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?

Stash Sunday: Sometimes I Forget I Order Stuff

After I got my new job, I decided to reward myself in the way any quilter would...with fabric.

There was a delay in it getting here, so naturally I totally forgot I had ordered it.  So boy was I surprised when it was sitting there at home! Four pieces, lucky me!

Weee!!!

Dinosaurs by Michael Searle (Timeless Treasures).  The selvege has dino feet on it. 

Folklorico by De Leon Design Group (Alexander Henry) I didn't see the mustaches when I bought it, but hey.

Moonshine by Tula Pink (Free Spirit).  I am loving the red!

More Folklorico by De Leon Design Group (Alexander Henry)

Did you get any sweet pieces this week? 

Done!

My first Halloween quilt of the season is done :-) From the pattern "Wednesday" by Mountainpeek Creations.

This is the focus fabric. I wanted to use the green indoor scence, but we didn't have enough to do the sample with, This piece is great too though...she's not in this picture but there's a little girl with a hammer. This is by far my favorite Halloween line; it's just just the right level of weirdness to it.

The lighting isn't great but you get the idea. Ripping out all those stitches streched it a little so hopefully Frances can help counteract that a bit. I'm thinking of doing a damask print as the quilting pattern on it, hopefully she has one! But I'm delighted with how it turned out. It's such a quick and easy pattern and it's easily done in an afternoon (if you read the directions and don't have to rip everying out and do it again...)

Here's a close-up of the flying geese. I used the green indoor scene for the centers of the flying geese. I love that print!

My favorite block. I like her just peering over the seam. It makes me laugh every time!

Darwin gets a new friend and I get to rip out stitches.

My roomate Lauren (yeah, I know) just got a new dog to keep Darwin company, and he's so FLUFFY I'm gonna die!

Say hello to Charles :-) Or Char. Or Char-Char. Or CHARMANDER! lol.

You know you live in an anthropology and science nerd house when your dogs are named Charles and Darwin. Hehehe. I love it! We call him Charlie though. He's adorable and Darwin likes him so it's a win-win. Woo hoo! Now if only we could take them sailing on a pint sized Beagle...(if you're a super nerd like me you'll get the reference...the Beagle was the ship that Darwin sailed to the Galapagos on). Aaaanyway...

So we have a bus hailing all the way from Texas coming in about a week to go to the Sisters quilt show and to visit, and after a little mishap with one of my kits, I needed to hop to it and get crackin' on another on to replace the can't-use-it-now one. So I chose to do a Thimble Blossoms pattern:

Super cute, and super simple....IF you're paying attention. Well, I read the pattern no less than 5 times. Seriously. 5 times. Apparently my information retention the past few days has been something awful because not only did I sew the wrong pieces together once, I sewed the new ones on without cutting the focus blocks down, and then had to do it a third time. I forgot to cut 2 strips for the points too. Good grief! Talk about having a case of the dumb-dumbs...so I've been spending more time ripping out stitches and re-cutting things than I have actually piecing! Oh the joys of quilting ;)

It's going to be really adorable though, I'm using Alexander Henry's Sew Much Fun as the large blocks, and Robert Kaufman's Sew Happy for the block points, and then an assortment of other matching prints for the neutral blocks.

Poor lighting, blah blah blah, but I assure you it's adorable. Oh, and third time's a charm, right?

It calls for a Layer Cake, but I'll level with you: I don't like Layer Cakes much. I think they're a great idea, don't get me wrong, and I do use them from time to time. But I really enjoy the process of choosing the fabrics, and I feel very limited when it comes to Layer Cakes because all of the colors are chosen for you. They're wonderful when you need a project done yesterday or if you're not wanting to go to the trouble to pick out 30 fabrics and cut them all to size (which admittedly, can be a pain), but I enjoy the process so I'd rather do it myself.

Hopefully I'll have the top pieced today so I can send it to Carol to be quilted tomorrow, or at latest, on Friday. Whew, nothing like flying by the seat of your pants!