them are nothing new and simple. I do think we need new beginner patterns, quick patterns, but we also need more intermediate and advanced patterns. We don't need the same pattern of yet another star with a different color border. Certainly not for $14.00.

Sew Kind of Wonderful had the best new patterns, again. They are amazing and I will bring them with me to talks.

Another designer that stood out to me: Emily van Hoff for Moda. Her Groove collection is truly modern. It is almost like improv piecing printed on fabric. Solids with curves...with great cutting it should open up some possibilities for funky quilts. Totally different from Anna Maria and anyone else....Good!! The fabric is not particularly good for collage and I can live without it, but I do appreciate how she is different and creative.

In general, the newest prints have a lot of busy and small - itsy bitsy - designs. Multi-colored or tone on tone, but definitely more multi-colored and busier.
In colors the market was holding back as well. White was absent and replaced with colors in more oats and taupe shades but these colors are still much lighter than where the home interior design world is. I have mentioned in previous blogs that the quilting industry is always following home interior trends. It felt like historic/vintage colors are the most popular ones. I know that is not the case. It was just shown more. Richer, more saturated and moodier colors were present but just in bit and pieces. Are they still too outspoken in the current climate? Anna Maria got it right as one of the very few ones. She is spot on in her color selection!

I also missed the renewed interest in stripes. Yes, Kaffe is coming out with new stripes, but stripes are much more dominant on social media than this market showed. And what about the color of quilting thread? The latest is to quilt quilts in threads that are not matching the background so much. More contrast. Now you can use a yellow thread on an black and white quilt for instance. I didn't see this. It was all still very blended. There is nothing wrong with that, but I would have loved to see more newer color options in quilting as well. It was safe. Very few art quilts. Most quilts
have blocks that are back to smaller pieced blocks, and I saw more traditional applique coming back. That is a good idea, because applique is an essential technique.

Wonderfil has a gorgeous new thread coming out for sergers. It is SoftLoc and its beautiful color combinations almost made me wish for a serger! Wonderfil will also expand the Efina 60wt thread with 60 more colors, making the total 120 colors. Love it! Scanfil, organic thread, too is coming out with variegated threads. (Funny story: I met Boy, the vendor of Scanfil last year for the first time and discovered that he lives in the same village in Holland where I was living in 1994, just before we left for what we thought would be a temporary assignment in the US. He actually lives around the corner from my old house. We know each other's houses! He gave me a spool of his Scanfil organic 50wt thread and I loved it. It is really flat, with no sheen and sews beautifully. Highly recommended!).
There were many, many booths with luxury notions coming (mostly) from Asia. Beautiful packages, beautiful tools, is the market ready for these? New rotary mats, gadgets... how many seam rippers do we want? Where do we store all these things at home? My thinking is still very much like a shop owner.

Holy grail

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 17:32:46 GMT

While I was cutting, folding and packaging all these fabrics with a big smile on my face, Jan, my husband said: "Carly, Houston is your holy grail, why else would you do this? " I think that he is correct. Houston is celebrating 50 years, I spent the last 20 years there. Still every year is new as well and this is the first time I am flying to Houston! This will also be the first time that I will teach two classes, have a quilt in the exhibition hall of the convention center and do 3 x 2 hours presentations in the Open Studio Section on the Festival floor. Instead of my unforgettable team, I will have three of you helping me with this. We are all volunteering for I don't know what exactly yet, part of the adventure. Thank you Jen, Laura and Daryl! I have prepared many lines in colors, because I am supposed to tell the same story about freestyle color collage every 15 minutes... I'm sure I will be quiet after the two hours are over. Roomie Lisa may like that!

I am looking forward to seeing the newest trends of the industry, which I will share in my lectures later with guilds and maybe in blogs. Two talks are scheduled for later in November: they will get it fresh from the press! And I am looking forward meeting all the other fabric people, my friends, students, customers, colleagues.

Big news: My publisher, Fox Chapel, has set the launch date of my book for 2/25/25! I saw the cover this week for the first time and now it is starting to feel so real. I can't believe that a year ago I didn't even know that I would be asked to write a book! That was the Houston surprise of 2023. 365 days later and I am a published author attending the cocktail party of Fox Chapel and meeting my incredible editors for the first time. How crazy is this? Yes, Holy grail!!

They designed a postcard for me to hand out to people interested in the book... I will get these in at market...The first one is mine! Counting my blessings.

It has been a very busy travel year. The colors of Sedona have been put down in a new quilt, that just got finished. "Vortex" is made from my memory, not even a photo, after having hiked for days in that area. It is not how Sedona "is". It is how Sedona is stuck in my memory. How I remember this powerful place. The vast landscape, the red rocks with their horizontal lines and the turquoise of Arizona that like magic ended up as my sky. For a girl who grew up in Europe the incredible vastness of the American West is almost incomprehensible for the eyes. I soaked it up and the vortex helped me stitch it down with the tiniest fabrics. Not a freestyle color collage quilt like the ones of my book, but still very much collage and freestyle.

Introducing CollageFabric.com!

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 14:19:28 GMT

When I started selling online 21 years ago, there were hardly any companies available to help small businesses with the development of a website. I was so fortunate to have a husband with a background in mathematical engineering who enjoyed building and thinking about software. It was my husband who suggested that I should have a "shopping cart", when I asked him how someone from South Bend, IN could pay me. Together with a small consulting firm, he developed my website. Everything was difficult and very minimal: shopping cart, checkout procedure, (no) inventory control, bookkeeping, mailing lists etc. In those days we even had to take a picture of every piece of fabric as well, putting them slowly, one by one online, on the "world wide web".

This Summer a customer planted a seed. I was chatting with her on Facetime about color and showing her fabrics that could help her create whatever she had in mind. She, familiar with website development, gave me some convincing points and I followed her advice and took a look at e-commerce again.

These days, it is easy to create a website without any knowledge of code. There are so many integrations that up to a few years ago were impossible to have. Now you can find building blocks that you can use or skip. At the same time, everything has become so much more affordable as well.

It made me wonder: can I have a website that works for me and my students? A website where I can show fabrics but where I can still be flexible for when I want to be "closed"? Something super simple?

I found a way and built www.collagefabric.com , fabric with a focus on collage, without the help of my husband, who really is not a fan of me doing this in "retirement". He is afraid that I will get consumed with it again, but I have made my decision and will have time for family, volunteering and my own art. All this is not always asking for my attention and then I can and love to help my students and others. That has been going on at such a scale these last two years (it actually has never really stopped) that having a website will make it easier for all. I can show possibilities in fabrics great for collage to anyone at the same time and I don't have to send invoices as the website takes care of that. Even chatting can become easier!

Most important factor to go ahead with this: It is now possible to deactivate a website temporarily. People can browse 24/7 but they can only order when the website is open. Sure, that will be the case most of the time, but I don't have to be open 24/7 nor will I have the financial responsibilities that force me to be open 24/7. That means when I am away at shows, on teaching or family trips I can announce in the top bar when ordering is available again. I can control the amount of work I can handle as I will not have any employees. I am the one who is selecting, cutting, packing and sending your fabrics. I have the flexibility I want to have. My students/ customers have been really understanding and accommodating and it is this attitude of no rush of all of you that can make new ideas a reality. Of course I will ship as soon as possible and of course it means you will get the fabrics quickly, but I am not filling orders late at night, hiring a team or so as I did in the past. Reasonable is the word.

I use business tools to help my students with their creations and since I am having more and more students (and customers from the old days who stuck with me), it's nice to have better tools. Especially with a book coming out. But, my goal is not a financial one like every "real" business is. I am a hybrid, lol!

International people will not be able to order online. Sorry, but after Covid, shipping has become so expensive and so complicated it doesn't make sense to work that out on a website my little scale. If an international customer would like to get fabric, we will do it on a case by case basis via email. I just mentioned this to my students in France last week as well.

Collagefabric.com is for people who need small amounts and big variety. It is all tiny, unless I think a fabric is sooo good for my community, I can have fat quarters or even bolts, in which case you can order yardage. Like the new Kaffe Fassett August 2024 collection that just came out. This collection has just amazing fabrics for collage and I ordered bolts in those that arrived the day I returned from France. Those bolts have now been cut into Yards, Half Yards, Fat quarters and especially Builders. Builders are packages that help you build a collage. Each package has 20 different pieces of fabric in size 4.5" x 10" and it is these Builders that my students love. I make ranges in colors that can make good flows and connections to other colors. This is about detail in color and I don't think something like this is anywhere else available online (or in brick and mortar shops) at that level of detail. It is my way of playing with color, my passion, that I share with my community of "fabric people"!

People making applique quilts will appreciate this as well as they can get many different reds for let's say little berries, without having to buy fat quarters. Also quilters enjoying piecing with many different fabrics may benefit. You can make a "planned scrappy" quilt super easy with my Builders. They can make wonderful backgrounds!

The website is open now and I am sure some things will have to get adjusted as we go. But it is a start and I hope you will be just as excited as the person who suggested it to me.

The site will be closed for the first time when I go to Houston for Market and Festival. I will teach 2 classes and have also been invited to present three Open Studio Sessions during Festival, which is again a new experience. In total, I will spend quite some days on the road and during that time customers can browse collagefabric.com but not order. When I return home, the site gladly takes orders again. Sounds pretty perfect, not? No long waiting for you, no backlog for me, no inventory problems, no credit card authorizations waiting to be processed. Simple and straightforward.

Carlymul.com will not change except that most shopping has moved over to collagefabric.com . I will continue sharing my blog here, my teaching and my own quilts. We will see how the journey continues!

European Patchwork Meeting in France

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 19:24:30 GMT

The European Patchwork Meeting or Carrefour Européen du Patchwork in St. Marie-aux-Mines, France has ended. What an event it has been! I feel so lucky to have experienced this show that in many ways is the same as any other show, but in many other ways totally different. I hope my students appreciate their classes as much as I feel enriched by their attendance and this teaching opportunity. Collage is relatively new in France, much less known than in the US. So those that signed up were the more adventurous quilters, willing to expand their horizons. Merci pour votre courage!

Maybe I will write at a later time about my travel before and after the show. We, that is my husband and I, had flown into Zürich, Switzerland where we picked up our camper. We are travelling around with the quilt show as an in-between stop. Here are my impressions of the show days, September 12-15, 2024.

Sacred Threads

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 17:28:41 GMT

In the world of quilt shows, Sacred Threads has a very special place. This is not a regular quilt show with a mix of quilt styles, vendors and classes. No, when you see the quilts at Sacred Threads, be prepared to see a lot of emotions that are so well translated into fabrics and threads, your eyes will get wet. The show has a focus on quilts dealing with the most intense emotions we all experience sooner or later in our lives. When quilters experience joy, grief, spirituality, inspiration, peace etc they sometimes go to fabric to deal with the intensity. They express their feelings in quilts. This show is letting you in to all those personal journeys.

For years the show was held every two years in Herndon, VA and it has a special place in the hearts of many Northern Virginian quilters and quilt shops. Virginia Artistic Artifact s and Nine Patch Fabrics are still sponsors (as is eQuilter ), but next year, in 2025, the show will move to Indianapolis, IN. I am convinced many visitors from all over will visit.

Aside from the big show, there will also be a travel exhibit that will hit many places in the country. This travel exhibit will have its debut in Houston at Festival and I know some readers of this blog made it into the selection. Congratulations! That will be a powerful section in the total show!

MAQ in Gettysburg, PA

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 15:46:02 GMT

Wandering around the beautiful buildings of the college and sleeping in a bed that will be in a few weeks the bed of a teenager made me feel nostalgic. Who would ever thought when in was in law school in The Netherlands that I would sleep in a dorm in the US, in Gettysburg PA? My classroom was in a building for history, classic studies and philosophy and all the papers on the hallway walls with important and less important announcements were just the same as in my days. What were my dreams in those days and what has life done with those?

In bed, a mix of nostalgic and grateful thoughts danced around in my head until i said to myself: Stop it, Carly, go sleep, you can't even study quilting in college! Then I fell asleep on that not too bad mattress. I had made my own bed with a pillow and sheets from home. A towel as well.... My room was clean and very, very empty, except for a roll of toilet paper. It has been nice and an oasis after all the color talk during the days.

The enthusiasm of my students was great as always. The shared breakfasts, lunches and dinners in the dining hall were much better than the ones in my memory and the evenings gave us a fun and informative program with lots of goodies that quilters like to get. Julie Belin of Blue Oaks Quilting gave an excellent lecture on Friday night on the use of paper in quilting. On Saturday all teachers and their students were one by one invited on the stage for a gigantic show and tell. It is a nice way for all the students to find out what they want to do next year.

I was proud of my class! (thank you Lynne for taking this photo and sending it to me). Organic color collage is so different from any of the other classes. We won the "award" for the messiest classroom! After two days of working, our floor itself looked like a collage with all the little snippets from 12 students sticking to the carpet, that worked like Lite Steam a seam 2.

I felt it, this MAQ. Your quilting will get better because there are so many classes to choose from. In every style and at every level. Your life gets better by all these encounters with quilters. I met many old customers, who recognized me from my shop and show days in Hershey and Philadelphia, PA. That was sweet! I also met many nice new people, just by sharing quilting talk at the table. I loved the ladies in my class: Experienced quilters, strong personalities, all in love with color.

Next year it will be held June 5-8. The date was mentioned on the second evening for the first time and that is too late for me. Unfortunately I already know that I can't return because I will be teaching at a guild that weekend. Those commitments are often made a long time in advance.

I do hope I can return another year! Thank you MAQ for this great opportunity. You are one of a kind!

Houston, again!

Thu, 16 May 2024 18:27:45 GMT

Show time!

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 14:40:18 GMT

SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) "Sew to Speak" in Germantown MD is my first textile art exhibition. The exhibition will go on until April 21st at the BlackRock Center for the Arts and admission is free. I also had two quilts at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton this year.

What is the difference between a (fiber) art show and a quilt show? I'm sharing some thoughts, mainly looking at these two. There are some more hybrid forms as well.

A quilt show offers the full range of styles. It is a representation of how we all quilt. There may be some wearables. There are individual quilters and there are quilts made by groups of quilters. This collaboration can result in one quilt, but also in a group of quilts all with the same theme. Cherrywood Challenge, Hoffman Challenge, Donna Marcinkowski DeSotos' Inspired quilts, are all groups. Those quilts hang together, are usually smaller in size, and travel from show to show, although sometimes also as independent exhibits. Small but powerful! They are a great addition to a show and offer more people a chance to have their quilts in a show. The organizers of such a group exhibition make their selection of who will be part of it. So there is a moment of selection, but it is the group that enters the show.

An art show may be open to cooperation between quilters, but most of the time these are highly individual works. It is the work of one artist that is on display and it is the job of a curator/jury to select multiple works that can make the show a cohesive display. There is an overall message that a curator tries to share. Deb Cashatt, the curator of Sew To Speak, did a great job here. She selected quilts that have views/visions and they are well executed. They stand for something and the many topics and different views result in an interesting, balanced, exhibition. It makes you think. Personal trauma is shown in full trauma, acceptance, and recovery. Voting, climate, military service, family history.... are some of the topics and all the artists have such an outspoken view on a topic, they all felt the desire to put it in fabric. Sew to speak.

In an art exhibition, you won't find patterns made up by someone else. That's an absolute no. It has to be original work, highly original in concept and execution. The goal is not to do things "correctly" and the vision and interpretation of the artist are respected. There is a great amount of freedom given to an artist. In a quiltshow, you will see original works as well as many quilts designed by others, pattern designers. Some of those pattern quilts are gorgeous quilts that require great piecing or applique skills and are amazing to see in real life. It is the timeless discussion of the difference between an artist and a crafter and thank goodness there is room for both. I can appreciate tiny little stitches, meticulously sewn into many of the same blocks. Or yet another cat, dog, or flower collage. I can also appreciate rough, irregular quilting. It just depends. We may like different styles. I don't have to choose the winner! I am writing this blog in Big Bend National Park and I am glad I don't have to choose a favorite National Park. So many have something so special. Quilts are the same. Instead of choosing one over another, I count my blessings that I can see so much beauty!

Color!

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 15:13:02 GMT

Which color is the leading color at the moment? Peach Fuzz, the Pantone color of 2024? Hints of peaches and melons are picking up some interest in interior design. Some walls are getting those colors, and some vases and lampshades pick up the color, but nothing major. Is Sherwin Williams right, Benjamin Moore, Glidden? Kona? All these companies are all over the place with no consistency in their recommendations.

The trend is making a little curve: who says that it has to be one color that is the winner? I would dare to say that at this moment we don't have one color that is the leader. What we do have is Color with a capital C! Last year's Pantone color was Viva Magenta, and I wrote in a blog at that time that it probably wasn't going to be so much the color Magenta that was important. Important was "Viva". That has become the case indeed. After years of super clean whites and overused grays, we were ready for color! We can't keep the house as clean and uncluttered as during the Covid years. All those houses and walls looked the same. Now there is room for some personal style again, some collectives, some decorations that make your home yours. The swing is being made in full: The trend at the moment is multi-colored. Busy, Bohemian, eclectic, moody colors and it all comes together in the marketing with the use of bookcases. Library look. All these books have different covers, you see bits and pieces of colors, and together the patterns of the bookcase are busy! Yes, it is a unit, the shelving holds all these books together. Who cares if these books can collect dust? They also can introduce you to hours of relaxing in a comfortable chair, travels to interesting places, and the complicated lives of others in the past and future. Books have and can bring life knowledge. And so we see the change. Busy and multi-colored is coming from flat and neutral. Wallpaper with designs takes over solid walls. Tiny prints are taking over solids. and one light-dominant color is being replaced with a palette of much darker colors. It also will mean that all the more monochromatic colored quilts are becoming a little bit more dated. For years we have made Bargello quilts moving from for instance teal into blue with close steps, making the blending as perfect as possible. The newest quilt patterns are looking for a much more outspoken contrast.

It just hit me how much we are going for this in fabric because take a look at the colors of this bookcase nested in those warm beige walls. It has very much the same feel as the new Field Cloth collection by Sew Kind of Wonderful for Free Spirit, a collection that I pointed out to you earlier because of its tiny prints that are being used in big blocks. Sew Kind of Wonderful is so good at where the trend is.

Two weeks ago Motley by Guicy Guice shipped to stores interested in carrying trendy fabrics. I wrote about the tiny designs 2 blogs ago. Here now you see the most important new colors together in a collection and combined with a tiny or minimal design. Fabulous job, Guicy Guice!

The month of January 2024

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 20:38:33 GMT

My quilts will be on the road! "Abundance" and "Homage to Yaagov Agam" have been accepted into the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton. Agam will be hanging in a special exhibit of quilts inspired by artists of the 20th century. I sent a message to the Agam Museum in Tel Aviv, but haven't heard back. I am not sure if the museum is even open these days. Mr Agam is now 96 years old and I have been a fan since I saw his work for the first time in Paris a long time ago. His sculptures are all over the world and when in the area I look them up. I once, on my way to Houston, drove to the children's hospital in Birmingham, AL just to see the outside of the building! It was the Pompidou room in Paris that made me an immediate fan, but he has made so many amazing pieces of art. He is a sculptor and can express with color and movement how perspectives can change. The connection with quilting is in my view obvious.

The Alzheimer's quilt (official title "My mother has Alzheimer's. These last 5 years) has been selected for the SAQA Sew to Speak exhibition in Germantown, MD at the Black Rock Center for the Arts ( I entered it there because it was such a good fit with the theme of the show). You can understand that this is now even more special to me. The exhibition will run from March 9 until April 22, 2024.

At the moment I am making these show quilts ready by attaching sleeves and labels. Do you know that a sleeve has to be attached to the top of a quilt? I discovered a next day that I had sewn my sleeve to the bottom...so smart.. I can keep myself nicely busy!;)

We had another wonderful Open Studio Day where 5 students spent all day in my Studio working on an Organic Color collage. I know these students are truly enjoying the day and so do I. We all learn so much about the technique by listening and looking at each other's work. I can finetune my teaching and I know this last group heard it much more clearly than when I taught it for the first time at a guild. It is wonderful to be on a color journey with like-minded quilters!

The next open Studio Day will be 4-27, 2024. The cost is $229.00 for an all-day class with access to all my fabrics and supplies and lunch provided by Panera. Email me if you want to be included or would like some information. Students who have taken the class have expressed an interest in an "Agamy" Stripes class as well. I will schedule a date for that a little bit later. I have made another "Agamy" Stripe quilt, but it still needs to be quilted. Later.

Another quilt is finished: "Growing color" uses the organic color collage technique for the background. The idea behind the quilt is that we all can choose to look for the good, grow color, even when life is not perfect. I tried to make the background, the effort, "perfect" and the individual flowers on purpose not perfect. They have flaws, one I even cut! Are the flowers the most important part or should the background be the most important part? A viewer may decide.

I added to my website some new fabric packages. The new Kaffe Fassett collection that came out last month (Vintage) is available in a builder size. 20 pieces of fabric in size 4.5 x 10"! Big enough for collage people who make great quilts with small pieces! Remember, you can always ask me for packages with little pieces. I made these Single Shapes packages whites, low volume, and almost whites, for a student. How else do you get 75 different pieces of fabric in whites and superlights?

Tiny

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 21:45:39 GMT

One of the newest trends at Fall 2023 Houston Market was the abundance of tiny prints. Tiny is the new "in". I will try to explain.

In quilting, it is about the relation between fabrics and what is being done with these fabrics. Fabrics can have designs and with these fabrics, new designs are created. So two designs are playing together: fabric and pattern. You have pattern designers and fabric designers, sometimes a person can do both. Certainly, I can make the case that we have three design elements as the art of quilting has become so important these last 10 years.

There is nothing tiny in patterns. The patterns, what you make with the fabric designs, are often big blocks with especially curves and stars taking the spotlight.
Big blocks became new last year, when suddenly all the blocks blew up in size, some even up to 20". This created room for more fancy quilting designs and helped push out borders and white backgrounds. That continues to be the case, (it would even be impossible to change so quickly again). The fabrics used last year were solids, fabrics with no design at all. Solids have been in contemporary quilting extremely dominant, almost since the beginning of modern quilting. Look for instance at the work of Nancy Crow, without any doubt the founding queen of modern quilting.

Every company makes solids, some for years, some are relatively young, thinking they couldn't stay behind. Companies have expanded and expanded the colors as the demand was so big, but.... they are also making so many other gorgeous fabrics! I think it is quite amazing that last QuiltCon was showing so many quilts entirely made out of solids.... still modern? After all these years? It is almost like saying that Kaffe is modern because of the bright colors he creates (Kaffe makes beautiful browns and blacks as well!).
"Modern" in the meaning of contemporary, would be using the latest of the latest fabrics and incorporating these in new and original work. Fabric companies would love that! "Modern" could come to stand for a phase in the quilting world when solids were dominant, but in that case, the word modern has a different meaning. It becomes a style of quilting. What I have seen so far being accepted for QuiltCon 2024 is again mostly created with solids. The focus is still overwhelmingly on the pattern design and the (ruler)quilting, without much thinking about fabric. Don't get me wrong: I see stunning quilts! But...wouldn't you think a quilt made out of, for instance, Anna Maria Horner fabrics could be more new? Modern fabrics in modern patterns and with modern quilting.... that is a challenge!

A crack in the use of solids seems to start happening. At this last Market, many pattern designers didn't use the solids any longer. They are using new tiny prints. From a distance they look like solids, but closer by these fabrics have designs. All this fits in the bigger trend towards maximalism. Bringing design back. By no means are we there yet, but it is safe to say we have left minimalism. More minimal than solid is not possible. I predict that we are going to leave solids and that they are on their way out!! Really. Yes. Slowly. That doesn't mean you won't see new patterns with solids. It means you will see new patterns not using solids. More patterns with less solids. It is a gliding scale. I saw an ad for felt wall tiles: "Got naked walls?" The word "naked" was used to describe a solid wall in mostly white. That same wall was just a few years ago during covid "uncluttered, clean", hotter than hot. Now it is "naked" and white went from positive to negative. It is changing pretty fast!
Ten years or so from now, Modern can indeed be described as the period we used solids, negative space, etc....like calico prints belonging to the 1930s. The latest of the latest will be something different and it could maybe be called something different than modern. Maybe "new age" or "library quilting", I don't believe there is a new word yet.
All this is a to-be-expected path as we recognize the art of quilting. Years ago, quilts were only used as a warm blanket for a bed. I remember a discussion with a friend who said a real quilt is for on the bed.... as you can imagine, I disagreed and these days it is widely accepted that wall hangings are real quilts too! We have come a long way: As quilting grew into an art form as well, it is not a surprise there are several directions, "schools", that focus on a specific style in this art form. The modern quilter, the improv quilter, the mixed media artist, the collage quilter.....they can all be in harmony just as impressionists and cubist painters can be appreciated equally for their role in the art of painting and different style composers have explored the sound of music. Every time has its form of creativity, almost like a flavor, thank goodness.

I am not sure if this is true, but I believe it was Tula Pink who called these little prints "tiny prints". Did she give it this name? The word is for sure not blenders because these tiny prints are not being used to connect/blend bigger scale prints. These are stand-alone fabrics, big enough in their tininess to face the world without bigger-scale prints. They are indeed used (at this moment) in the same way as solids. They are not blenders, they are not basics, but they are tiny and that is new! Fun, not?

Several collections made me think of this. The best sample: Field Cloth designed by Sew Kind of Wonderful for FreeSpirit and coming out in May. This design team is spot on on the trends: big block patterns, with stars and curves, but now also tiny prints. When you look at their patterns, you can see how the design world is evolving.
These tiny prints can but they usually don't come in collections of 24-30 the same prints. It is really about a mix of prints that you can collect, just as we collected low volume a few years ago.
The Modern Quilt Studio by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle is coming out with a collection of tiny prints, called Transparency , and starts a BOM this month. Always interesting. Ruby Star Society showed a quilt with stars at Market using the lightest little stars for the more background-like blocks. Figo will have a fabulous collection coming out in August, called Stash, and this collection was presented as "minimal" prints. Minimal, tiny, it is all meant as an effort to find an alternative for solids. Of course, the prints are non-directional to make the step away from solids as easy as possible. It seems like an unimportant change, but it is very new and refreshing. A true trend, because it is happening right in front of our eyes with most unaware that it is happening. I hope the best contemporary and innovative quilters will start using these!

Alzheimer's fundraiser

Tue, 28 Nov 2023 14:18:46 GMT

Houston Market 2023

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 23:32:02 GMT

Only Quilts Inc., the company that runs Quilt Market and Festival, knows the exact numbers of attendees. My impression is guess work. I think the numbers are up! A little, but up. Fall Market wasn't as packed as in (some of) the best days, but more shops came out and were motivated to see and hear what is new than last year. More international people flew in as well with the Covid travel restrictions lifted. Quite often did I hear that a shop was at market for the first time in 4 years. Attendance was steady.

To me, the most positive point of this Market was the fact that more fabric companies were attending. "We are back"! Many, as they told me themselves, decided later or even very last minute to attend, but Robert Kaufman, Michael Miller, P&B , Hoffman...they were back! That was a wonderful thing to witness, even though because of this last minute choice, their presentation was a little minimal compared to companies who are clearly planning displays long time in advance. Companies like Moda, Riley Blake, Free Spirit and Benartex have a Market vision. You can just see they were committed to Market at an earlier point. Moda created a labyrinth of little corners where the creative juices would come to you from every angle. Like a good shop. Not a single designer could show a quilt straight, but all the angled displays were creative use of space. It showed enthusiasm, energy and variety. Riley Blake had beautiful displays showing the many sides of the company and every table still has some incredible chocolate treats to sweeten up potential buyers. That is such a sweet gesture and I know they must go through a ton of chocolates!

FreeSpirit saw some of its designers in big booths making it clear that they are leaders in the modern and artful fabric. Benartex showed in crisp and clear sections the many quilting styles they cover. Congratulations to these winners!

All this is not only showing at Market. It is also showing on social media, where everyone can see the fun and boring. (To me boring is where a booth has a few (empty) tables for sales reps to work at and behind the tables a quilt hanging. That set-up is killing cute pictures). An investment in Market presence is no longer seen only by Market attendees. It goes to every corner in the world where quilters live. Moda, Riley Blake, Free Spirit and Benartex make displays that work for them on all the videos, You Tube postings, photo shots that everyone seems to need to make. You can photograph, shoot everything in the fight for your social popularity, but these companies are really using the photographer/shooter for their marketing just as much.

I asked one big fabric company if they believed that purple was the color to watch....their booth was mostly purple. "Oh no, we didn't even think about color. This is just to give you an idea what you can do with a bundle and this is the one we used." You are a fabric company. Aren't you about selling fabrics? Why don't you think about color? Shop owners know what they can do with a bundle. Things like that. Marketing flaws that won't happen to the marketing savvy companies. Now it wouldn't stop me from buying from this company because I know and love its fabric: they make every color of the world, even tons of different purples! But a new shop is getting introduced to a very, very little part of a fabric company if they show themselves so minimal. This "purple" face they gave themselves without thinking is on social media.... that's all we see of everything they do ...A company can hurt itself so quickly. I wish I could protect them because they work hard, are the nicest people and make beautiful fabrics. They just think so little about presentation and outreach. A booth in 2023 can't look the same as one in 2013. Too much has changed to keep that concept the same.

Marketing has become so, so important and companies not investing in marketing are falling behind or at least missing an opportunity to shine. There were quite some companies that made this mistake and there were some in the middle doing ok. All this will make Moda, FreeSpirit, Riley Blake and Benartex social media winners and that has nothing to do with the content of their collections, but everything with their presentations. Gorgeous fabrics were also in the least attractive booths, but it requires a more in depth approach from potential buyers.

Another really important phenomenon is the growing presence of affiliate marketing. There are more and more people who make it their business promoting someone else's product/work, especially on YouTube and Facebook. Every time you click on their links and decide to buy something, the affiliate marketeer gets a certain percentage of the selling price. Many of these media people were at Market. It is not only big brother watching you. The people you follow are watching every click you make and the more "likes" they have, the stronger their business is. I spoke to several of them and oh my, it is just amazing how that works and what they know. Many manufacturers of tools and fabrics alike are using them and even the bigger online shops are working with affiliate marketing providers. It is becoming harder for smaller shops to exist, especially if they are trying to do the same thing as the bigger players. They can't compete that way, they have to become more creative in other ways. And there is a need for something else: how many the same kind of interviews and pictures does a customer want to see? Sometimes, the public is already tired of a collection, before it arrives in a shop because it has been on social media everywhere!

I also know that some much smaller and younger companies decided not too come back after last year. With the new H&H Market in the Spring, a market also for quilting, but even more so for knitting and other textile crafts... they believe to find a better audience there. I understand, but given the fact that so many quilt shops were back for the first time in 4 years... Market last year, the first one after 3 years of Covid, could have been a little misleading. We don't know it all in advance. I think most fabric companies will do H&H in the Spring and Houston in the Fall. I heard a pattern designer not going back to H&H as she needs a bigger quilt shop audience. For sure 2 quilt markets per year is too much, but maybe one quilt market and one craft market makes sense?

There was very, very little new at Market from a fabric or pattern company point of view.

Katia Fabric is new for the US and found an umbrella with Northcott Fabrics, just like Figo. Katia is originally from Spain and it will bring a new concept of "fabric and patterns all in one company" to the market. Sewing garments, home decor, quilting, trying to cover it all. It was an interesting discussion and often my European roots make it so much easier to understand where they are coming from and what they are trying to accomplish in the US. Knowing that Figo after 5 years has really found a modern voice in the industry, puts Katia on my watchlist.

There were very few new pattern booths, if any. I had seen them all before. It is hard to get surprised by patterns as everything is so intensely on social media, long before Market. Still, market has a function as I was pointing out some newer trends to on old colleague shop owner with whom it was fun to chat. You can only see this when you see the repeat in many booths. To me, Market is by far the best place to see the industry, although not the only place as a lot is not present or shown. Market introduces you to old and new people in the industry, which is so important in staying up to date or finding new opportunities. Many are friends, but even more are business relations. All those happy faces on social media...some have never met each other before but look like best buddies. Especially at this Market, the desire for attention was so in your face. Things have really, really changed as a few years ago, pictures were not even allowed. You saw signs of camera's with an X. It is not a matter of good or bad, it is the reality of every business these days. But I think it it wise to know when you see all this at home that sometimes it is pure marketing: Business, money, buy me!

That is not said Market doesn't have warm personal relations: years of working together create friendships, care and many are really happy to see each other without a need to share this on social media.

I'm not sure Sample Spree is any longer worth the entrance fee. This cash and carry market was originally meant for shops to buy fabrics and patterns earlier so that they could make a shop sample and have it ready by the time the fabric would arrive. The cash and carry Market is getting smaller and smaller, with only Moda as the attraction. That booth is so packed, it's unbelievable. Shops are like piranhas around the tables, packed with fat quarter bundles, and they are paying an higher than regular wholesale price for it. Nobody is checking the price, they just grab. They grab so much, they couldn't even make it all in samples! I find that emotional response so amazing for a business. Moda has always done a gangbusters business there, fully feeding the enthusiasm of shop owners/designers of being at Market.

There is very few fabric left available at Sample Spree. Most well known fabric companies, except some Asian companies, have given up on Sample Spree. That gives younger companies a chance to shine and get some welcome cash to recover Market attendance cost. I love what Poppie Cotton did for Sample Spree. They created a beautiful red bag with colorful flowers and all Market long you could see these happy flowers dancing around. Excellent advertising! I now know Poppie Cotton. It shows you there is room for new, creative thinking, and some of their fabric will show up in my "collage small" packages as I just want to support them (yes, I bought fabric!).

So much to share... these are just a few of my personal thoughts on the business side! More about Market in later blogs and in my lecture about trends in color and design. Houston 2023 was good!!

Cotton, the fabric of our lives

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 02:33:13 GMT

We continued our drive and came closer to Marianna, I believe it names itself cotton capital of the world. Cotton fields everywhere! After a stop at a traffic light we ended up driving behind a big truck and from this big truck little white flurries jumped onto the road. Cotton!! It was not just the wind... the truck lost some of its white load.

Immediately we looked at each other. Shall we? Of course. The decision to follow this truck was made quickly. We had some time. Where would it go to? What was happening to the cotton? Let's find out.

After a few minutes and driving on very local roads, far away from the main road KY-Dallas, the truck entered an industrial area in the middle of some cotton fields. More trucks came in and left again, all bringing raw cotton.

There were no visitors. There were hardly any people. Just these truck drivers (like us;)) Ineke and I had some guts and parked our truck filled with the the hottest of the hottest cotton fabrics (!) near a loading area. We looked around a little, peeked inside and saw a working cotton gin: gigantic displays with machineries working on the cotton. Oh wow! A very friendly man approached us, asking if he could help us. We explained that we were a Dutch quilter and an American/Dutch quilt shop owner on our way to the Houston quilt show and that we just loved cotton. The man smiled, heard our accents, and took us on a private tour through the cotton gin. He loved cotton too! He had worked all his life in the gin and I must confess his thick Arkansas' accent made it hard for us to follow him too. But he was extremely friendly and we were super happy, so the communication worked.

The cotton comes in as a plant, full with seeds, needles, branches. Ginning removes the seeds from the cotton,.. At the end of the cleaning, soft pure cotton is left and stacked in bales. Then it goes to mills for being produced into textiles.

Would we like to have some cotton? Ineke and I said yes and we each have now a big pile of cotton, reminder of this beautiful adventure and our friendship. Such a fabulous day! We continued our way to Houston, making even more memories.

Rust & Bloom

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 19:31:55 GMT

Studio Carly Mul

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 20:33:38 GMT

Studio Carly Mul LLC has been formed!

Retirement is the time when one has no longer the obligations and commitments that come with earning a living. There is time to do whatever one loves.

In my case, I have always loved my work and I know I am really fortunate to say that work has never been a burden. My work was my hobby, but the responsibilities that came with it prevented that I had enough time left for family, travel, volunteering and more hobby.

It probably will always be a challenge as I still have more wishes than hours in the day, but a year in retirement, I can definitely say we (my husband and I) have made and are making our (his, mine and ours) dreams come true.

One of my dreams is making more quilts, being creative, playing with fabrics and giving back to the community. That has really happened, despite the many trips, the volunteering and my tennis. My classes, lectures, Open Studio Days.. for all this I need an official legal construction. Even when the focus is not on finances, activities can have consequences.

So welcome to Studio Carly Mul LLC, a single member corporation. I will not have employees, I will not open a shop, I am not trying to ship the same day! It is my continuing fabric journey that I will share with others who have the same passion. Expect the website to reflect some changes soon! If interested, please sign up for the mailing list. Thank you !

On demand

Wed, 09 Aug 2023 14:38:43 GMT

"On demand" seems to become the word! There have been quite some changes in the design world thanks to the digital printing technology. That is old news, but these last weeks it really hit me how much has changed indeed.

I believe Spoonflower was the first one or at least one of the first ones where you could have your own design printed on fabric. I once used this service when I needed a fabric with a certain dog breed to make a wedding gift and I simply couldn't find the right dog, not in my own shop nor elsewhere. I uploaded a picture of the couple's dog and within a week I had a yard of the desired dog. The fabric was not super great, but also not bad. It was expensive, yes, but it was perfect for what I needed and made my gift so much better.

A lot has changed since those days: the quality has improved tremendously and there are now many different materials (cotton, silk, poly, canvas and many more) available for printing. Spoonflower has grown into a site not only for printing your own fabric. You can order designer's fabrics, wall paper, bedding and more. A design can be applied to many different materials and uses and they offer many ways of on demand printing.

More and more places are popping up online with in house printed fabric that is not getting distributed through the main quilting channels. It seems like a sub or side market is emerging. For instance, I have been drooling over the color chart of Realfabric.com that lists all the colors I can choose from when designing something. After the drooling came the ordering, that's how it goes, not? It seems handy to have the exact colors on hand because sometimes, I don't have a certain color combination/print in my stash and now I can make a quick design and have it in the mail within a week. I very often look for transitions in colors and a simple curve in the colors that I want can do the job. The fabric is more expensive (about $20.00 per yard) but I don't find that outrageous when we pay for mass produced fabric close to $14.00 per yard. It will be the rare exception for when I need a solution.

I also ordered in house printed fabric by Ineedfabric.com that was sold at the same price as main stream fabric. Quality consistency may be a surprise, but I gave it a try as that is the only way to find out. It is just interesting to see how much is available that will never get distributed through shops and wholesale channels, but directly by the manufacturer.

I came to this blog as I am helping someone with the colors of her house and she decided to put wallpaper in several spots. In case you wonder: wallpaper? Yes, wallpaper! It is making a major, major come back in interior design. In bathrooms, laundry rooms, bedrooms, wallpaper is showing up more and more. Gone are the days that all the wall are getting painted with a flat paint in a light solid color. Color is making a major come back and also designs on the wall are appreciated again.. What's actually really fascinating to see is how that has an impact on so many other things. Bedding for instance, is now almost in solid colors or in designs that don't compete with the walls. Because bedding is more solid, rugs can have again more design, without clashing with the walls that are more distant from the rugs and separated by furniture. That's the opposite of what the trends were the last few years, when bedding was multi colored with outspoken designs and the walls/rugs solid. It is one of the wavy trends in interior design.

Where do you find wallpaper? Almost all home decor shops, including Home Depot and Target are selling wallpaper again, after years of having completely banned the product. Of course the choice is limited. More choice can be found in the traditional wallpaper books that are in every good paint shop. But like everything else, the internet is the place to browse. Not only can you find all the possible wall papers, you can also design your own wallpaper or mural. Simply by uploading a picture, exactly the same as when you print your own fabric.

In my search to find the most perfect wallpaper for my client, I discovered Lovevsdesign.com . On this website you can find many designs AND you can color them in any way you want with over 200 colors! Want something with a green/cream print? Which color green, which color cream? You can play with the colors and instantly see the result on a small swatch, on a big wall or even in your own room. They have a good variety of designs in various scales and it opens up a world of possibilities. The four pictures below are just completely random samples of how easily you can change the colors and see the impact. It's so impressive.

So while on vacation, I have been playing much more seriously with colors on a couple of designs that appeal to my client. Each design we picked has room for three colors ( you can get two colored or many more colored designs) that compliment my client's room. Swatches are on their way and then we will decide and have her wallpaper printed on demand!

Space Dye Wovens by Figo Fabrics

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 20:50:23 GMT

Containers

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 13:03:02 GMT

Houston 2023

Fri, 26 May 2023 21:24:22 GMT

Paris

Tue, 16 May 2023 12:41:18 GMT

Paris! For many Americans, Paris is the City of Love, with the lovers strolling near the Eiffel Tower and along the grand boulevards. Enjoying an early morning coffee with a croissant on an outdoor terrace and throwing themselves in the nightlife near Le Moulin Rouge. It’s worth a movie indeed.

Growing up in The Netherlands, I have been to Paris many times. It was only 6 hours from my hometown in the Netherlands (now with the TGV, it goes even faster). You could take the bus at 6 am in the morning and take the bus from 6 pm back, to be back at home at midnight. I have done that in high school and it was fabulous. There is so much to see in Paris… you can do it in six hours or you can do it in six days or six weeks…. I don’t think the city will ever disappoint.

In 2016 my then son-in-law-to-be Brandon was with us in Europe celebrating my mother’s 80th birthday. As we were in France celebrating, he too wanted to see Paris. We left early in the morning in the South of France and thanks goodness to the GPS, my husband navigated us through the city (something we had never done before. Paris' traffic was notoriously bad for outsiders and getting into the city by car was impossible in my younger years) and brought us right at a parking garage near our hotel.

We rushed to the closest metro and within a few hours we had taken Brandon to all major highlights. As we were having dinner in Quartier Latin, we saw a map of Paris on the wall and I remember Brandon saying he had seen all these highlights on the outside: Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame, Champs Elysees. It was a great rush and I’m sure he will get back another time.

Once you have done Paris 101 and 102 and have seen all the major attractions, it’s a great fortune to wander in the city without having to rush to the monuments.

Paris has many, many different kinds of people. It always had. There are many very well dressed Parisians in the oldest or the latest fashion styles. There are still the upcoming artists who, like their famous artistic ancestors, are gathering in cheaper places to live their art, hoping to one day find that same recognition. There are many hard working people who have no time to even look at the beauty of the city. There are many people from all different racial backgrounds, tourists.. so much to see. They all color the timeless monuments with their existence. These monuments have seen all these different people for many generations and it is almost as if they look back at you and comfort you and your humanity. The grandeur of the city makes an individual small. Time is special and fluid in Paris. You see the history, but you also very much see the present. You can sit on a very old bench in a park and watch newborns getting nursed. You can sit on many of the beautiful squares and look at dancers or listen to a musician, knowing that on that very same square also people put up barricades during the French Revolution. You can sit outside on a terrace and just look at all these individuals. In Paris, people have no desire to conform, it seems. No desire to fit in a group. You see so many individuals that are expressing something unusual in the way they dress, treat their hair, act. Like moving art objects… Now in many places in the world people would turn around and stare at the unusual person in disapproval. Not in Paris. The citizens know they have these humans in their midst and it almost makes people smile….It’s not a matter of approval or not. It’s a matter of appreciating how there is room for a true individual. That’s a very special freedom. That’s why Paris has given us these great works of art. What we now, many years later, consider a work of great art, was in the years of producing the art often very shocking, provocative. To gain a perspective one has to see another point of view. Paris has space for different views.

No visit to Paris can be without a visit to the many museums. The impressionist mecca of Musee D’Orsay has the absolute top collection of the world in what has become a style most loved by people all over the world. Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Degas and many more…..they are all there. The overwhelming museum The Louvre, that could take a month to just walk around. Museum Rodin with the great intimate sculptures of Auguste Rodin. Like all museums in the world, you will find at the exit the museum shop where you can buy many items related to the displays in the museums. Personally, museum shops are my favorite shops. Not so much to really buy something for which I probably have no need/use at all, but just to look at what is available, the marketing of art. In museum shops you see things that are not anywhere else. I love touching the pens they created, the posters of the works, the puzzles for children. It’s just fun to look at. I do this at every museum in the world and if I have very little time, I make sure I visit at least the museum shop...

One museum in Paris stands out to me. It is the Centre Pompidou in the heart of the city. It was built in 1977, the year I graduated high school and it was a complete new building for Paris in the less wealthy area of the old food market. The bright red escalator on the outside ....I recall many people were totally not impressed by the building. They said it didn’t fit Paris, was ugly. The vision of the architects has proven to be right: right now Centre Pompidou is a major attraction and it hosts the museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. It’s one of the major places for modern art in the world, for sure for European Art and it has lifted the entire area to a new place of attraction.

What I find most interesting in modern art is that it can surprise me. I can admire and love the work of the great impressionists, but after seeing it so often, it’s hard to get really surprised. The same with music by the way, or food. It’s so nice to encounter something that is “new”. I am not saying that I “know” the old masters but I know even less of the world of modern art. There are so many names I have never heard of, so many works I don’t know. Wandering in a museum of modern art, is like a fresh breeze on the beach. It refreshens me. I don’t understand everything, I don’t like everything, but I love that I have seen something new and can learn. It enriches me, or at least it makes me feel enriched.

The ultimate place of learning for me about colors and design is the Library of this museum. It’s an open library, located on the right side of the entrance, where the museum shop is on the left side. This library is not a library in the classic definition, it is very much a shop as well. You can read, grab and buy books about all kinds of modern art. Not just painting, also photography, architecture, color and design… it covers the whole world of art, with displays that are fascinating. They have coloring books, postcards, games, posters.

This library is probably one of my most favorite places in the world. I can spend hours here looking and looking, browsing and browsing. I buy a few things, but usually only a few postcards as a reminder and a source of inspiration at home. If at all possible, it’s the place I always try to combine with a visit to Europe.

Last summer, my daughter Laura and I had the most wonderful time in Paris. We walked 28.000 steps every day, starting around 9 am in the morning and returning at 10.30 pm. We soaked up Paris, so to say, that had the most gorgeous weather I have ever seen in the city. The sun made the old buildings, that can look old and droopy in the rain, standing like young cheerleaders. We went to some unknown areas and saw how some well known areas were stripped of their character by becoming completely overwhelmed with tourists. And we went to the library of the Centre Pompidou. Doing this with my grown up daughter was such a treat, but after a couple of hours even she said:” Mom, take your time, I will wait outside”. I had to stop, see you next time. Au revoir!

After the white...

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 21:25:52 GMT

In two previous blogs, I wrote how the color white is on its way out as a trendy color. White backgrounds, white sashings.....the newest patterns are minimizing the color white to a little accent color somewhere in the block. At the same time, the blocks are getting much bigger in size making the idea of a background color not that important. Instead of a background and fabrics on top of it, most contemporary quilts are much more in one level/layer of equal partner colors. I believe it is Modern Quilt Studio that came up with the word "ensemble" colors for the phenomenon: Harmony between the colors without making any color the dominant one for the background. Not a surprise as Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle look at and think about color with an almost academic approach. I am a big fan of their work, it's thoughtful and beautiful at the same time.

If we need contrast, how do we still get contrast if white is not the first choice of color? We came from beige before that, are we going back to beige/cream? No. Beiges and creams are definitely colors with a renewed interest but they are not taking the place of white. Grey is also no longer the color of choice, because it has been overused everywhere. Grey is still important, but has become, just like white, an accent color.
For a while "greige", a mix of grey and beige, has been pushed as the new color but that didn't really stick either. In general we are seeing a strong shift from the cool side of the color wheel towards the warm side and I think this shift may have been so strong that greige was still too cool. It therefore is also no surprise the "new white", the color that has the function of white, is also on the warm side: It is a very pale pink/orange that has undertones of brown and taupe. Very often it goes by the name "nude", "French nude" or "dusk", names that hardly describe the color (and I don't get the French part). "Blush" and "Porcelain" are the best names I have seen for it. I actually don't think it is one color yet that is the clear winner, it is more a palette from the softest pinks/melons/oranges you can find. In nail polish you see the color, also in ladies lingerie. Really is that the color coming up? Yes, it is!
Take a look at Sherwin WIlliams' Color of the year: Redend Point SW 9081, a neutral with a clear warm family background. Or Malted Milk, the color just selected as the color of the month April. Malted Milk is also a light neutral, but more peachy orange with a brown undertone. That's the direction it is going at the moment!
In most quilt shops the color is rather hard to find as most companies are still completely staying away from it and make the color much more pink, more peachy. It should be a much softer taupe with a hint of pink/orange! Some of the trendiest companies (Art Gallery Fabrics, Ruby Star Society) have introduced the colors in the collections. I found a great piece by Laura Berringer for Marcus Fabrics, a company more known for historic fabric than contemporary cottons. It is called Fade Away and this is definitely a fresh look for background fabrics. Also, Figo Fabrics, the modern branch of Northcott, in its new lookbook for the Fall is showing the "Trek" collection. This collection has the color in it too, so slowly we will see the color that has been "hot" in interior design showing up more and more in the Fall. I'm adding a picture I took at my local Target a few weeks ago. Their home decor section is full with it.

If you want to try to find the color, start with the light beiges and then look for any that have some kind of red in them. Most become too yellow or too brown quickly.
Before you go to a paintshop and look at the paint chips, please know that these colors show up much lighter on the wall than the paint chip suggests. In general, it is very tricky to look at colors of paint chips in the same way as color in fabrics. I know it is great fun when Bonnie Hunter does her paint chip mystery, but paint chips look totally different when painted on a wall. Even totally different on different walls because of the presence and reflection of light. If you would put the same color paint on all the walls of your house, you would still end up having different colors for that reason.

That said, it is true that all these newer colors are definitely darker than white and cream and that's a trend by itself. After years of going lighter and lighter, we reached the bottom of the valley of light colors. The trend is making a curve and we are seeing the darker colors come up again. We are at the very beginning of this, so I'm sure I will write about that another time.

In one of my first blogs I wrote about Grassroots 108 by P&B fabrics. One of those extra wide fabrics is the backing for my "Trends on the couch 2023" quilt that I made for my lectures, just to have a reference for people to see the latest trends in colors for family rooms. A close look at this fabric, shows you the soft blush that is in the background. That's exactly the reason why I choose this backing. Most people are not even seeing this (it's definitely a neutral color), but when I point the blush accent color out during a lecture, they can clearly see it. This is how slowly our senses for colors are getting influenced!

This backing looks awesome with the top, in color and theme, as nature inspired fabrics are really the hottest trend right now in interior design and quilting fabrics alike. For the pattern I used Daylesford by Jen Kingwell out of her Quilt Recipe book. As you can see it is a blown up version of a log cabin (huge block). The fabrics I selected are all fabrics with natural and textural elements. The colors are equally important and natural: dark green ("forest night" or "bottega green"), one of the newest colors of the moment, medium browns, blush, rust, brown and black as the main colors. I believe this quilt could fit in any new 2023 family room. If anyone is interested in a kit, I can gladly made this up for you. All fabrics will be labeled. I actually made a custom kit of this pattern in other colors for a customer as well. Fun!

By the way: P&B told me that they are going to print this Grass Root collection indeed in 45" width, just as I suggested to them when the 108" fabric came out. It will come in 27 colors to shops in October. Exciting!

Just scraps....

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 17:47:48 GMT

Scraps make scrap quilts. Traditionally, a real scrap quilt is where the maker just grabs any fabric and sews it together without paying attention to color or design. A part of a dog, a solid, a green plant, bits of lighthouse…. when nobody is looking at any design or color and you end with a totally utilitarian quilt. A true scrap quilt is fiber. Great for the dog, for warmth, easy to sew….there are tons of reasons to appreciate this quilt. Making a "pretty" quilt was not the goal, just making a quilt itself was enough and there is nothing wrong with that. Actually, such a quilt can become pretty for other reasons: the gift it makes, the intentions of the maker, the comfort given to the maker, the age/capacity of the maker etc etc. Or the place in history where it was during a historic event. I am one of those who will never say that ANY quilt is ugly. Some quilts don't appeal to me, for sure, but that doesn't make the quilt ugly. I simply don't see or don't know enough about it to call it beautiful at hello. I'm a firm believer that every quilt has a reason to be called pretty, just because every quilt had hands that made it. They are that much work.

A next step up is sewing all these complete random scraps together but somehow create a design with it later. Usually, this means the scraps are cut into blocks and bordered with a black or white border to create some contrast. This too can create fun quilts for which there is room. Often charity quilts are done this way, because they are a low cost solution. Low cost in purchasing maybe, not low cost in time/making!

If you don't organize your shelves you can make scrap quilts, but if you do organize your fabric you can make "planned scrappy" quilts. Here, a world of possibilities goes open and there are many, many, accomplished quilters that have written excellent books and patterns to help you make good use of your scraps. All this with the desire to use it, to finish it. Maybe that sets me apart from the general view: I have no desire to finish it. Not at all. I love my scraps and I want to have them all. Sometimes, I'm even a little sad when the last piece of a favorite fabric is getting used. I pet this last piece and thank it for its service! Scraps make an essential part of my floating source of materials I can select from when I make a quilt. I love going with my hands through them, picking them up and wondering if I shall use them. Some I love more than others, some can even be too good for a certain spot in a quilt. Can't waste my scraps!

My scraps are paid for, there is no rush to do anything with it, period. They may lay in my room. Unused, or better, not yet used fabric, makes me happy to look at. I feel happy in my sewing room, they are my decor and I play with them daily. My scraps are just as dear as my bigger and newer cuts. For every new quilt my scraps are all in a way new because I look with new plans in my head. No, that silly cat print I can't use, but wait a minute... her body has the perfect shade of orange for my collage.... What if I cut this part of the cat out? A belly has turned into an orange piece and in the quilt nobody can see that it was part of a cat. But I know and it makes me smile!

Planned scrappy quilts have some kind of planning. This can be very minor planning like "using all pieces with blue" or "only novelty fabrics" or a much more intense planning. Sorting scraps by value for instance where any color will work as long as it is light (I'm sharing below an instagram post from colorfulartgirl. She did such an excellent job). Sorting fabrics that are one color or 2 color prints. Your hands go through all these fabrics in your bins at home but the thought process is just exactly the same as if you would be in a shop. You select fabrics and put them together with others. Most planned scrappy quilts could be made with new fabrics. The difference is just that you get more variety and you don't have to buy so much new fabric. It's "upcycling" at its very best!

I have shared with you on Facebook already the Jen Kingwell quilt I am making right now by hand. It's my travel quilt project (see below). This quilt will be completely made out of scraps. It is a planned scrappy quilt as all the fabrics have to be in the same kind of navy and medium brown. I could have made the quilt in just a few fabrics, actually this pattern is so fantastic, it can be made up in many different styles. But I love the character the many different pieces bring to the quilt, that history of the fabric brings an extra level of coziness to this quilt, that is meant to be used in a living room. In selecting my scraps, I don't care about the design of the fabric, but am very strict about the color. Reproduction fabric next to modern pieces, old next to new. There is somewhere a snowman, a print with books.. little cute surprises that add some whimsy to the quilt. When you look at the quilt closely, you may sometimes think how can these 2 designs get put together? But in the total picture, it works, because when the blocks are put together in a layout, then I do pay attention to the colors and designs of each block to create a contrast with its neighbors. It's about the function of the color in the total. When you don't like a fabric in your scrap bin, cut it smaller.....in the end it is all about color...

Then there are quilts that require a lot of variety in fabric. They simply can't be made with a few fabrics. The scraps rise to another level in these quilts. Detailed applique quilts that need variety in pinks and greens for flowers and leaves, one color quilts, collage quilts. If I had unlimited funds I would not even be able to buy all the variety I want for my bigger collage quilt. Such a collage has hundreds of different pieces in them (when my next quilt is finished I'm going to spend some time counting the number of fabrics in it!), going in size from .5" to 4", but most are between 1-2". If you need 1" or 2", a fat quarter is huge! No shop really has all I want to have at one point. I need to collect! That's the main point: you can't buy the variety scraps can give you. You can buy fat quarters, you can buy charm packages, but often that still doesn’t give you variety and you can't pick and choose each individual piece of fabric. Every charm package has some you like and can use and some that are not working for a particular project.

To me my scraps make my pile of gold! They provide me different colors, different hues and there is not a single piece of fabric I toss out. I save them all and they have made my day so often. Yes, even the tiniest pieces. I toss them in a bowl and when I have a full bowl, I iron them on Lite Steam a Seam 2. They make a next collage easier! And yes, that means I have more bins with pieces that have already fusible on them ....

Now that I'm teaching again collage classes to guilds, I can see the value of a stash even more. There are quilters who have hardly any stash and for them I need to make kits with lots of fabric pieces in order to even take the class. Most quilters have a rather unbalanced stash. They are missing colors, because they normally don't work with certain colors. Or they have many scraps in the same design style. For them I'm finding myself making packages of color ranges: 25 pieces in each..love doing this....I'm back to selling fabric?? Then there are quilters who have such a good stash, it makes me eager to see the quilts they made!

Your stash is indeed a mirror of your quilting personality! And maybe even more: one of my students this week said that collage quilting is not for the "indecisive" as there is so much freedom in selecting fabrics, cutting sizes etc. She has a point. I will not be the one telling you what you have to do, but will encourage you to trust your own voice by giving you new ways and hints to look at fabric. Isn't that one of the beautiful things quilting is about?

Back from New Zealand and Australia

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 13:02:24 GMT

In the US the influence of Australian designers has become much stronger during the last 15 years and designers like Jen Kingwell, Kathy Doughty, Wendy Williams, Karen Somerset, Irene Blanck (and many more) have become well known names. Of course, these designers are not all in the same style, but they have given us a fresh approach in their styles. No other country has so many designers doing so well in the US. For them, the US market is a nice expansion of their market with no language barrier on either side. Their work was new and for a while Australian patterns were the hottest trend. Jen Kingwell's patterns especially, even though they are far from easy. When her breakthrough Gypsy Wife - these days, the pattern is called Wanderer's wife - came out in the US, it was the first pattern that had blocks of different sizes that came together as a puzzle. Instead of making 12 or more of the same blocks, her quilt came together by sewing blocks together in sections. That was new and super creative and I think this pattern should be on every quilter's "to do" list, just because it is so eye opening. She had partial seams, that was new (again). Irene Blanck had a new style in applique, Karen Somerset brought new life to reproduction style medallion quilts. However, it was most of all the use of colors that stood out. Australian designers have a special way of combining colors and designs: it is more jubilant, more free and the combination of busier prints and colors made them stand out. They use big flowers with more ease and there seems to be a real preference for more scrappy quilts. They are not really scrappy, they are "planned" scrappy. To Australian designers it comes easier to combine prints and really mix them. Plaids with flowers, checks with dots....abundance. More fabrics! I will write another blog about this soon.

This abundance of colors is not only happening in quilting. It's everywhere in the Australian culture: clothing, packaging, cell phone cases... all so cheery in that bright and sunny daylight that draws people to beaches everywhere. Life is good in Australia!

New Zealand had a little bit less color. The country is so focused on preserving its pristine and absolute stunning landscape. For instance: there are no (or very, very few) public trashcans. You are supposed to take your trash "rubbish" with you and can't expect others to clean it up for you. It's amazing what that policy does. You are much more aware of your empty plastic bottles, your food wraps... The country is so clean, also in the bigger cities! The hotel room waste basket has a divide so items that can be recycled are already separated at the source.

We had the impression that Covid had been really hard on New Zealanders and many shared with us their struggle. The country is so dependent on tourism and with the borders closed for so long, people have had a hard time. Many are leaving or thinking about leaving for Australia and they shared that with us..... So often they thanked us for coming and they were eager to show their beautiful Maori culture with us. "Please do take pictures, any questions?" It was so nice. At the same time the Aboriginal places in Australia had signs everywhere that we were not allowed to take any pictures. "Out of respect". The beauty of travel is that you learn about different values and respect can have different faces. We did and we did not take pictures.

Back to fabric: Knowing the American quilting world, I was eager to see the Australian one. In Australia, I saw many American fabrics. Whatever is popular here, is also popular in Australia. Kaffe Fassett, Anna Maria Horner, Tilda, Grunge was in every quilt shop. Patterns from Elizabeth Hartman, Alison Glass, Jaybird. Mainstream USA is also mainstream Australia. Quilt shops are closing in Australia (and NZ) as well. Every shop told me that they had less neighbors than a few years ago. Many new pattern designers are no longer in shops, a trend we see in the US just us much. I can find more Australian patterns online than in shops and that was quite frankly a little bit disappointing. I had hoped to find lots of new things!

Australia and New Zealand have a big department store, Spotlight, with an impressive selection of fabrics. Every city has a Spotlight and that means that sewing and quilting are thriving. Spotlight is what JoAnn's is in the US and those kind of stores are important as they introduce many people to sewing and quilting. Sooner or later some of those customers, will discover independent quilt shops. For instance, in Europe, you don't have this or the fabric area is much, much smaller.

The price of fabric is anywhere between 25-33 Australian dollars per meter (1 meter is a little bit more that a yard), which is between 18-23 American dollars. About 35% more expensive, just like in Europe. While fabric is much more expensive in Australia, many other items (groceries, transportation) are less costly. I really don't know why this is the case. Just counting our blessings when we buy fabric! Do you know when I was still doing shows with an international attendance (Houston, Quiltcon), that I could see in the speed of the hand that was touching the fabrics, if it was an American hand or a hand from another country? So funny! Foreigners didn't have to think so hard about a fabric, it was such a bargain! They more or less grabbed what they could and for that price they would figure it out at home...I thought of this as I was touching the fabrics in Australia. I bought just a few, more for my memory than for projects. Fat quarters at $7-8 slow you down!

I had a conversation with John Doughty, the husband of Kathy Doughty, who looked at me when I entered the shop in a suburb of Sydney. "Don't I know you from Houston??" So funny, yes you do! I always bought all the patterns Material Obsession had left at the end of the show. This way they didn't have to pay for freight back to Australia and I got patterns without shipping cost.

I asked John why even the Australian fabrics, the aboriginal fabrics, were so expensive in Australia. M&S Textiles is located in Melbourne. I can get that fabric in the US for $12.00 and it would have cost about $22 in Australia. Isn't that strange? His answer? "We have no Australian fabric any longer. All fabrics are made in Korea, just like the American designed fabrics. So the design may be Australian, the manufacturing is Asian. It cost just the same".

Where is a fabric from when the designer lives in country A, the printing is happening in country B and the fabric is being distributed by a company in country C? Jen Kingwell is Australian. Her fabric is getting printed in Korea for Moda in Dallas, TX. Australian Kathy Doughty designs for American Figo fabrics, P&B (and others) has some South American designers who send their design files electronically to the creative director in the US. Petra Prins is Dutch, but her Dutch Heritage fabrics are not printed in Holland. It seems the question "where is a fabric from? ", has no simple answer. Very few fabrics are truly 100% made in one country. The quilting industry has become a global industry and my visit to Down Under made that perfectly clear.

In the spotlight: Splash Fabric

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 19:04:21 GMT

It's fun to go to Market and see old friends and acquaintances, but looking for what is really new is one of the main reasons to go. Unfamiliar with this company I attended the schoolhouse of Splash Fabric . This company produces and sells laminated cottons and attended Market for the first time. It is an entrepreneurial company with a delightful couple, Tracy and David Krauter, at the helm. Tracy is the creative mind and has come up with about 25 different fabrics. That is not very many at a Market that shows thousands of fabrics, but this Seattle based company is much about quality: Quality of life, quality of environment, quality of fabric. They are truly makers that make fabric for people who love to make things. Their passion was obvious at hello.

The fabric is 100% cotton that is laminated. Very often laminated fabrics are not cotton. They are acrylics ("oil cloth"), so Splash Fabric stands out. The fabric is extremely soft and easy to work with: great for tableware, diapers, rain jackets and bags. It can be washed but wiping any dirt off will do the job in most cases. I touched the samples and this fabric is really very nice, not "plastic" at all, if you know what I mean.

Tracy showed me a bag that was so nifty. It would be great for wet stuff at a gym, for shoes, make-up, for lunches. Then she told me that I could find the free pattern for the reversible wet bag at Sew Very Easy , a YouTube Company.

Now forgive me my innocence, but I had never heard of Sew Very Easy, a company that has .5 million subscribers!! Half a million! I know You Tube videos are the preferred way for many customers to get their information, but I never knew that someone made their business making YouTube videos as a teacher. Most videos are produced by one company to promote their own business but Sew Very Easy teaches all over the place and has done this so successfully that companies are asking Laura, the owner, to make a video of their product.

Lucky me, for lunch I shared a table with Laura and heard the story of her business. In one word: amazing! Of course Covid has helped her, but she had the vision and desire to teach this way long before Covid! When you hear what is involved in making these videos: Laura has her own studio in her home, with camera, lighting and sound equipment. She shows patterns from others, gadgets of the industry she likes herself. She has such a creative mind and so much experience in sewing, she can make up patterns on a whim. A super creative and savvy technology person in one. She was at market signing contracts for future videos. When you hear her talking about her business, you would think this is a young woman who just graduated from college in computer technology. That is not the case at all. She taught herself the ins and outs of all the technology. I am so impressed.

Laura used Splash Fabric for a free pattern to make this amazing reversible wet bag that she came up with. It uses webbing or strapping and a buckle for closure. That's it, no zippers! Her instructions are superb and together, Tracy and Laura are definitely taking care of some future gifts for me to make. And now that I know about Sew Very Easy, there are hours and hours of videos to watch with ideas.

When Tracy and I chatted a little about my background, she asked me what color she should add next to her collection. She had just bought a design from nobody less than Maria Shell, the great improv quilter, and was thinking about a color way for that design. I suggested a burnt orange with some red and pink lines. Splash doesn't have many warmer colors in the collection yet and orange is an upcoming color that works well for decorative household items and bags alike.

Actually, I believe I had just seen the perfect color at Art Gallery Fabrics. So together we went over to the Art Gallery's booth, and I asked Walter Bravo, the owner of AGF, if Laura could see the color orange he and I had looked at earlier. So now we will wait and see what happens in the next few months! Multiple seeds have been planted!

White - 2

Tue, 03 Jan 2023 21:52:40 GMT

I'm continuing the blog about white I started just before Christmas.

White is at the moment one of the most interesting colors. Why? Because it is moving out as a TRENDY color and it is moving out rather quickly! Of course, there will always be whites, but the color is no longer as important as it recently was. That is the biggest change in the world of color for 2023! That means that all fabrics in group 1, 2 and 3 are no longer as important as they were a few years ago. Most quilters will not realize this. Most shops will not realize this, even though they should as the number of sales in white will sharply decline compared to the days when white was "in". There was a time that we couldn't have enough low volume fabrics, companies couldn't make it fast enough. Now, there definitely is room for some white fabrics and every shop should have some, but the golden days of white are over. For a business, having an outspoken trend of something new is wonderful. Customers don't have it yet and would like to get it. That was the case with low volume a few years ago.....and now we are not having anything like that.. yet.

The importance of the color white is diminishing. In interior design, white (and light grey) walls have been absolute dominating. White was up to a year ago for kitchens the color of choice. Almost all kitchens became white, and not so much a soft white either. Laboratory white, super clean, minimalized.

Slowly people are getting a little bit bored with all the same white everywhere. For a while, white was seen as bringing order and structure to our busy lives, we have given up on that idea. We are ok to be a little bohemian! Now a much more individualistic approach that showcases the uniqueness of you and your home is gaining momentum. Piecing of art are important, vintage furniture, family heirlooms, something more one of a kind... We are seeing a very strong trend towards color and no longer are all walls getting painted in super light whites. I think the much more enthusiastic response to Viva Magenta being chosen as the color of the year, is telling. I don't think it it so much about magenta itself, as that color is still nothing but an accent. It is the Viva, the boldness of the magenta that is the trend: People are craving color!

In kitchens, colored cabinets are the hot trend, with especially green and blue as the leading colors. Colors have become more difficult, because if you are not using white or silver gray for walls, which color are you going to use? I have this discussion with some people who are struggling with their choice of color as they approached me for help with paint. (By the way, I don't charge anything for my consulting. If someone feels they have to pay me, I kindly ask to make a donation to the charity of their choice).

The same is happening in quilts: quilts are becoming more colorful and there are 2 reasons for that: The first reason is that fabrics follow the trend in interior design. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter: fabrics follow interior trends. If at one time crazy orange dots would somehow be trendy for homes, you will find fabrics with crazy orange dots. Interior items like walls, furniture, space are the "big" leaders and our fabrics are tiny, they follow. In my view companies/shops should pay much more attention to the spot/role fabrics take in their environment. Aside from a picnic quilt, most quilts and wall hangings are used inside the house. They make an important and emotional statement in any room for multiple reasons. Because of the colors, because of the use, because of the memories they hold. A quilt is one of the few things we treasure in a world where so much is getting tossed out. A quilt lives on for a long time, very often longer than we ourselves do. When people select fabrics, there are so many personal considerations that play a role, but making a trendy quilt is hardly ever the reason. They select colors because it needs to go in a certain room, colors they love, a theme they want to pick up, not always realizing that all those reasons are trend sensitive. It's for most subconscious. Understanding how interior design trends are getting worked into fabric design is extremely important, because that's how most people choose. It's the psychology of color. For instance, when we look at fabrics for new baby quilts, the days of light pink for girls and light blue for boys are over and so are the super brights that had no difference between the genders. There are still fabric companies making those colors, but most nursery colors are now nature inspired colors and themes. So are all the other items to go in the room. If the whole room gets decorated with Pottery Barn or Target colors, most (not all) new parents would prefer a blanket in that style. Some people will not care, some people will use the baby quilt elsewhere so that it can still be a wonderful gift, but the vast majority of people would like a new quilt picking up the colors of everything else in the room. Fabric follows and that is perfectly OK. Now what is so surprising is that there are so many collections not applying this science. A designer makes a very cute collection in very cute colors, but somehow it is not selling? I could tell you why.

One very important group of quilts are the exception: art quilts. Art quilts tend to not pay attention to their environment, although art quilts too are influenced by trends. The statement is in the piece itself. If the piece doesn't match the interior, that makes it almost better....artists are not known to be matchy, matchy people after all.

The second reason is that the idea of background is disappearing. White has been associated with the background for such a long time. If white disappears, then you can expect a change in the use of backgrounds. And visa versa: if backgrounds are disappearing, whites will be the first victims. What's happening? A couple of things are happening more or less at the same time and together they push into a new direction.

A word like "negative space", for so long associated with solid white (Group 1) is no longer a modern word. When "negative space" was a hot word, this negative space was used for intense quilting. Usually in one quilting design with wonky lines. Then quilters became better at this and rulers for quilting were becoming more popular. Why would you do the entire quilt in one design, when you can also make different quilting designs on your finished top? Quilting is definitely no longer a way to hold the 3 layers together. Quilting has become an important way to express creativity on top of the functionality. The tremendous growth of long arm machines, You Tube videos, the pandemic, the availability of different threads...so many factors play a role here. Edge to edge quilting is definitely out and considered a quick finish. Great for charity and children, but not for most others.

Trendy quilts have different designs. To make it even more clear: when you want to use your ruler and do different things, what can you still do with all that negative space? Not so much. What you need are areas, sections, where you can show off your quilting style. A modern quilt doesn't have so much negative space, but has sections, which are truly bigger design elements that have room to show off different quilting designs. Not a tiny little flying geese, but a blown up one. These sections have to live in bigger blocks. It's really fascinating to see how big blocks have become! The most modern patterns are easily using blocks that are 16" or more. 20" used to be very rare and is now much more common. That makes a huge difference with 6"-10/12" blocks we had a few years ago!

Not only do backgrounds disappear, borders too are much less dominant. Most modern quilts have the blocks ending close to the edge with maybe a little repeating sashing. The white is pushed out! If you want to make big quilts and leave out the background, you either have to make more blocks or bigger ones. The choice of most designers is to go bold and big. Fabric companies are embracing this as it means they can probably sell more fabric. If we need 5 yards for a background, we buy 5 or 5.5 yard for the background. If we need 10 half yards for a background, we probably buy many more, because we are not sure which ones to use.... So colors for a quilt have become harder, just as hard as colors for a wall. Instead of having a white background that gave us the contrast, we need to find a palette, a grouping of colors that create a design with a contrast.

There are many other reasons why we see these bigger blocks showing up: one important reason is that many newer quilters are really learning the art of piecing. Correct piecing. Those who started being at home making masks during the pandemic and continued to keep sewing, needed first beginner patterns and learning the world of piecing. The last Market had so much piecing in it. And what is the first pattern you learn when piecing a quilt? A star! We see tons of star patterns at the moment.

So we are seeing bigger and bolder blocks with maybe white as an accent color but definitely not in the main role. White at the moment is group 4. And even when there is room for some white... this white is very often replaced with ......more another time.

White - 1

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 01:33:55 GMT

White.... What is there to say about white? Well, at the moment white is extremely interesting. I will share some thoughts over 2 blogs as it will otherwise be quite long. One before, one after Christmas... maybe we will get in between a White Christmas?

Nothing seems to be as basic as white. While in the world of paints white has many, many different colors due to the use of certain undertones, in the fabric world, white is in general much more simple: white is white. The most important distinction in white fabric is not the color, but the design.

I'm not saying anything new here, but to make my point really clear later, white can be roughly categorized in the following 4 groups:

1. Solid white.

2. Tone on tone white, which are white fabrics with a little white design in it.

3. Low volume whites

4. White with (larger) colored designs.

I could easily make exactly the same categories for every other color. The reason to focus so much on white is because it is the most used color in fabric, especially in backgrounds. Not every project needs a background, but when it does, the extremes in color - black and white - are selected most of the time, with white being much more popular than black. These 4 groups say something about an important function of the white: will it work for a background? As always, these are not rules that have to be followed. I'm talking "in general".

Solid white is being made by almost every company. The fabric has no design to it and it is the hand/feel/price of the fabric that determines one's preference. There are many differences here! The weight of the fabric, the softness of the fabric, the fraying of the fabric, how it accepts dyes....Granted, even in these solids there are some brighter and some softer whites, but for most people that will be really hard to see unless they put them next to each other. It is being produced over and over again, hardly without any thinking. I have seen many quilts where customers thought they could use just any white fabric, later realizing that that base fabric is not up to quality. Instead of thinking that white is just white, I would suggest you buy the best possible white you can find/afford for a project. It is probably an important piece of the total, maybe even the most used one. Very often it "carries" all the other ones. Nothing is so frustrating as seeing beautiful workmanship with lousy fabrics or a white fabric that is so thin that you can see the individual fibers.

The group of solid white creates the highest contrast in lights and the lack of design makes it sharp. There is nothing that can distract the eye in the fabric, an extra reason to stay away from poor quality fabrics with very little fiber. The clean look of a solid white is an important reason why quilters like to use it: it opens up room to really show off and create quilting designs.

The second group are the tone on tone whites. They are still just as white as a solid white, but the little design on the fabric softens the look. It's less harsh, outspoken, less clean than a solid white and the contrast with other fabrics will be less than a solid white. White tone on tone is the most used fabric in the general quilting population. Whether someone is a traditional quilter or the most modern one, sooner or later he/she will pick up a piece of white on white for background or as one of the other colors in a project. One would expect that for that reason companies are making many whites on whites, but that is totally not the case. Yes, most of the big lines of basics have a white in it, but one would be surprised to see how often it is left out. I'm not sure that is a good thing. In comparison with other colors white sells and more often and in higher quantities, which means that shops are always in need of good whites.

Good whites on whites can be found as part of a fabric collection, where it is one of the supporting coordinating prints. The collection for instance has a big flower prints as its main focus and "happens" to print a white on white with it. The Buttercup & Slate collection by Moda is a good sample of this. The picture focuses on the colored prints and the whites are just there for their function in the total. They are already just supportive.

Often a good white on white can also be found in black and white collections where they add some tone on tone prints as well to give the eye a place to rest in the entire grouping of busy 2 color prints.

From time to time, companies release an all white collection like Windham just did (November delivery to shops) with the Crystal collection, a collection that has 25 white on white prints. There is one company standing out here: P&B Textiles has a collection called Ramblings and has been making this since the 90's. A history of 30 years is quite an accomplishment. Ramblings number 13 came out a few weeks ago, in October. Yes, it is number 13, so that confirms how important this basic is. There are not many other collections seeing 13 versions to keep the designs fresh.

Since the design is what makes this fabric special, a whole range of styles can be found in these fabrics. Ramblings 13 has some more traditional prints, modern prints and some in betweens. Smart! Now it can cater to every quilter. Since the whites have the exact same tone, one can easily mix the print to add extra interest to the project.

The third group of whites, the Low Volume whites are whites with a little bit of color. When low volume became very popular (2014-2018), the little colored print was sprinkled randomly on the fabric. Low volume is not a white with a little colored dot that is evenly placed on the fabric. The randomness is like a surprise, a cute little whimsy, almost like a tattoo on the fabric. It can be anything, from a little ladybug to a worm. A triangle or a little square. As long as it is little, random and keeping the white the dominant color in the fabric. The fabric is mainly white.

Over the past few years, the term "low volume" has expanded to other lighter colors as well. It is no longer unique for white, but I am mentioning it here as it is such an important group of whites. These days, low volume is also light grey, taupe, dirty white. The little colored accent is still its signature. A good sample is the Little Whispers collection of Windham that came out this Summer. This collection has some true low volume fabrics (but not all) and a mix of lighter colors.

In quilts, low volume whites make great backgrounds as long as they are used sparsely. The element of whimsy is taken away when all the fabrics have an accent color, especially when it is all the same accent. Low volume fabric needs to be used in little bits. In general, one would not need 3 yards of one fabric, but rather collect 12 fat quarters (or more!). Used well, they invite the viewer to take a closer look at what this bit of color is.

White with colored prints. This category covers a very large area. White is still the dominant color here, but it is much less dominant. It has competition from another color or another colors in the design.. It's no longer so much about the white itself. The color is added to the print making the white mainly to make the print stand out. The goal of the white here is not the contrast with other fabrics (outside contrast), but much more the contrast with the colored design in the fabric (inside contrast). It can be a traditional shirting fabric, a classic flower, multi colored star prints for children up to a very contemporary whites with a bold graphic. Most white fabrics fall in this category. Whites here can sometimes still be used for backgrounds, but could just as easily be used anywhere else, using another fabric for the background. Whatever can be said about this white, can also be said about any other color.

What is going on with white? The next blog will give you some broad lines of what is going on. Several guilds and shops have invited me to give a lecture about "trends in color and design" and I hope by looking at everything from different angles, that I can give you a better sense of what's going on in our fabric world. It's all connected, but at the same time can be dissected in some topics. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

The God box

Fri, 09 Dec 2022 20:26:40 GMT

In the spotlight: Susan-Claire Mayfield of gourmet quilter.com

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 14:58:08 GMT

Robert Kaufman's Fusions

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 01:44:53 GMT

Goliad, TX

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 02:38:58 GMT

We happened to find these "handsome" guys on an empty front porch behind La Bahia, the old fortress, the monument of (the battle of) Fannin, and the birthplace of general Zaragoza.

This is Goliad TX, a sleepy place that has a population of just under 2000, 1908 according to the entrance sign..It also has a gorgeous court square with historic buildings, but with hardly any action. Perfect spot for a terrace, a coffee shop, but nobody is using the beautiful views for some outdoor business. I guess there are simply not enough customers around.

Goliad is a place that has a history of bloody defending and being occupied. In its short history eight different flags have been raised here and it hit me that these men seem to kind of watching out. I don't know for who and what, but watching out is in their genes with this history. If eight different flags have been raised in not even 300 years, it means that maybe your father, your grandfather, your direct ancestors fought. An uncle has died, an aunt helped taking care of the wounded. Those stories of fighting are part of your education, your upbringing, also in 2022, when there doesn't seem to be any eminent threat. This violence has been going on in your land and in your family for a long time. That must have an impact. I understand. My husband's grandfather was executed by the Germans in 1945, a few days before the liberation, and that horror had its impact. That was "only" one war, in an otherwise peaceful family history. Not eight!! On the either hand...the last 100 or so years have been pretty calm, not?

They are pieces of folk art, no serious meaning maybe. Don't know who the folks are and where they came from. They don't look like Indians, they are not Spanish priests inspired by Franciscus of Assisi, not Mexicans either and there are not many here in Goliad. Yet, these statues are the way Texas is getting presented so often.

There is plenty more beauty here: The blue sky around the white Mission church was so beautiful! Reminded me of Santorini, Greece. Yes, that gorgeous with the blue embracing the white stone. Around the mission church were still the old rock walls, telling their stories of safety and community for whoever made it inside the walls over 200 years ago.

One woman, nicknamed the Angel, got a statue for her kindness and compassion during battle time. Her bravery of another kind saved the lives of many soldiers and that made her a local legend. The sculptures can see her too from where they are sitting on that porch. From her they certainly don't have to fear anything.

The Spanish priests introduced the locals to cattle ranching and Goliad had the first cattle ranch of Texas, but no statue for this.

It's an interesting place, this Goliad. Made us think about the colors of Texas. We like to travel and we love to travel off the beaten path. It can show so much! There is very little distraction here and maybe that is how history can find room to talk to us bikers?

Festival memories: Dear Marilyn

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 02:00:11 GMT

Then one year, Lisa had food poisoning and was feeling so miserable she couldn't make it to the show on Friday. Lisa had to stay behind in the hotel. We always started at 6.30 am, went to Phoenicia for breakfast and were at 8 am sharp at the convention center to restock. We had 2 hours to go over the entire booth and it really took all 5 of us to make the big 20" x 30" booth look nice for the new day that would start at 10 am. It always looked as if a tornado had exploded in the booth the day before. At the end of each day we usually tried to pull from underneath our tables as much restock as possible, but then had to work all that fabric nicely in the next day. And even more fabric from the truck and the extra containers had to come in as well, empty bins had to leave the show floor and brought back to the big truck.

Each of us had their own section: Cathy did all the modern blenders, Pam batiks, Fairy Frost and Christmas, Glenda traditional blenders and Lisa the entire front which was Grunge, the top corner collection of that year and one or 2 sections with top designers like Marcia Derse, Paula Nadelstern or anyone else who was having a great collection for Houston. I always did the bundles, Kaffe and contemporary fabrics as those were harder to recognize for everyone else. This was incredible hard and focused work, but the 5 of us had become really good in doing "Houston". We made a great team and despite the hard work, the painful feet, the stiff backs, all of us loved it and we laughed a lot.

While Lisa was sick in the hotel, we missed her help and the booth didn't look as sharp as usual. The whole front was done only more or less... Marilyn, sharp as she is, noticed it immediately. "Where is that friendly tall blonde girl you had the last 2 days? I can see that you guys couldn't do everything like normal".

I doubt that any other customer would have made such a comment, but I explained that Lisa got sick from something she had eaten. "Ok, sorry to hear, but Vena and I know how it needs to look and we will help". Before I could say anything she had put her bags under a table and started to straighten the fat quarter bins. Her (around) 75 years old fingers were going over the fabric as if she had done this all her life. Then the yard cuts. They all became neat and in color order. It looked perfectly awesome. Quickly the booth filled with customers and none of us had any time left for more straightening... we were helping customers finding whatever they were looking for and ringing them up. Vena and Marilyn became part of the team and assisted many customers as well. That was so amazing to see! I took some pictures as I treasured the help and wanted to remember the nice gesture. But then the most unforgettable moment came when Marilyn, at the other end of the booth, yelled over the heads of some customers: "Hi Carly, do WE still have the pattern for this?" She was waving a quilt in the air, but had no idea what is was. I was laughing and loving Marilyn so hard!! Yes, we have the pattern right there.

I am sharing this story with you because this morning, what after 16 years of doing Festival would have been the set up day for Festival 2022, Marilyn called me:" I know you don't have a booth at Festival. We are not there either. Just want you to know that I'm thinking of you, Cathy and the entire team as this would have been the week for our yearly hug". Fabric people:)

Houston Market 2022

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 00:50:44 GMT

This blog will be about the "institute" of Market, more the business side of the fabric world. After a 3 year gap, Quilt Market 2022 was held in Houston again this last weekend of October. In future blogs I will share more thoughts about certain fabrics and designers. I have seen enough material to write blogs until next Market. But I can't pretend writing about the world of color, fabric and design without also writing about Market. This is how we get fabrics, how we see fabrics in shops, how all these great cottons come to all of us.

This year there was a clear joy of being all together again. Many people hadn't seen their colleagues, friends, designers for 3 years in person. "How is the family?", "You made it" and more remarks like that. Hugs, hand shakes, smiles.... That by itself made this Market a success. This is an amazing industry with many different talented people, who share a passion of creating, but like every other industry it had to deal with the pandemic. We lost some businesses and some beloved people. We can move forward again!

Market was back but we have to be realistic and admit we are a far cry away from where we were in 2019. I have seen Market the last 19 years and that perspective colors me. I believe many experienced shop owners and designers do have a reason to go to Market, but their reason is not the same one as newer shops have. In - the quite low - attendance were a lot of people who came to Market for the first time. In 3 years many shops closed, but new ones also opened! Thank goodness! For all those "new" people, Market was for sure great. They are seeing a lot of new to them things and they have nothing to compare it with. They are in the process of getting to know the fabric business and might have felt less overwhelmed this year. It's nice to see their excitement, but I hope they realize that this market is no longer a representation of the entire industry. It's now so much harder for them to get their knowledge..

What are some of the differences? The main challenge is that Market has become so much smaller. It is 40%, maybe even a little bit more down in size. This year there were 14 isles (100 to 1400), but in 2019 and before isles went up to 2200-2600.
Many fabric companies were absent and I think their common reason is "money can get spent only once and we believe we can spend it elsewhere better". Elsewhere is not an in person place. Houston still is the biggest in person gathering of the quilting world. Elsewhere is communcating with shops through websites, social media, sales reps, fancy and colorful booklets that consume a lot of the marketing budget.

Many shops stayed away as well. They didn't find enough reason to attend and this is kind of a chicken/egg problem. Shops don't attend in the same numbers because they know many companies are staying away and they think they can get the info otherwise, at least for a much lower price. Many companies are staying away because they don't think attendance justifies the cost. Market is indeed expensive for everyone and this money has to come from somewhere.

Shops and manufacturers have found these alternatives to communicate. That may work well for companies, shops are missing one very important point that way: The Bigger Picture. Nothing beats being able to wander at Market and look at everything. A visual, touch and see. Trends, big lines, use of certain colors is really hard to see when you get an email from company A on Monday, a booklet from B on Wednesday and an instagram post from company C the next morning. All this information comes to shop owners when they are in their daily environment, busy doing their things. It's hard to make time for that new piece of information. Viewing everything together in one place away from the daily environment helps determining much better what a shop could use, especially for newer shops. In the short run, a fabric company may feel good about a sales rep who was able to push some orders. In the long run that may not be the best strategy.. At Market, the level of information is much higher than anywhere else. The presence of higher management in companies, in person talks with designers, encounters with other shop owners, samples of all collections.... all this makes the fabric business alive like nothing else can do. It easily beats all the other resources that came to our toolbox during Covid. Attending Market makes much better informed decisions and that is crucial for the success of any business. This is also the case for most more experienced shops as they too have to find the best of the best each and every time again. No, they don't need to learn at the same level as new shops, but there is always more to learn. A little unknown vendor can become the biggest star in a few years.... Birgitte Heitland was once one of them, Edyta Sitar was unknown at her first market, Carolyn Friedlander was doing modern patterns before modern knew anything about "slow sewing"... and many more. I have seen these giants of the industry as little kids, taking their first steps. This market too had truly new vendors who came for the first time. They keep the industry fresh and they have limited sources to reach a new audience! I've always considered it my job to especially look for these...the unknown...critical of what is the best and not just following automatic patterns. My customers, my business, expected me to find the best and I know that changes all the times. This challenge is actually one of the things I loved most!

Fabric companies also need to learn continuously. They learn from each other, they learn from every interaction with shops. They should! What can we do better? What is working for your shop? Any ideas? What would you like to see? I thought we could have seen much more of that by many. Not all! Manufacturers and shops not attending Market or attending Market with a passive mindset are locking themselves up in a bubble.... and we know what happens to bubbles... one of these years they burst and then you wonder what happened. I don't mean to say that businesses need to attend Market all the time to be successful. A fabric company can stay away for very good reasons and, as said, I know Market is expensive. I know other things happen in life during Market days that are more important that year. But there should be a way where you can look and be looked at by people who are in the same industry, just to make you stronger. Market gives everyone a pause to look at what they are doing or not doing. It's self reflective and oh my that check-up is so healthy from time to time!

Many fabric companies stayed away and were missed, but even more evident is the very low presence of pattern companies. It has become unaffordable for most pattern designers to have a booth, spending nights in a hotel, consuming expensive food and still make a living. That has always been hard, but that has become nearly impossible. Patterns are still being created but the sales are going less and less through quilt shops. Instead of being printed, more and more patterns reach consumers in pdf form directly from the designer.

Another reason why Market was so much smaller is because the companies are using much less space. Almost all companies have shrunk their presence to a bare minimum. To save costs. Booths are packed with flyers, booklets, catalogs and people, but there is less and less space to see something pretty. Again, some companies did a fantastic job, but too many have decreased their booth size to a size that is no longer doing them any justice.

What was the reason for many shops to come to Market? To see things. To get inspired, motivated. It has become much less of a "show". If the booths are so small that there is no room to SHOW fabrics and quilts, if manufacturers refer their shops to their websites, instagram and salesreps.... yes then there is indeed no reason to come to Market. This kind of presence doesn't add very much to Market, which was always the place to tickle shop owners, show them your bestest best. Many companies failed here. Many companies didn't look inviting at all... and gave those who passed very little reason to stop and start a discussion. Again, not all: some companies were just excellent in their presentation and made great use of their space. I'm sure they all had a good or even better than good show.
If brick and mortar shops would do such a minimal presentation and refer their customers to websites, they would not be in existence for long. They need to make attractive displays and are also very often dealing with limited space. Samples sell! Why would this be different for manufacturers?

Market used to have a a little contest about the best booth. Some companies won so often and built great reputations with their fabulous displays. Booths, fully decorated, were fun places, brought smiles to your face. Who wouldn't want to bring that joy to their shop? The contest doesn't even exist any longer. Why is the industry letting things become so sloppy? Aren't we creative people?

On a side note: I think that at this market Tilda's new collection Bloomsville was one of the best. They had a lovely presentation with multiple strong quilts. Super group! However I can't share pictures as it was forbidden to take photographs before the official release date. That was a first time. This company feels a need to protect its fabric. Interesting....many other companies and shops are dealing with the problems of pre-selling collections long before they come out!

This market was great because it was held. A personal meeting point with "some" beautiful finds. Some really strong collections were not in Houston and I doubt they get the exposure they deserve. So much work in creating something great...it's almost a pity how it is being treated. I talked to a very famous designer who is linked to a company that wasn't there. She always had her own booth close to the main booth of her company.. Now she was almost like a lost soul because her company wasn't there. Her work wasn't there either....
Long before Covid there was already a discussion about the goal of Market, its effectiveness as it is so expensive to attend for everyone. Do we really need 2 Markets each year? A Spring (anywhere) and Fall (Houston)? This Market gave that answer: no we don't and if we can't agree on a goal for Fall Market, maybe we should meet in a pub or go to a restaurant together to see each other in person. This Market is acceptable because it was the first after the pandemic. Next year, it won't be a first and the bar must be higher again. I hope.

The last words are not spoken about Market. It will remain a hot topic of the collective industry and individual businesses I heard the word "collaboration" many times. Nobody can do it all alone. No business is a silo. Engagement with the customer, is the goal of every business and every business has so many tools in its toolbox, they can't do it alone. Support is available and I am thrilled where I can help and give back in my little way to this industry that has been so good to me.... I brainstormed with so many old friends, got introduced to some super professionals I had never even heard of, chatted with brand-new business owners about things to consider. I also sat at a table for lunch with a delightful couple thinking about starting a business. With them I had a discussion about the difference between Texas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles "bling". Now this encounter was so much fun: only at Market!

Halcyon tonals

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 23:14:41 GMT

This blog will be about a fabric collection that I consider to be one of the best new collections. It is Halcyon Tonals by Jason Yenter of In the Beginning Fabrics. I had the pleasure of talking with Jason about this grouping and get a little bit more background. He and I worked together at Market for many years, when I was still buying for my own fabric business. I emailed him to see if we could set up a phone call and talk about it and he agreed. I'm looking forward meeting him again at Market soon!

The Halcyon Tonals collection is a collection that grew out of another collection, named Halcyon. As is so often the case, blenders were needed to support the busy prints of the Halcyon Collection that came out in July of 2022. The inspiration to make the tonals came from those busy prints, which made up about 75% of the collection. When Jason started to sew with his designs, he needed something to connect the prints and a much less busy fabric was needed. Designers have the exact same problems with their projects as we all do. The first 8 colors were developed for Halcyon and the colors were determined by that collection. Then the response from sales reps and shops was that they needed more colors. "I listen to my customers", says Jason. This demand is resulting in 16 additional colors that will come out in December, bringing the total to 24 Halcyon Tonals. They are now a separate group of blending basics and will be available for a longer time. 16 new colors within a time frame of 6 months is unheard fast in the fabric industry. That by itself says something:"Jason, you have a winner here"!

The colors of Halcyon Tonals are very much Jason's signature colors. It is his preferred palette. He makes many fabrics in many different colors for his company In The Beginning Fabrics, but when the fabric is getting labeled with his personal name, most of the time it is this mid range of colors. Jason's personal preference is leaning more towards blacks than to browns, which explains why this collection has 5 strong neutrals in the black family. From chalk to charcoal. Color wise, it's a timeless collection, far away from any trend in color. It's Jason's core as he has designed and shown in many other collections like the beautiful (and still going strong) Dit Dot Evolution and Prism (coming out in 2023). The Halcyon Tonals are very much similar to the Dit Dot Evolution, a collection that I considered to be one of the best of Market a few years ago (2017 or 2018, if I remember correctly). Even more, when you take a look at the video Jason posted for Dit Dot Evolution at that time, you can see the familiarity with the Halcyon Tonals so clearly. I could recognize this palette from a distance as Jason's. There is no desire to follow any trend here. It's about a designer who knows his strength and who loves color, in capital letters. I applaud him for this.

Talking to Jason, he emphasizes that much of the character of the fabric is made possible by the digital printing technique. About 99% of all the In The Beginning Fabrics are now top of the art digitally printed. Where screen printing can have a maximum of about 18 colors, digital printing opens up the possibility to hundreds of colors, all in one piece of fabric. The result? The fabric has a tremendous depth. It is so rich, so drenched with color.
He also used a large repeat for his print. The Halcyon Tonals have a repeat of 22" x 16", which is very large for a blender. Usually the repeat is much, much smaller. This means that using the same fabric on multiple places in a quilt, will still result in extra interest. There is a visual movement in this line, it is not the same everywhere, but still connected.

I asked Jason if he thinks it looks like Grunge. I noticed online that some shops were advertising the Halcyon tonals as Grunge-like fabric. Personally, I don't think it looks like Grunge at all (except that it is also a blender with texture), but it was interesting to me what Jason would say about this. Many companies are trying to create their own version of Moda Grunge, getting a piece of the cake that this fabulous Moda collection has created. Can't blame them, it is business after all. Most companies are not as successful as Moda Grunge and their imitation lacks the same character. They are not the best of the best. Ofcourse, Moda is "smiling" when they see all these imitations popping up: it's the best compliment for one of the best, if not the best collections of our time.

Jason's response: "Maybe the greys and black look like Grunge?" I think he was referring to the rock style Grunge that emerged in his hometown of Seattle WA? He was not thinking of Moda Grunge at all and I had to explain to him why I had asked the question. Clearly, he was not trying in any way to come up with his own version of Grunge. He doesn't need to nor does he want to.... He knows his place. He was trying to pick up the character that was in the original Halcyon Collection and what we are seeing with the Halcyon Tonals is this trend of slightly distressed and detailed textures everywhere in home decor, especially also in wall paper (grass cloth, see a previous blog). Grunge and Halcyon Tonals both fit in the same trend, but are very different!

The Halcyon Tonals are taking an existing trend to another level because of their digital printing and their scale. Jason is working on Halcyon 2 and that collection may come out in August 2023. It will use the Halcyon Tonals as coordinates, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see the Tonals getting an expansion before then. They are just too good, something, I'm convinced, Jason will likely hear from shops and customers. Can't wait to get my hands on mine in December!

A Kingsport surprise!

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:37:00 GMT

where everything is coming together....

This morning I posted on Carly's, my Facebook page for Carlys.net, a post about my husband and I leaving for Market in Houston TX in our RV. Quickly, there was a response from Janet wishing us safe travels with an invitation to meet somewhere when we are in the area.

Janet and I go way back. Actually she and I go so far back, she is one of my oldest customers. She bought fabrics from me in the basement of our home in 2002, before I had a shop. She reminded me today that the Moda Marbles were $6.00 per yard in those days. Fat quarters were $1.50!

In August 2002, she needed 50 fat quarters for her friend Kathy's 50th birthday. Kathy and Janet were close friends and sewing buddies and celebrating her milestone with a big stack of Moda Marbles, which was in those days a very popular line, seemed a great gift. I'm not sure how we ended up talking about boxes, but what I do know is that I made a custom box for her, big enough to hold all those 50 fat quarters. The fabric was made by Benartex and had lovely quotes of friendship on it.

Years passed. Janet bought 10 extra fat quarters for Kathy's 60th birthday as she hadn't used her 50 stack (by now they are all used for a gorgeous star quilt!). All the time, Janet and Kathy kept sewing and purchased many of their fabrics from me, in the shop and online.. Life happened: they both moved out of the area and Janet ended up in Alabama. Every time when I was driving my big truck to AL and made a post of that on Facebook, Janet asked if I could stop. I never had the time.....

Last year Janet and Randy moved to Johnson City, TN from Alabama. Closer to the grandkids :) She had told me this earlier, but this morning she said it again: can we meet? I looked at my husband.... do we have time for this? We need to be in the park in time for the night. Parking a RV in the dark is no fun and some of those campgrounds are pretty dark. We had time and decided to meet at Heavenly Stitches in Kingsport, TN. Janet's embroidery machine was ready for pick up any way.

So we did. At 4 pm, Jan and I pulled on the parking lot and saw Janet and her husband Randy. We entered the shop and started to chat a little bit about our grandchildren, sewing and other important facts of life. We recalled the box for Kathy and Randy asked if I had a picture of it? No. Randy had one and would mail it to me this evening....

Then, a new customer is coming in and I turn around to make room for her as we were kind of blocking the entrance. "Carly?? Webfabrics?? Is that you? What are you doing here in this quilt shop?" It was another old customer, Mary Ellen, who had moved from Fairfax to Johnson City. We recognized each other immediately. Such a small world! Mary Ellen and Janet started to talk about local quilt guilds... yes there is so much to do in this area. Many great shops and many active guilds.

Grasscloth or grassroots?

Fri, 14 Oct 2022 14:59:51 GMT

P&B Textiles is coming out with a collection of extra wide fabrics that is just stellar. P&B is at the front end of the 108" market and t hey make many extra wide backings, knowing very well quilters love to piece, but not so much that last seam for the back.

The fabric is called Grassroots 108 and it is loaded with texture. I'm not sure why they call it grassroots (other than rooted in grasses) but it looks very much like grasscloth that is being used in the wallpaper industry. There it stands for any wallpaper made out of natural fibers, grasses, like sisal, hemp, jute. It can be simply woven or can have intricate designs and it was extremely popular in Europe in the 1960's-70's. Its texture provided noise absorption when other ways were not so available to most homeowners. The design hides imperfections on the wall and doesn't show dirt so quickly.

The newest grasscloth wallpapers are much more smooth and they are getting introduced now to home decors again when customers are looking for an alternative for painted walls without going fully into the world of wallpaper designs. The trend is definitely going in the direction towards wallpaper again, but the industry knows that homeowners are not ready to make the big jump to walls with flowers or stripes yet.... They start slowly by creating wallpapers that are just enough different from painted walls. The more expensive homes have already wallpaper again.....

Wallpapers and fabrics go through the same trends. Right now, going natural, organic is very trendy and dominant. We have more different wooden accents and natural materials in our houses.. Texture is important, especially in neutrals. We want to bring the outside inside and the inside outside. The whole outdoor living phenomenon is part of this picture. You can't open a catalog without seeing how the line between outside and inside is getting more blurry by the season. A few years ago, a deck was just a place for a chair and a BBQ. These days there are complete sitting sections with rugs and specialty lights available for that outside deck. A place for grillng can be found in that fancy, big outdoor kitchen....

Of course, the Grassroots collection is not made out of these rougher fibers. It is 100% smooth cotton, but the design looks very organic and natural. It is clearly inspired by grasscloth. Actually, the name makes me smile, because when you look at it, it almost seems as if this is a street pattern in a very large city. An air view picture of a map. It would make a great fabric for a modern map quilt. High in the sky, it is almost the opposite of grassroots...

Just like its wallpaper sister, the design can hide a possible (;)) imperfection in the quilt well. Any help is welcome, not ?

The colors of Grassroots are inspired by their natural sources: twigs and grasses and this will give the collection a unique spot in the world of extra wide fabrics. Very often, extra wides have much less texture or are "wild". Bold colors seem to be produced a lot, which makes sense as the world of extra wide is still relatively new. Up to about 10 years ago, the only extra wides were whites and creams....since then a complete new world has come into existence and of course we love to make full swings and go from "boring" backings to super brights. The problem with those multicolored brights is that they are not following the color trend. Except for specific art pieces and maybe also in (some) children quilts, loud multi colors are just out. They don't fit the organic trend at all. If one has used contemporary fabrics on the front, a backing should also be contemporary as the goal is always to create an unit..... and this is why Grassroots is so great...it can safely be your fabric for any modern quilt backing and there is hardly anything else available (yet) that has and texture and color.

Grassroots has 12 colors and they were so smart to add a few blue ones as well. It is a sophisticated collection and the colors will be gorgeous on home decor quilts. It follows the colors for the new house and this backing can be seen on a new couch. It's an adult, decorative backing. On purpose I am not saying that it is a backing for a men's quilt... Organic/muted colors are also the trendy ones for women!

The collection is scheduled to ship to stores in November. I hope you can find it in stores before Thanksgiving, because it would make a perfect and quick tablecloth for your Holiday celebration as well. Couldn't be a better harvest....

I spoke to my friends at P&B and told them how impressed I was with this collection. In my view it should also be printed in regular width of 44" and in more colors :) Until then, look at the 108" group for all your fabric needs. Maybe you can get a 1/4 or .5 yard.....It's pretty awesome!

Why is it helpful to talk about color?

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 12:19:18 GMT

A client gave me the best answer: talking to a color consultant is having a soundboard for what you really think and feel about selecting colors.

This client is building a new house. She needs to decide on everything and there is a budget that is generous but not unlimited. Flooring, kitchen, bathrooms, basement, paint.....

The builder is offering her a designer to work with and my client has welcomed her suggestions. Yet, she is not sure about her selection and feels that she doesn't have room to doubt. "I can get talked into something when we meet for my half an hour and then later I regret not speaking up. The designer is trying to sell me stuff and I have discovered she is limiting me in certain choices. I don't mean to be rude, but that just isn’t me. I don't feel good about it. My husband is telling me that this is my responsibility and although he is interested, he is not the one who gives me ideas".

I wasn't sure if I could help her but we could try......We set up an initial meeting to find out and I suggested doing this at her house. For a very specific reason: I wanted to see how her current house looks like and what her general taste is. As we were meeting I asked her what she really likes and what she is planning to take with her: what is dear to your heart? Always important! We need to know what we love and what we don't. After many years of family life, every house is cluttered. What can go, what needs to stay to be who you are? What is essential? What makes your home happy? She has quite some furniture that came from family members and that is loaded with memories. Beautiful pieces that all have more or less the same color brown. She has a rug with different colors that she really loves. It has a soft color cream in it, that would work beautifully for wall painting. Her color palette was getting a start. I didn't decide anything. I listened to what she told me and I pointed out the colors in her story. I have nothing to sell to her, I’m independent and no company is paying me. She did it herself.

She had swatches of everything, but nothing was decided on. She was all over the place. Some tiles for a bathroom, wood for a bar, flooring samples. websites with kitchen pictures, stones for a fireplace, granite for countertop. She described how this house should have a rustic feel and her husband proudly showed me the floor plan. It was beautiful indeed, with lots of natural daylight and beautiful views. Without knowing the exact location, I could tell her a couple of things that were quite obvious. With those windows over here, this corner will be the darkest. If you are putting dark cabinets there, it will become a dark section. It is an open floor plan: you see the kitchen wherever you are sitting in the living area. That requires connections that work. Can the stone for the fireplace be used somewhere in the kitchen as well? The kitchen needs to look nice with your furniture!

The designer had suggested to them Honey Spice cabinets on Alder wood for the kitchen. Yea, that would bring out the rustic feel as Alder shows a lot of natural texture, but the color Honey Spice is so close to all her furniture. The designer didn't know this, of course. The whole house would look the same! I suddenly understood perfectly well why my client was so uncertain about everything. It was boring, too monochromatic, too much of the same. We talked for a longer time about what was more important: Alder Wood or color? Again, I didn't have to tell her anything.... she herself said that it didn't necessarily had to be that particular wood. Just by asking that question, I opened up a whole new world for kitchen cabinets.

We continued our conversation at Lowe's. Not so much to decide on anything, but to open her mind for possibilities. We got ideas for colors for the kitchen area, looked at flooring that would work with her furniture and I went over to the paint section and grabbed a couple of swatches that I thought were close to the cream in her rug. When back home, she could try to identify the color paint closest to the rug.

She still has so much work to do with the builder and designer. Quality, price point of kitchen. Which color is available in which line? Drawers or shelves? Where will the sink be? Is there any laminate flooring available in this color? We saw a sample, but we don't know if that color is available to this builder.

She has a lot of homework to do before she is ready for any decision, but I think I have given her a method to approach it. First flooring and kitchen, then everything else. No buying of anything else until it has to be decided on: step by step, building up a color palette with what you love. Having samples of everything in your hand before the next decision.

And more importantly: within 5 hours, my client who had felt frustrated and overwhelmed when we started, was getting excited about her house. She had gained a vision and had more tools. Even the designer will love this!

An important question...

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 11:56:21 GMT

When I told a friend that I was going to write a blog, she said: "Carly, start with the nature walk." I had forgotten that I had shared it with her, but apparently she still knows.

We all have these important lessons in life, moments that stick with us. I had one at a very young age, I think it was in pre-school or Kindergarten. We were walking outside on a nature walk, and the teacher asked the simple question: "what is the color of grass?" We all knew that. Grass is green, we screamed, happy to know they answer and eager to share this knowledge "Yes, that is right, but look a little bit closer….do you see any other color in the green grass? Is it all green?" We became silent. Suddenly we had to focus and zoom in on the grass. There was dark and light green, lines created by the fresh mowing of the grass. There were some spots of brown, yellow, orange too. This teacher, she so deserves that I at least would remember her name, would continue asking us these kind of questions. Probably not all on the same walk. I just remember these questions: Which one is darker? The grass or the tree? She was the first one practicing critical looking and she taught me to look.

As a mother myself, I remember when I was walking with my son in the city asking him about the shape of things. How many rectangles do you see in/on that house? It sounds silly. The answer doesn’t really matter…. it’s not about counting windows. It is about learning to see. I’m sure I also did these with my girls, but for some reason I specifically remember only the strolls with my son. I have no idea if he remembers what we discussed. Guess who is now on my list? Yep, my granddaughters will get these kind of questions as well. Nora already says that Oma (that is me, Dutch for granny) always says: “Look, Nora”. She and I are walking or biking around the neighborhood and are at the moment very much into trying to find numbers. They are “hidden” on the mailboxes and always a surprise;) And then we read them out loud.

Years later, in my very first law class at the University of Leiden, professor F (I remember his name, but I am not exactly sure how to spell it, so I will leave it out) asked what something was pointing to his wooden desk. That was his table, easy question. He took one leg of the table, tilting its shape. What is this object? Clearly table was defined as something you can sit at, work at or eat on. Its function determined its name. Now what could you do with this “broken" table? If you had never seen the whole table, would you still call it a table, was it broken indeed? To make it even more clear to us, he hung his object of discussion on a hook on the wall. That wasn’t easy to accomplish, but he got it done. Now it was far from a table… My professor had become some kind of Dali, putting a weird object on a wall. The 3 remaining legs pointing dangerously to the class. What was he trying to teach us? Law became about creative thinking and being critical to the obvious. I didn’t realize that at that moment, but he had me hooked just as much as that piece of wood.

These 2 people formed my thinking about color and design. Perspective….the way we see things. The environment is important, the total is important, detail is important, timing is important your personal perception is important….Change one element and the whole can change. That makes color so fascinating.

Learning, growing, questioning are all related. You can learn to see things when you are getting exposed to new questions. So if someone asks me, which color the background “should” be for a quilt, I usually am returning this question with another one: do you need a contrast? What would you like to stand out? I will not start a discussion about the color wheel and other color theories. Instead, I want this person to learn how she can tackle such a problem. We start a conversation about it and suddenly instead of 1 option, there are many ways to make it look great. It doesn’t have to be cream, it can be. It doesn’t have to be a solid, it can be a solid. Having options, choices, being flexible makes life much more pleasant than rigid thinking, at least to me. I’m trying to give her confidence, teaching her to believe and trust her instincts. The color wheel will agree.