Friday 4 July 2014

New fabrics for Festival of Quilts


There's a lot of new fabrics coming for Festival of Quilts - I hope they will arrive in time!  I've been building up my stock again since last year's house move.  As usual, the vintage and retro kimono fabrics fall into several main groups - abstract silks and wools ideal for art quilts, landscapes etc.; traditional motif silks, wools and cottons; retro modern fabrics; blue and white yukata small prints; blue and white yukata large prints; tsumugi in all fibres; cotton tsumugi stripe (I've got dozens to choose from); large scale yukata prints with 1 metre repeats in blue/white and multicolours; textured weaves in various fibres; fat quarters!


In order to fit as much as possible onto C43, which is a 2 x 2 metre corner stand, I won't have any kimono this year and I will be precutting as many fabrics as possible.  Apart from fat quarters of patchwork cottons, the main precuts will be 70cm, 140cm and 210 cm, unless the fabric has 1 metre (approx.) repeats, like the yukata cottons, which will be cut on the repeat.  Why those sizes? 70cm x the narrow 141/2in width is about the same area as a fat quarter, so estimating fabric for your project will be easier.  140cm is therefore about half a metre eqivalent and 210cm is three quarter metre - and these are also a very useful cut for a quilt border.




We will have the popular £2 treats again as well - 20cm cuts from the £10 silks - and perhaps 180cm cuts for scarves, although I haven't finally made my mind up about that.  Perhaps I should just sell 210 cms for scarves and let you cut them down? That way you get a bit for a quilt as well :-)





I will have 1 metre precuts of  very lightweight vilene, for £4.50 a pack.  This is the weight I recommend for ironing onto the back of the softer silks before using them for patchwork, both as a stabiliser and to give them a little more body.  One pack is enough for 3 metres of silk at 14 1/2in width.


The fabrics shown here are a mixture of silks, wools and cottons.  See you at the festival!   We will be on stand C43.





















2 comments:

magsramsay said...

I'm drooling already....

Susan Briscoe said...

I know I've made some good choices if you like them Mags!