Musings in Quilt Trends Magazine

FabricTrends magazine has been renamed QuiltTrends, but still has the same great content: lots of quilt patterns and projects, designer interviews, and previews of fabric collections.

QuiltTrends Magazine

Their Winter 2012 issue includes the instructions for making the Musings quilt shown below, designed by Jason Yenter. At approximately 41″ square it’s the perfect size for a wall quilt. Since the border is made up of quotations, this quilt gives new meaning to the term “conversation piece,” and will really give visitors to your home something to talk about!

Musings in QuiltTrends

You can see the whole Musings Collection here. Next week we’re having a giveaway, so please be sure to check back!

~Wendy

Two Free Patterns!

We have two new free patterns on our website. One is the Musings Friendship Quilt, featuring many wise and funny sayings by famous (or infamous) women. For example, there’s this from Julia Child: I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. I am a wee bit older than 32, and still have not started cooking. The eating part I’ve gotten down.

Musings Pattern

This quilt would make a great gift for a friend going through a challenging time in her life. The pattern has instructions for making the quilt in two different colorways. The multicolor version is shown above. The pink version is shown below. (The entire Musings Collection is here.)

Musings Quilt: Pink

Our other new pattern is the Morris Stars Quilt featuring Michele Hill’s Morris Meadows Collection. This is a beautiful traditional quilt with a gorgeous mitered border. I really like how the tonal prints are used in this design. They play an important role in the star points, and at the same time they allow the more decorative prints to really stand out.

Morris Meadows Pattern

Please look for Musings and Morris Meadows at your favorite quilt shops!

~Wendy

New Year & New Fabrics

Well, the holidays are over and I’m afraid you haven’t heard much from us through most of them. Although you might be led to believe we have been enjoying some down time, really the exact opposite is true and we have been working very hard at coming up with more “to-die-for” fabric prints and collections…..and inspirational ideas of what to do with them.

But I wanted to be sure to let you know about a fun event coming up rather quickly. This is a fun opportunity for you to see one of our newest collections by one of our local fabric designers, Lida Enche, the creator of our September Light  collection.  If some of the cooler days of winter have you dreaming of summer come to Island Quilter’s new location on Vashon Island this Friday, January 6, from 6-9pm to see the exuberant original paintings that have inspired her fabric collections. You will also get a sneak peek of the art and color ways created for Painted Summer, Lida’s newest collection. It’s filled with warm, sunshiny images of Summer in full swing and will be available this Summer. Lida will be there this Friday evening for this opening event, and through the end of the month the shop will display her original art and prints, and quilts and samples sewn using Lida’s fabric by wonderful local pattern designers and quilters. Below you will find all the information to get there:

Island Quilter’s Info:
17639 Vashon Hwy
Vashon Island, WA 98070

ph: (206) 713-6000
check www.islandquilter.com for hours and ferry schedule

If you can’t make it to the show, but want to see more of Lida’s work, visit www.lidaenche.com and her new fabric blog. Here is a taste of what you will see…

Hummingbirds

We hope this year is full of many wonderful events.  We will try out best to keep you up to date on the latest things going on with In The Beginning Fabrics. Check back soon!

~Leah

Home to Roost: Winners!

Thank you to all the fabulous store managers/owners who entered our Home to Roost kit drawing.

Home to Roost Kit

A Home to Roost kit will be going to these three winners:

• Jodie Heinold, Fort Worth Fabric Studio
• Linda Schiffer, Seminole Sampler
• Angela van Nistelrooy, Atelier Quilt Puzzel

I’ve emailed the winners, so if you see your name (and shop) here, please go check your inbox!

~Wendy

Introducing: Better Gnomes & Gardens

Here’s one of the new collections that we just introduced at Quilt Market:

Better Gnomes & Gardens (Blue)

It’s Better Gnomes & Gardens by Heather DuPont.

Better Gnomes & Gardens (Pink)

I think it’s just the most fun ever! (I love putting together these simple little collages of the prints. It’s like making a quilt.)

Better Gnomes & Gardens (Green)

Looking for a simple project? The panel print shown here is about 36″ x 44″…perfect for a crib quilt. (It’s also available in pink and green.) Just add borders to bring it to a size suitable for older kids.

Better Gnomes & Gardens (Panel: 8HDB1)

You can check out the whole collection here. It should be available in quilt shops in April, 2012. Can’t wait!

~Wendy

Musings Strike-Offs Are Here!

The strike-offs for Jason Yenter’s Musings collection arrived recently, and we’ve all been admiring them!

Musings Strike-Offs

Musings will be shipping to stores in December…just when you might be yearning for springtime again, and might welcome the sight of some birds and flowers. The pink colorway is great for friendship quilts. The quotes from memorable women are, well, memorable! My favorite for today is from Carol Leifer, “I’m not into working out. My philosophy: No pain, no pain.”

~Wendy

Fall Quilt Market 2011 Reflections

Right now I am flying over a lovely landscape somewhere between Texas and Washington state.  Jason, Becca, and I were in Houston to attend the International Quilt Market held each fall at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Besides having a lot of fun and good food, we were there to show off our latest fabric collections and connect with our wonderful sales reps, distributors, and of course our customers.

The first two days were spent putting up a booth featuring our latest fabrics and books. The booth has a simple design and we have a good formula for getting it set up in a timely manner so it was easy work.

Below is a photo of what we started with:

This is what we started with.

And this is what it ended up looking like:

Our In The Beginning booth is ready!

The next three days we spent working with customers showing our new things and helping them find the perfect prints to fit their shop.

Becca is showing our new collections to customers.

This was the fun part. I am very excited about our new collections from four of the most creative fabric designers in the business. There’s definitely something for everyone and I can’t wait to get this fabric in my hands and start playing with it. We are so fortunate to be working in this industry where creativity abounds and our only constraint is time.

Leah and designer Lida Enche

Three of our licensed designers were able to make their way to Houston as well. They are not only creative artists but also a heck of a lot of fun. We learn a lot about trends of the industry and concerns of our customers each market. We are always looking to improve the process and are inspired by the competition.

Sales Rep Jane Hager and Jason

One thing is for sure – quilting is a good business to be in. I’ll be home in a few hours and tomorrow I will be back in the office producing samples of fabric that will show up in your local quilt shop in a few months. I know when you see it you will want it as quickly as you can get some. By then we will be gearing up for spring and another set of inspiration on fabric. Until then take a look at our four new collections and start dreaming up ideas.

• Jolly Holiday
• Better Gnomes & Gardens
• Winter Menagerie
• Chickadee

~Leah

Giveaway for Fabric Store Owners

We’ve been busy, busy, busy getting ready for Quilt Market and tomorrow Jason, Leah, and Becca will be leaving for Houston. If you’re going to be at market, please stop by and say hi! We have four terrific new collections that we’re eager to show you.

To celebrate the fact that we are almost ready, and in the hopes that you’re as excited about market as we are, we’re having another drawing for owners of fabric stores!

In our drawing, three winners will each receive one Home to Roost quilt kit. I know I showed this same picture in the last post…that’s just how good it is! (It’s also a sign of how the blog got neglected last week while we focused on Quilt Market.)

Home to Roost Pattern

To enter the drawing, leave a comment on this post. Please include your store name in your comment! We will randomly select three winners from among the commenters. All comments received before noon, Pacific Time, on Monday, November 21 will be eligible (each store is limited to one entry).  Winners will be notified by email. (So please use an email address where you can be reached. Your email address won’t show up in your comment, and we won’t use your address for any other purpose.) Good luck!

(You can see the entire Home to Roost collection on our website.)

UPDATE: GIVEAWAY HAS NOW CLOSED. Thank you to all the commenters! The three winners will be announced on Monday, November 28.

~Wendy

Free Pattern: Home to Roost

We’ve just added another new PDF pattern to our Free Patterns page on our website:

Home to Roost Pattern

This one is tons of fun with whimsical animals in lively farmyard scenes. It’s a great pattern for beginning quilters, or for anyone in a time crunch who wants a fast and easy project. And when it’s finished, it’ll be perfect for kids…who wouldn’t want to take a nap on that quilt?!

(The quilt is 67-1/2″ x 79-1/2″ and features Heather Dupont’s Home to Roost collection. A second color option is included in the pattern.)

~Wendy

We Have Winners!

Thank you to all the store-owners who participated in our blog giveaway of Jason’s Legendary Basics collection. We love all the store owners and managers who help keep the quilting and sewing community strong. Thank you!

I am happy to report that we have just received our Legendary Basics air yardage and all the colors are gorgeous.

Legendary Basics by Jason Yenter

What was I saying? I’m distracted by all that color!

Right! The three winners will each receive a one-yard cut of each print in the collection. The winners were selected by the always entertaining random-number generator at random.org.

The Winners Are:

• Piecing It Together in Pittsburgh, PA (Johanna)
• Pine Tree Quilt Works in Romeo, MI (Mary)
• Alice In Stitches in Seattle, WA (Alice)

I’ve emailed the winners, so if you see your shop (and name) here, please go check your inbox!

~Wendy