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? 

Finally! A Dino Fabric a Girl Can be Proud of!

While I did love the Disney princesses when I was little, I have always loved dinosaurs.  Real ones, not the cutesy little stupid ones.  I remember I used to ask my mom as a kid if T-Rex was real, if he could look in our windows.  He probably could have! 

So I have grown into an adult who loves dinosaurs.  Too bad paleontology doesn't pay, because that is a field I'd love to be in.  I watch as many documentaries as I can, and I read as many articles and studies as possible.  One of the things I have always whined about as a quilter is that all the dinosaur fabric on the market is not only targeted to kids only, pretty much to boys exclusively, but they're always cartoony.  I mean, I get it, some kids are scared of dinos, but many aren't.  But they get cartoony, dummy dinos. Ick.

Until Michael Searle designed this.  

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM IN LOVE.  Toothy, bitey, realistic dinosaurs! I already have something in the works.  It's going to be badass.

Stash Sunday: Here There be Dragons!

Linking up with Molli Sparkles for Stash Sunday.

I found this neat piece this past weekend.  It's from the line Medieval Times by Timeless Treasures.  I got the last yard and change...victory is mine!

Because dragons are cool, duh!

A couple years ago I fell in love with and bought the book Spellbinding Quilts by Maaike Bakker

...and I haven't done a single thing from it.  I think this fabric would look awesome paired up with some blocks from this book.

One of these days!