Houston International Quilt Market 2013

A week ago I was in Houston, Texas, finishing up 3 days of introducing my new collection of quilting weight fabrics, Lush Harvest, with Troy Corporation’s Riverwoods International brand.    A year ago I went down to the legendary trade show to spend time with Renaissance Ribbons, who manufacture and distribute my LFN Textiles Artist’s Ribbons line, and strolled around shopping for someone who could produce quilt weight fabrics with my designs.  Dorothy Troy stepped up to the job and was delighted to take on the new vegetable designs and text-based towels I had been working on, and now here they are!

That isn’t the real story here, though.  In order to gear up for this new market I have had to take a steep learning curve.  Being a textile and ribbon designer is not the same thing as being a designer of fabrics intended to be cut up and made into pieced items!  Some crossover is there, of course, but there is always the context of how the fabric to be used to be grappled with.  So instead of waiting demurely in my booth to speak with potential new customers, I kept venturing out to try to get a feel of what goes on here.

I took away a fantastic impression of intensive activity.  What a complex network of creativity goes into this business!  You have the people like me, who design repeat pattern.  You have the fabric companies who get that fabric manufactured and distributed to the retail shops (who come from all over the WORLD to buy).  You have the professional pattern designers who delight in contriving new ways to cut up and piece these various fabrics into sometimes traditional, sometimes modern, compositions.  You have the publishers, selling books and patterns to showcase the work of the pattern makers.  And you have to have very deep pockets and a genius for display to catch anyone’s eye in this hugely kaleidoscopic arena.

Herein I will simply post photos of some of the marvels I saw, starting with my own humble first effort.

Aardvark quilt patterns

Andover Fabrics

Blue Underground, quilt patterns and fabric line for Troy

Kaffe Fassett art quilt

Kaffe Fassett art quilt

Kaffe Fassett for Westminster

Kaffe Fassett for Westminster

Kaffe Fassett

Modern Quilt Studio patterns and books

Aardvark quilt patterns

Weeks Dye Works, hand dyed fibers & fabrics

Aardvark Quilt Patterns

Andover Fabrics

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Starry Night Hollow for Troy

Weeks Dye Works hand dyed threads

The Kitchen Cat

The small town in which I live has a lively culture of antique (read: second hand) shops, which are great fun to browse when I am at the end of my creative rope.  The other day I found an old quilty cat doorstop – it felt like it had a brick inside! – and dragged it back to the studio for inspiration.  Today, feeling ready for Market and with a scrap of energy any some fabric left, I made my own version, complete with going out to my garden and digging up a little sack of gravel to weight it down.  She reminds me of my first cat, an orange tabby I called “Monster”.

Another Day of Sewing with Veggies

As I wrote yesterday, I have been busy making kitchen oriented things with my new line of fabrics, Lush Harvest, for Troy Corporation.  So today's produce included placemat, lined basket, potholders, and a napkin, most edged with either LFN Ribbons or hand-cut bias tapes.  I'm done - time to pack it all up for Houston!

All Busy Gals Need a Good Apron

I have been wildly busy in the last 6 weeks doing all manner of short trips and miscellaneous, but not insignificant, studio projects.  Last weekend I went up to Chicago to the Troy Fabrics Fabriganza sale at their warehouse, to introduce my new Lush Harvest quilting fabric line to their loyal customers.  This week we are taking it on the road to the Houston International Quilt Market, and you should be able to find them at your local quilting shop not long afterward.

 

Last week was a flurry of sample making: my fabrics are mostly vegetable designs, and people tend not to want to use vegetable motifs on bedding, so I felt I needed to make some items that were for the kitchen using the new fabrics, and the coordinating new LFN ribbons from Renaissance Ribbons.

So here is a quickie set of snaps of yours truly modeling the aprons.  Please ignore the bad hair!

fabrics to come from LFN Textiles

Yesterday I signed an agreement with Troy Fabrics to have my designs produced as quilt weight fabrics in their Riverwoods collection.  Troy produced top quality fabrics with up to 16 screens per design for very subtle color gradations.  They are based in Chicago, and also distribute a number of other fabric lines.  There is something really comforting about working with a home-town company.

But what I am happiest about is that they love everything I do, and the first collection will be based on my recent vegetables group of designs and debut at Quilt market in October.  Here's a sample of what is to come:

 

 

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 I have always been stubborn about my artistic style and point of view, and I have been reluctant to design anything "for the market" if not also for myself. I like to do straightforward patterns but also love to do quirky ones.  Tomatoes was my very first ribbon design:  I thought it was really nice to contemplate a luxurious fabric like woven ribbon with images of kitchen vegetables.  it will be great to see Tomatoes, herbs, lettuces, green beans = a cornucopia of veg -- made up into tablecloths, but also quilts and maybe shirts too. 

We will be doing plenty of other subjects in upcoming collections, so watch this space.

ribbons on pillows by Meryl Ann Butler

Rickrack ribbon by LFN Textiles

Morning Glory Ribbon by LFN Textiles

Pansy ribbon in red by LFN Textiles

Meryl Ann Butler, a popular author of quilting books, has released MORE 90-Minute Quilts, and she has featured a number of LFN Textiles ribbons in her projects.  Nice to see these flowery favorites on such pretty cushions!

Ribbon crazy quilt

Today I was sent a link to a delightful blog by Allison Aller, Allie's in Stitches, by my partner ribbon company, Renaissance Ribbons.  They commissioned Allie to make a crazy quilt using a variety of their ribbons and I spotted a great number of my own, along with their Kaffe Fassett ribbons and several other RR exclusives.  I wrote to Allie and asked her permission to link to her blog and use her photos, and she wrote a charming acceptance which I just had to quote here:

"Hi Laura!
How that great that you found this....
I've been a fan and user of your designs for years.  When I walked by RR's booth at Quilt Market I was stopped in my tracks...there were my beloved ribbons!  So I contacted Edith and begged her to let me use some of them in a quilt for her.  We settled on an orange/pink scheme, and I was in heaven working on it.
So yes indeed, you may link to this and use whatever photos you like.  I am attaching a pic of the quilt after I added a few more touches, though.  Take your pick!
And keep up your great work; you make many, many crazy quilters very happy.
My best,
Allie

p.s. I loved your ribbon dress... ;-)"

Oh gee!  so flattering.  You know, often when I pick up the phone and identify myself to someone calling about something on my website, I get this surprised and happy reaction that I answer my own phone.  "You mean this is THE Laura?"  Folks, this is a tiny world here.  I am not a corporation or even really a company, it is just me!  And Renaissance is around half a dozen lovely and knowable people too.  These connections between creative people are so meaningful and inspiring.  I am always so delighted to know that out in that great big world there, someone is familiar with -- and likes! and uses! -- something I have designed. 

And I like what Allie has done.  Here are some teaser photos, to see the whole project go to her blog, Allie's in Stitches. 

ribbons, coutesy Allison Aller

tutorial shot, courtesy Allison Aller

finished quilt, Renaissance 9 Patch by Allison Aller

more new ribbons

I have been so busy in the studio -- still working on Fall 2010 designs for Crate & Barrel, among other projects -- that I forgot to post the other new ribbons which have now arrived in stock. Doily is based on crochet doilies, and has the apprearance of rather baroque snowflakes. Creamy white, lacy doilies float above a ground of the same pattern woven in 2 tones of either red, or deep blue.

And it has a WOVEN edge! This is thrilling for me: when I began my ribbon business I went with the relatively new, much-maligned broadloom construction, where the ribbons are woven as a wide sheet and then slit apart into narrow strips. Much less expensive to produce, the edge has a simulated selvedge but was spurned for some time by true ribbon connoisseurs, who preferred the woven edge. On "real" woven edge ribbon, a tiny shuttle races back & forth on each separate ribbon. If they are 1.5" wide, and you are weaving them on a 54" loom, you an see how many tiny little shuttles would be needed to weave all those strips. But now, by teaming up with Renaissance Ribbons, I am able to design constructions that I could only dream about as tiny little LFN.

The other new woven-edge ribbon is Mistletoe, which comes in red with bright green leaves, or deep red with celadon leaves. Both are sumptuous, woven with beautifully detailed leaves and bright white berries which sit like pearls on the surface.

Quilting has also arrived; it is delightful. I originally designed it as a print, on a rather sophisticated khaki ground. Now it has the look of old handwoven coverlets, with a cream ground and either red or blue brocading. I love the tiny little stitches throughout the design, which I meant to look like the tiny stitches of hand quilting.

a sewing kit for the quilt show

I love working with the ribbons I design, to find new uses for them. "Quilting" is a re-issue of a design I originally did as a printed satin. It is terrific as a reversible woven, 7/8" wide. The look is reminiscent of old coverlets, and I love the stitching detail. I should have it up on the website in about 10 days.

I have been interested in sewing kits, pincushions, and needle books, so I designed a sewing set using antique linen ticking and wool felt to make a needle book with pockets for scissors and notions; then made a wrist pincushion, using the ribbon as the casing for an elastic band. Finally I made one of my signature lavender-stuffed square pincushions. I made box corners to make it look even more like a little mattress in its crisp ticking. The edges are all bound with my red Plaid ribbon.

I am toying with the idea of designing a line of sewing patterns for items like this -- what do you think? Please weigh in with comments!