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Friday, May 30, 2014

Ahh...Sea Glass

This gorgeous wall hanging in the June/July issue of The Quilter, made from Ro Gregg's Marblehead Venetian Glass collection, is so aptly named "Sea Glass." Looking at this quilt, it's easy to imagine you're enjoying a relaxing day at the beach.

"Sea Glass" by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar, Pine Tree Country Quilts

The aquas, the greens, the blues of actual sea glass. 
Read more about it and how it's becoming more scarce in this Smithsonian article.
Photo credit: Celia Pearson

Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar of Pine Tree Country Quilts used the focal globe fabric (below) in an unexpected way--as setting triangles around the five main blocks. It really makes the blocks pop, doesn't it?

Then, adding to the unexpected, the main border features this beachy print, framed in a soft cream.


See the entire Marblehead Venetian Glass collection here.
Find the kit for this project here.
Find The Quilter magazine here.


Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Imagine This to Win!

What would you make with the Imagine This collection? 
Put on your designing hat! Your imagination is your only limit!

We're excited to announce the Imagine This! Quilt Design Contest in conjunction with Threadbias and the Designing Duo, Linda Carlson and Diana Henage.

Using the Quilt Design Tool over at Threadbias, you can design a quilt using the Imagine This fabrics and coordinating solids. 

The contest opens on June 27, but you can get started designing now! The voting public will select the top five designs, and then Linda and Diana will choose the winner and runner up.

What can you win? 
The winner will receive the fabric required to sew the quilt you design!
One runner-up will receive a fat quarter bundle of Imagine This.

Find out more details under our Imagine This Contest tab and in the Imagine This Group on the Threadbias website.



We can't wait to see what you create!

Monday, May 26, 2014

Memorial Day

On this day, we want to take a moment to remember the men and women who have died serving in the United States Armed Forces and to thank the men and women who continue to serve, protecting our country and helping others. 



Sewing a flag quilt is one way to commemorate this holiday and Independence Day and show off a patriotic spirit throughout the year. Sandy and Sue of Pine Tree Country Quilts have designed this flag quilt, called Old Glory, made from the Old Glory snack pack: forty-two 2-1/2" wide red, white and blue strips from the Tone on Tone collection.  You can find the free pattern here.



Friday, May 23, 2014

Come tour our booth!

Welcome to our little virtual tour of the Fabri-Quilt/Paintbrush Studio booth from Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh! 

We'll give you an overview and then get in close at some of the details so you can see the fabric and quilts featured.

From the aisle:

The chair covers are made from Imagine This! fabric. If you look closely, you can see the paint palette-shaped tables, echoing the Paintbrush Studio logo.

 A view from the opposite side. That's the Fabulous Frames quilt featuring the Elemental Lines collection right in the middle--you can find the free pattern here.

A view from the corner--love the ruffled skirt made out of the indigo prints from Bella Casa!

That's the Circles and Squares quilt using the Cosmopolitan collection on the back wall (find the free pattern here!).

And hanging off the top edge? A tote made using green cowhide with a touch of Cosmopolitan. And the yellow behind the tote? that's cowhide too! More on the cowhide to come...you'll love it!

The Designing Duo's Imagine This! played prominently in the booth--in addition to the chair covers, you can see one of Linda Carlson's quilts using the fabrics draped over the table here.

And a few more hanging on the wall, as well as some bags and purses. 


 A good look at the free pattern quilt, also named "Imagine This."

Rolls of our vibrant batiks displayed on the wall. Have you seen them? Check out all 70+ colors and designs here!

Remember Piccadilly from this post? Here it's used in a trendy patchwork vest.

We even had a garden growing--our "Snack Packs": packages of pre-cut 2-1/2" wide strips. What a bouquet those would make!

And finally, we introduced a program we're really excited about: an upcoming Block of the Month club featuring the new Windsor Woods collection.

Here's a photo of the BOM quilt; make sure you ask about it at your local quilt shop!

We hope you enjoyed this brief tour of our Quilt Market booth!

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Get Whimsical with Piccadilly

Piccadilly...the very word just sounds whimsical, doesn't it? The colors and prints of our new Piccadilly collection bring that carefree whimsy to fabric: soft aquas, lavenders, fuchsia and olive, all light and airy!


Dual-colored scrolls

A spring-like leafy vine

A great modern geometric print

Gorgeous focal flowers

Make a summery bed runner to freshen up your room with our free pattern using Piccadilly prints:

Picadilly Bed Runner designed by Diane Arganbright and Patricia Sue Nelson of The Quilting Hen
Download the free pattern here.

See the entire Piccadilly collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Bella Casa: New Fabric Preview!

There's just something undeniably appealing about two-color fabric collections, isn't there? Creating variety from value or texture, and focusing on just a single hue--it draws you in. 

We are thrilled to share one of our new lines, Bella Casa, with you today. Whether it's red or indigo calling your name, we think you'll love the variety of prints as much as we do!


Here's a close-up of some of our favorites:




Which print do you like best? And red or indigo?


Download the free pattern for Indigo Stars from our website (you could make it in red, too!).
Indigo Stars by Tammy Silvers of Tamarini

See the entire Bella Casa collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop.

Friday, May 16, 2014

Headed to the Farmer's Market...Farmer John is back!

While we're at Quilt Market, we'll keep with the "market" theme:

It's almost farmer's market season again...bushels and baskets full of deliciously tempting fruits and veggies, ready to eat! 

We've got great news: Farmer John is back with a new line of fruit and veggie prints! 
Doesn't your mouth water just looking at them? Juicy peaches, crisp string beans, plump strawberries...yum, yum yum! 

Ask for these Farmer John fabrics at your local quilt shop and see the entire collection here.

After you're sufficiently hungry from all these tasty fabrics, head over to our Fruits & Veggies Pinterest board for some inspiration on how to use them!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Imagine This!


We are thrilled to introduce the first Paintbrush Studio collection from Linda Carlson and Diana Henage, the Designing Duo. We hope you'll enjoy this introduction to both the story and the eye-catching prints of these twin sisters. 

First, the collection, appropriately titled Imagine This:


Q. Can you give us a brief history of the Designing Duo?
Linda: We have designed fabric for very young children through adults who love color and high-contrast graphics since 2005. All juvenile prints within each collection are designed to grab a child's attention, which promotes neuron and dendrite growth in the very young. The non-juvenile prints in each line speak to modern, contemporary, and traditional fabric lovers with the same bright hues in high contrast graphics and whimsical shapes that sewists and quilt makers want for their home decor, fashions, and accessories.

Q. How do you design fabric together?
Linda: Since we both live in Mexico, MO, it's easy for us to call, text or email, ''I've got a great subject for another line!" We each look for what inspires us in nature, on trips, from photography in magazines, toy trends, and themes in children's literature. Diana magically reads my mind coming up with her own artwork for the subject after we discuss the overall theme. Our husbands aren't surprised because they've always said we share one brain. When Diana comes up with a subject, she calls and says, ''Come over and see what I've done." The themes are always something we both enjoy doing, seeing, or could imagine. 

Q. What do you like best about working together?
Linda: We feel privileged to work with each other because we are best friends who can cajole, be sassy or silly, and know it's just all in fun while seriously thinking about how we want to portray the collection. We get to laugh with each other just like when we were kids. It's a very loving, working partnership as I listen to her about what works in creating the designs, and she listens as I explain what quiltmakers' and sewists' technical needs are in the fabrics they choose.

Q. Tell us about your passion for designing this brain-based fabrics.
Linda: Before 2005 I visited fabric stores across the country when teaching classes. I could see only the usual pastel prints for young children, when I knew those weren't the hues that they could best ''see'' first after birth. So I found brain-based research on the preferred colors and graphics from infant brain growth studies. Combined with Diana's Specialist degree in Gifted Education and a Bachelor's degree in Art Education, we designed our first line.

Q. Is there a print in the Imagine This! collection that started it all?
Linda: Diana drew tiled squares of whimsical animals, flora and abstract designs on separate 4'' squares to portray the theme. She was asked to combine some into a kind of collage that we feel is the essence of the creative collection. Just imagine this…a world with a creature or flower with such funny markings!


Q. What are each of your favorite prints in the collection?
Linda: I am thrilled with all of them because the graphic prints as well as the whimsical prints are so Diana! I see her hand in every one of them.
Diana: I was pleased with the opportunity to include animals like the giraffe, one of my granddaughter's favorite animals to draw. Most of the graphics started as simple doodles with a natural flair.

Q. Can you talk about the two colorways?
Linda: The red, white, black and gray prints are not only trendy, but are the same hues most distinguishable by infants. The high contrasting red, white and black hues grab a baby's attention and foster their ability to concentrate and focus. The multicolor prints are just plain fun for youngsters to 'tweens, pre-teens,, teens and adult lovers of bright, engaging graphics.

Q. How did the name come to be?
Linda: Because of Diana's experiences with gifted kids from elementary through high school, she often posed open-ended questions like ''what if…'', ''Can you imagine…?"My recollection is that we were looking at her early artwork and brainstorming names. I pointed to one figure and just commented, ''Well, imagine that!" To which she replied, ''That's it! Imagine That!" While working with FabriQuilt, the art director sent scanned copies of some drawings with suggestions and referred to the collection as ''Imagine This." We decided we liked it better. Voila—Imagine This was born!

Q. Can you talk about some of the prints in the collection?
Diana: The tiled squares (blocks) are graphic shapes, lines and circles that appear in the overall print along with the imagined animals. Some combine with others to get a modern, patterned look of overall texture and movement. The harlequin pattern was actually part of something else we're working on, but it perfectly complimented the Imagine This! prints. 

I wanted to make some of the purely abstract shapes appear three-dimensional, so I changed the size of spaces between the shapes and used various pen widths to get a swirling stippling effect. It reminds me of smoke or nebula in outer space.

Q. Tell us about the free Imagine This pattern on our website.
Linda:
It's a skill building combination of machine pieced half-square triangles behind machine appliquéd circles. As a teacher, I like to create quilts that appeal to all students regardless of their favorite technique. The classes I feature have either hand applique or the machine piecing and applique combination.


Here's a little more inspiration for the Imagine This fabrics--patterns and kits for these quilts will be available on Linda's website in June.


Mod Rules! uses a set of octagonal templates in the blocks and adual wave edge ruler for the sashing.

It's Hip to Be Square features different sizes of a wavy square.

Pools of Diamonds showcases two sizes of diamond rulers.

4th of July features the Fons & Porter wedge template and 60 degree pyramid ruler.

Find out more about the Designing Duo here.
See the entire collection here and ask for it at your local quilt shop!