Kaffe Fassett produces at least one book a year relating to the quilting industry. Many of the are influenced by where he has traveled recently, event he attends, nature, etc. I would love to hear from all you lovers of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, what is your favorite quilt that you have made designed by him? I guess I would even love to see other designs that you have made from his fabrics. I have many favorites, what are yours?
Hope to hear from you!
Quilt Market was just held in Kansas City over the past weekend and it is always exciting to see what is new and what we want to present to our customers. I did have a little preview from Westminster just prior to market of a new book by Kaffe Fassett to be previewed to the public. It is called Kaffe Quilts Again.
It is actually a book of the most popular patterns by Kaffe however the colors and fabrics have been updated to what he is designing now. I have chosen a couple of quilts that I will make or have made, that are fun and also a bit challenging which we need at times to grow in our skills. I have not been given a release date yet but I am showing you the cover. It will cost the same as always, $24.99. I will let you know when it available.
We’ll talk again soon!!
This is what a shot cotton looks like when you unravel…you can see that when the dark thread is pulled you are left with the fringe being a lighter color. Pretty cool
I have been in the quilting business for more years then I care to remember and I have carried Kaffe Fassets fabrics since he first started making fabric. In all those years I have been asked many times why are his solid fabrics called “Shot Cottons”.
My best answer is: All of the shot cottons are woven with the “warp” being one color and the “weft” is another color. If you unravel one of the colors you will how one color thread will unravel leaving the fringe a different vibrant color. This fabulous technique results in the fabric having the beautiful sheen and a glimmer…thus a “shot” of color
Why is the fabric so loosely woven? The process of “weaving” the fabric causes it to have a looser weave and result in the fabric seeming as thought it’s really light weight. The threads for this fabric is also dyed in small amounts which will create some variation in color from one bolt to another. This is part of the beauty of the fabric, just like the beauty in hand dyed fabrics.
This is what I have found to be the best way to handle “shot cottons” first you need to spritz the fabric with water and then throw it in a hot dryer. This will shrink the fabric thus causing the threads to tighten. Then you should iron the fabric using a light starch…I prefer “Best Press” by Mary Ellen and you can find it at most quilt stores or Hancock Fabrics. All of the shot cottons are available at our website www.the-sampler.com
Greetings everyone,
It has been one crazy weekend, to say the least. I thought I was going to have a weekend to do nothing but cut fabric for kits…however, my grandson, Nick Mattson plays for University of North Dakota and they played in the hockey regional playoffs this past weekend. Boy, it was one exciting weekend. I am sitting down trying to fold fabric and watch the UND game against Western Michigan on Friday night…needless to say I didn’t get much done. The game was so exciting and UND beat Western Michigan 3 – 1. I was such a happy grandparent. On Saturday we were up against our number 1 rival…University of Minnesota. North Dakota played their hearts out but, the end resulted in a loss for our boys 5 – 2. We are a young team, so there is always next year. I am so proud that they went as far as they did.
Now it’s back to the business of checking in fabric and cutting and folding.
Please make sure to check out our website for our new “Block of the Month”…below is a mock up of the quilt.
See you over at www.the-sampler.com
We have been trying to get our blog up and running for around 3 months. I’m not sure exactly what we are doing wrong, but I give huge props to all of you bloggers that have amazing blog sites. Maybe some day we will be there with you.
So much is going on at “the-sampler.com”, we are cutting fabric for the Paducah show in April along with keeping up with our day to day sales and to top things off….MORE FABRIC DAILY. My UPS man loves me!!
I will try to get some photos up this week, so that you can all see what is going on at “the-sampler.com”.
