a Fun pairing

One of the best parts of getting new ribbons in, is the fun I get out of matching them to other fabric designs. This Auricula ribbon, for Renaissance Ribbons, looks quite wonderful with the new Hellebore pattern from Funquilts, part of their Wild Bunch collection for RJR Fabrics. Bill Kerr & Weeks Ringle, the team behind Funquilts, have been wonderful professional friends for a long time and I am delighted to share this little "collaborative" pincushion with them.

The ribbon is available at fine independent fabric stores nationwide, or at several online stores -- please use the links on my sidebars.

more auriculas

You can see from the last post how much I am still working with the wild and beautiful auricula flower motif. The towel coming out for Crate & barrel takes the flower more realistically (and you might remember the allover jacquard Auricula towel form the spring). We are also working on Auriculas for the fall Renaissance Ribbon line, though we are just now introducing the pattern at the Markets. So I anticipate both imminently!

fall flowers

I visited Crate & Barrel offices last week with a new portfolio of LFN designs -- I always love working with the buyers there. They are highly creative people and it is a privilege that they use my designs! In turn I was given some samples of new LFN designs which have just come out on the market:

Vegetables embroidered towel (it also comes in brown)
Arbor embroidered towel
Quinlan printed apron, potholder & mitt
Teapot embroidered towel
Stones pillows (there are 2 versions, the other is red chenille)
(You can find the Stones table cloth & napkins from this summer's line, on sale now)
Silverware towel (based on my Cutlery ribbon and on sale now!)
and the Tomato towel which I wrote about in my last post.

Here's the Auricula towel: such beautiful embroidery! The little bees are exquisitely detailed! But I am a bit ahead of myself here, as it is not online yet....

Midsummer Tomatoes

Another cycle feels complete. Before I have picked a single red tomato from my garden, Crate & Barrel has brought out a new towel printed with my tomato design. This is based on my wonderful Tomato ribbon (the very first ribbon I designed!), which in its turn was based on the many tomato tapestries I have woven over the years. I love all of the products I design with Crate & Barrel (the whole process is so very much fun!) but this one feels special to me.

samarkand blues

The last of the Samarkand colors arrived today -- so dense and rich! When I design a number of color ways for a ribbon I am not satisfied until I see them all together -- the full spectrum, as it were. So here, with the emerald, sapphire and amethyst to join the ruby, the tiara is complete!

more things to make with ribbon

Here's a beautiful new book: Ribbon: The Art of Adornment by Nicholas Kniel and Timothy Wright (Gibbs Smith, Publisher, $39.95, Hardcover, 224 pages). Nicholas owns the eponymous ribbon boutique, Nicholas Kniel, in Atlanta, a truly scrumptious and sumptuous assortment of ribbons and trims. He was an early supporter of my own ribbon line, and still carries them (though the book is more devoted to the kinds of bows and flowers you can make with ribbon, than to sewing ribbon as a trim). Do check it out! Maili Powell of Soutache in Chicago (see my earlier post) has been using Nicholas's flower designs for a couple of years and they are wonders to behold.

rainy outside, spring in here

Today was not what I would call a lovely spring day unless you are so into the fact that April showers are essential that you don't mind being cold & wet. So I played around with my pale spring green Moonflower ribbons and some pretty print fabric, and then I made little bird sachets (OK silly but sweet) out of the scraps. Their wings are a few of my simpler ribbons like Arabesque and Butterfly.