Post Revisited: Top 5 Favorite Fabric Designers

Back in 2011, I did a post about who my Top 5 Favorite Designers were.  Since then, I've definitely gone in another direction with my style and what I find interesting in quilts. I thought it might be interesting to see how my taste has changed four years later, and to find out how yours has changed too!

1. Tula Pink (Free Spirit)
This should come as no surprise whatsoever - some things never change.  I'm a Tula girl.  She has yet to put out a line I don't like.  I think the worst I have ever thought about her lines is ambivalence (Bumble). My favorite piece du jour?  This floral from her new line Elizabeth:

I now own 2 yards of this.  That green though.  

2. Masha D'yans (Clothworks)
Another mainstay from my 2011 post.  I love her artwork; it's whimsical without being campy and has a beautiful painterly quality.  Her work goes to show that watercolors don't have to be quiet and delicate...they can be bold and expressive too.

Right now, I am playing with the panel from her line, Friends in While Places...What sold me on this?  THE LEMUR.

3. Michael Searle (Timeless Treasures)
What earned Michael a guaranteed spot in my Top Five?
This:

I love it so much I have already posted about it here. 

And this:

Yes, two pieces is enough to make it to my Top Five.  I own several yards of both. There are other designers who do dinosaur themed fabric, but not a single one has an eye to realism like he does.   I look forward to see what prehistoric awesomeness he thinks up next.

4. De Leon Design Group (Alexander Henry)
De Leon does one of my very favorite recurring lines - Folklorico. There have been many, many pieces to Folklorico over the years and new ones keep coming out.  As a matter of fact...I just got some more pieces of it (Sunday Stash for May 3, 2015)

We all know the sugar skulls they did, they've been everywhere.  But there's more than that.  La Catrina and Frida Kahlo, anyone?

Lucha! Lucha! Lucha!:

Well done, De Leon.


5. Kaffe Fassett Collective (Rowan) 
Okay, the great shin kick incident aside...Kaffe, Brandon Mably, Martha Negly and the other come and go designers in the Kaffe Fassett Collective do some really wonderful work. You know my love of strange color and pattern combinations, and they get it right for me.

Like this:

Kaffe Fassett, Shoal Fish

And this:

Brandon Mably, Lazy Daisy

They do have more subdued colors and designs...but where's the fun in that? ;-)

Honorable Mention:  Liberty of London
$42 per yard?!  Holy Sh.....
I have a soft spot for Art Deco style.  Look at this beauty:

So who are your some of your new favorites, and who have fallen from your Top Five?

Top 5 Favorite Pattern Designers (in no particular order)

1. BJ Designs
BJ Designs is my all time favorite pattern company. She meshes realism with whimsy, and it's predominantly applique which is my favorite quilting method. Her animals are so neat - I've done the Kangaroo, Bear and the Elephant. There are more than just animals, she offers holiday and miscellaneous patterns too. The neat thing about BJ is that she is interested to see your version of her pattern. A customer of ours had commented to her that someone at our shop had done 2 of her quilts as samples and she was very interested in seeing how it went! I sent her the photos and got a response back from her too, which I thought was really nice!

2. Bigfork Bay
Bigfork Bay walks the line between whimiscal and realistic, and I love them both. Their pieced quilts are fantastic, but I much prefer thier realistic animal patterns. Big surprise, huh? The realistic ones are a challenge, but the outcome is SO worth it. So far I've conquered the lion and the wolf, but I'd love to work on the puffins and the tiger too. They have lots of horse patterns as well, and lots of deer too. They give their animals such neat names too, that you hardly feel inclinded to name your own quilt. Check out the rest of their patterns here. Plus, they also sell kits to their patterns so if you like what you see, you can make it as close as possible!

3. MountainPeek Creations
MountainPeek is one of my go-to pattern companies for when I want something to make that focuses more on showcasing incredible fabrics and that goes reasonably quickly. They are fantastic! Though many of the patterns are pretty simple, they are very impactful based on what gets used to make them. They do Fat Quarter and Pre-Cut focused patterns too, so they really cater to all. I love their Shadowbox pattern, and it is perfect for those last little bits of focus prints you have laying around. I'd link to everything, but the way their website is set up, t's not condusive to linking. So click the MountainPeek link above and have a look!

4. Quilt Woman
Out Blank Rep turned me on to this pattern company and boy do they have it all - quilt patterns, bag patterns, clothing patterns, even beginner specific patterns! Plus they also go a lot for the AccuQuilt system, so if you have one of those bad boys, Quilt Woman has patterns designed specially for that piece of wonderful equipment. Here there really is something for every quilter and stitcher alike. One of my very Favorite patterns is "Flying for Nitwits" which is, you guessed it, a Halloween quilt!

5. Briarwood Cottage
The Booville quilt made me a believer! Once I saw (and made, pictures will be up soon) that quilt, I started looking into the rest of their stuff and it is great! They have Block of the Month quilts as well as wallhangings and the like, but I really am partial to their Block of the Month style stuff. The sizes are manageable and they are really versatile for all styles of fabric.

Top 5 Quilting Notions and Tools I Can't Live Without

1. Omnigrid 4" Needlecraft Scissors

I LOVE these scissors. Seriously. I carry them with me always (well, except on planes) because they are useful for so much. While I don't care for their rulers, one of the great things about Omnigrid Scissors is that they stay sharp for a very long time and these little guys are no exception; we use Omnigrid scissors at the shop and after 7 years they have not dulled. These are great for cutting out applique, because the tip is so sharp it cleanly gets into any of the teeny corners your applique may have. They're perfect for keeping by your machine for snipping threads, because they stay out of the way. But most of all, these have replaced my seam ripper and my seam snip scissors. The tip of these scissors is so small and SO sharp it gets in under the stitches of a seam easier than a plain ol' seam ripper, in my opinion. We do carry these at The Cotton Patch, so if you want to give 'em a try, come on in!

2. Atlas Gardening Gloves

Here's a secret - the best quilting gloves I have ever had were a pair of my Mom's gardening gloves. She turned me on to this, too! These are Atlas brand gardening gloves, and the palm surface of the glove is rubberized from the tips of your fingers to the heel of your hand. This gives you a greater surface gripping area while you're quilting your quilt, therefore you have less slippage and greater control than you do with quilting gloves that have finger grips only. The back of them are cloth so they breath very nicely - no sweaty hands! Plus, you can get them very inexpensively (less than $5 at Fred Meyer here in Oregon, comparably priced at places like Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, etc) and they last for a long time. They seriously facilitate the quilting process on a domestic machine.

3. Bamboo Stiletto

We have these at the shop. They're exactly what they sound like. It's a stiletto. It's made of bamboo. What I like so much about it is that it's double ended; there is a thicker side for more heavy duty tasks, and a thinner sharper side for normal stiletto duties. I like these better than the metal ones, because the metal ones have a tendency to dull over time and separate from their handles. Bamboo stilettos come in one whole piece, it's durable, keeps its point and it's a very sustainable and renewable resource. They are inexpensive so you get a lot of bang for your buck, because they are great for more than just guiding fabric through your feed dogs. I use it for applique, scrapbooking, working with polymer clay...it's great.

4. Emery Board

Yes. A regular, plain ol' emergy board. Dollar Store, Rite Aid, Target...they can be found everywhere, eveb gas station quickie marts. For one, I break nails all the flippin' time, even quilting, so I need 'em. But what I really use them for most is after ripping out a seam, it gets those stray threads out better than anything else I have tried. There is no way I'm going to pick those little things out by hand, so running an emery board over those threads (gently!) works like a dream and a $2 pack will literally last you years because the surface won't wear down quickly on snipped threads.

5. Applique Pressing Sheet

We have these at the shop. If you do fusible applique, this thing comes in handy like you wouldn't believe. You can build your appliques up and fuse them together before positioning them on your background. It helps ensure that you get your image put together correctly before it's fused to tha background and it's too late to fix it. It's transluscent so that helps you see your fabrics and lines as needed. It's also great for fusing Angelina Fibers, using to catch hot glue, or using any glue on because it'll peel or wash right off, no problems. They are reasonably priced and last for ages.

Top 5 Techniques that Look like Fun (but I haven't tried yet...)

I've said it before and I'll say it again...I'm hopeless addicted to the wild, weird world of quilting. Heck, if that's not apparent all ready, then perhaps I've been understating things (though, really not something I'll ever be accused of doing...ask my family/friends, I'm a spaz!). So while I've been piecing and appliqueing and quilting to my little heart's content, I've seen some other techniques that I really want to try...but haven't (yet). So, here they are (in no particular order of course):

Top 5 Techniques that Look like Fun (but I haven't tried yet...)

5. English Paper Piecing
I've all ready tried regular paper piecing, but this English Paper Piecing thing keeps rearing its head. Every now and then at the shop, someone will come in looking for english paper piecing supplies, and as a matter of fact, yesterday Loretta Orsborn was in our shop teaching a class, and she showed Mom and I an English Paper Piecing project she was working on and let me tell 'ya....it was cool! It made me want to try it, maybe not on the larger scale she was doing it at, but maybe a wall hanging? For a hand-sewing method, a wall hanging is probably all my attention span can handle. But it looks like a really simple technique and I really love how precise it is without seeming to be overly complicated. It looks like the prep actually takes the longest!



4. Ice Dyeing
I flipped right out when I saw this...you can dye your own fabric, pretty much mess free if you do it correctly, with the ice cubes in your freezer and powder dyes. What the heck?! I love the results! It's similar to tye-dye but without being overly ... tye-dye-ish, if that makes sense. This is a lot less planned. With tie-dye, you can make certain designs based on how to fold or twist the fabric and tie with rubber bands, and you apply the color directly where you want it - with the exception of the twist of the fabric, you pretty much know where the colors will be and how they will interact (since the dye is liquid, you see how it'll blend right away). With Ice Dyeing, the dye is a powder and rests on top of the fabric and dissolves and falls where it will as the ice melts - you can kind of guess where you want a particular color to be but ultimately it just goes where it goes and there is no "planned" pattern to it. It doesn't lend itself to the twisting and tying that tie-die does, because you need the looser folds to allow the powder the seep through.  I couldn't find a video tutorial for this, but if you click on the "Ice Dyeing" link, that is the best tutorial I have seen for it.


3. Hand Embroidery
Okay, so this one isn't ENTIRELY true. I have tried it. All I've done is a back stitch and an absolutely pathetic stem stitch (gotta work on that!). But have a looksie at the above link and check out these video tutes...how flippin' cool?! Embroidery is always a nice touch when embellishing a quilt - it can be whatever you want it to be and while it can look very modern with clean lines, it gives just a hint of the traditional which is really quite nice. I think the coolest part about embroidery is the fact that it has been done for literally thousands of years - we do it now, the Victorians did it, the ancient Chinese and ancient Egyptians did it, the medieval cultures did it and there is even evidence that early man had the ability to do it as well. Plus, there is no denying that hand embroidery can be absolutely elegant or wonderfully simple, so it caters to all skill levels.

4. Set-In Seams
Fine, fine. This one isn't all the way true either. I've tried this and you should have heard the fit I had. This is just the most ridiculous thing, it really is (okay, fine, so I'm still a little bitter). Set-In seams and Y-seams are pretty much the same thing far as I can tell, and using this technique can yield some pretty incredible results.. The thing I want to do with this, actually, is my mother's specialty - the Lone Star Quilt. She can practically do these in her sleep, Set-In Seams and all and have it turn out practically perfect. It comes with experience (and *groan* paaaaatience) I think. I'me working on the experience thing, but I think the patience with myself and with my projects is something that I'll forever lack. Anyway, maybe once my bitterness and rage (Hyperbolic much? Geez.) subside with these stupid seams I'll give it another go and make a sweet Lone Star!

5. Reverse Applique
Oh my goodness, have you ever seen a quilt all done up using this technique? It can range from cutesy to complicated and can be used as the focus technique or as embellishment. No matter which way you cut it, it's neat! I remember in Miss Parker's 7th grade art class, we had to do this technique using paper and an X-Acto knife to emulate (what is probably the most famous example of reverse applique) the Molas made by the Kuna people of Panama and Colombia. Their work is absolutely amazing. It's bright, it's intricate ...often imitated but never equalled. Aside from the Molas, this is just a funt hing to try and I think I (eventually) will!

Top 5 Favorite Quilt/Fabric Designers (in no particular order)

Even if you're a new(ish) quilter, after a while you start to know what you like. Over and over again you'll be drawn to certain patterns and fabrics, and again and again you'll realize, "Hey! Thats whatserface!" I'm starting to find that's the case for me. Over and over again I'm drawn to designs from the usual suspects, and a couple unexpected people too! So I'll share my (current) Top 5 Favorite Quilt/Fabric Designers (in no particular order). Who knows, you may find you're a fan too and didn't even know it! :-) Oh, and each person's name is in fact a link to their respective websites.

5. Masha D'yans

Masha is my favorite designer (not who you though it was going to be, huh?). She's from St. Petersburg, Russia and her work is mostly watercolor. Her artwork is just...well, beautiful, silly, sassy, sweet. For me I think it's the unusual blend of harsh line and gentle brushstroke and powerful buildup of soft color. It's really energetic and she has got a gift of capturing the both whimsy and depth in one fell swoop. She does more than just fabric, she also does cards, gifts, and clothing. I hope she gets more into doing fabric, I only know of 3 lines from her.

4. Patrick Lose

Patrick Lose is both a fabric designer and a pattern designer. He has several books out, and his speciality is fusible applique and seasonal designs. He does dabble some in clothing (mainly vests and jackets), but I think his strongest skill is with his quick seasonal projects. His designs are big and bold, whch make them both simple for beginners and really impactful to the eye. I absolutely LOVE his Santa, Rudolph and Pumpkin patterns! Okay, fine, the Pumpkin one really is my favorite. And of course, you know my feelings on male quilters...go Patrick!

3. Barb Tourtillotte

With the unfortunate exception of Muffin Tops ,I love her artwork too.  Okay, well, that artwork itself in Muffin Tops is good, but uh, I don't need to see an older version of myself in a bikini on fabric...ick. But her artwork is really quite beautiful. She's a little more traditional than I usually go for, in terms of her fabric themes. I don't usually gravitate toward florals or garden themes, but her florals are so, so well done. They're bright but delicate at the same time. What I think I like most about her stuff is her go-withs are always strong, either within the line or with something else, which honestly, cannot be said for all designers.

2. Sue Spargo

Sue Spargo is a quilter designer, no fabric. Before I talk about her work though, I have a funny/stupid little story about her (well, not her personally). Last July I was in an accident at an amusement park in Virginia that sent me to the ER with a back injury. After being pat on the head and told it was essentially nothing, I flew back home as planned and just dealt with it. Well the pain increased after a few days so I ended up going to the doctor here to be told, yeah, you're hurt (thanks, I didn't know) here's something to help deal with the pain. Welllllll I got put on pain meds and told that I needed to stay moving so I didn't prevent my back from healing properly. So I continued working at the shop. If you know me, then you know my opinion of pain meds - no thank you sir, I'll just have an Ibuprofen and I'll rub some dirt in it. One day at work I was in a lot of pain and I kept not taking my pain meds because they made me really dingy (and nauseous), but finally Mom got fed up with me not taking the meds and bugged me, and bugged me, and bugged me until I took them. I took them there and she had me stay just so she could make sure I wouldn't react badly to them and so I wouldn't drive (which I wouldn't anyway). Well, I was dingy all right. Since I went from moderately with it to not at all with it it, she had me put away patterns - a pretty fool proof job. Apparently, as I was putting away the Sue Spargo patterns, I decided that her last name fits the suffix "-head," to be used to describe a person who likes her work...much like a Jimmy Buffet fan is referred to as a "Parrothead." I guess I decided that as a fan of Sue Spargo's, I would then, if that rule stood, be a "Sparg-head." And that, kiddies, is why I hate taking pain meds. 

Well, it stuck. I'm a Sparghead! Her designs are bright, whimsical and fun. I'd say her style is folksy but with a contemporary touch - her work is anything but the dark, antique-y, tradional primitives we think of when we think of folksy. A few of my favorite pieces of hers are Greenbrier , Folklore and the Journey Quilt. I love the look of the bright wool. It just begs to be embellished. Hers are the kind of projects that I truly wouldn't mind working on for months in little bits as I have time. I find her style very freeform even though it is very clearly and meticulously planned out. Indeed, I'm a Sparghead for life! Oh, and did you know there is a Sue Spargo Quilt and Applique Design program that is compatible with EQ7? How cool is that?!

1. Tula Pink

Tula Pink is probably who you thought I'd name as my favorite designer (if you know me that is). True, she is very, very, very close! You may know her from her line Neptune, Plume, or Parisville. Her colors, the way she hides things in her designs...it's awesome! Her work is a little more contemporary, but with a touch of the traditional. I think what draws me to her work so much is the symmetry. Even if it's full of flourishes, it really is so well balanced and it just makes sense. It's whimsical without being disorderly, and my eye really enjoys that. It's also heartening to see a young designer really making it in the industry. What an inspiration! Oh, did I mention she has SHOES WITH HER FABRIC ON THEM?!



Well, now you know some of mine....now who are some of yours?