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!