Cinderberry Stitches

The story of Folk Tale - shut your eyes and see

It's time to shut your eyes and see.

This is the inspiration behind my second fabric collection Folk Tale, it has just debuted at quilt markets around the globe...or at least in Houston -USA, Yokohama - Japan, Melbourne, Australia.

Folk Tale is due to land in stores around the globe in Feb/March 2013....yes, I wish it was here now too but the best things in life are worth waiting for.

The colors in this collection are bright, happy, addictive.

You will find pops of tangerine, raspberry, teal, fern, greystone - which color will you fall for first?

Many times I am asked about the inspiration behind my sketches and designs, I guess it’s just my imagination, I shut my eyes and see.

I find I am looking at things differently with my two little ones and often see things through their eyes, they way I looked at things when I was a child – with wonder, excitement and awe.....anything is possible, who am I to question?

Designing Folk Tale was no exception hence the name of the fabric line, it’s a tale – a simple story in my imagination.

The elfin girls with long eye lashes are back again after so many fell in love with them in Woodland, this time they are walking through an aviary collecting bird cages and letting the little feathered folk free. 

The hexagon mosaic print reminds me of walking through a valley of hexagon flowers with scattered birds, both blissful & peaceful all at once.

The cuckoo clock symbolises the time, both how precious it is and how fast it moves in an ordinary and simple folk tale....much like regular life. 

oh deer! & the porcupine spot...

The wee animal folk, you ask? – porcupines and deer are the friends we meet on the journey, fall in love with them & your heart will sing forever.

Folk Tale is simply my journey of imagination.

Remember, shut your eyes & see.

 

Till then,

Natalie x

New pattern: Woodland Village

I have just arrived home from set up day at AQM so it is time to start sharing with you the new patterns ready to hit the market. Feel free to pass the word on to your local patchwork store.

I think it might be best to show you the new patterns over a series of three days while I am up in Melbourne at Quilt Market, that way you get to see the goodies the same time the stores attending do.  I have been in my own pattern writing world getting the new products ready for release so now I can finally share some more handmade goodness with you.

The first new design is called Woodland Village, I have been holding on to this pattern for a little while. It was created around the time I was designing my fabric line for Lecien and you can see where some of the inspiration for the fabric came from with my little 'shroom' village.

Woodland Village features fourteen small embroidery designs (some designs are repeated) and one large scale 'shroom' village though the middle of the quilt - as I type this I have begun stitching the blocks again so I can make the quilt using Woodland fabrics and show you two different colorways.

Here is a close up of a few little houses in the village centre block, with little pot plants on the window sill and flowers 'painted' over the door of each house.  I believe the lady birds love these little houses too.

Woodland Village is packaged with iron on transfers so you have all you need to go home and get started on your own version - no need to trace = perfect!

At the time what I thought was a moment of sheer madness, I decided to hand quilt with DMC perle cotton rather than send it off to my quilter.  Actually it turned out to be the best decision, very relaxing and the perfect size quilt to finish by hand at 50" x 44"

Pattern: Woodland Village

Includes: Iron on transfers

Fabric: Flower Sugar & Grandmothers Flower Garden / Lecien

Embroidery floss: COSMO

Quilting thread: DMC perle cotton

 

For any shop owners attending AQM (wholesale market) over the weekend please be sure to come and say hello I would love to meet you - my Cinderberry Stitches designs and Woodland fabric can be seen at both the Creative Abundance and Charles Parsons booths. 

Which reminds me, I must pack my camera tomorrow to snap photos of the booth display for you! (with a clean lens this time)

 

Till then,

Natalie x

Fall Quilt Market 2011

Market tip #1 - If you are going to take your camera, ensure the lens is clean and free of your childs finger prints before you begin snapping away.  There is nothing quite like a built in fuzz lens you don't know about until you get home.

Seriously though the pictures I have are not wonderful, the finger prints on the camera lens has effected the color & quality of the images. 

Some images have been taken with my iphone & others with my fingerprint filled camera so I will try and mix them up for you.  AQM is in about 3 weeks time so I will get a chance to take the photos again, this time with my good SLR camera (fingerprint free).

So here we go, this is Quilt Market through my eyes & blury camera....

Friday morning Helen and I made our way down to Market with a suitcase full of samples to get the Cinderberry Stitches "Woodland" display ready at the Lecien booth.  Initially it was just a temporary (rough) set up as the samples had to be removed again for schoolhouse later in the day - we snapped some pictures of the display so the set up second time would take less than half the time.

Samples were taken down and packed up for the Lecien schoolhouse session & off we set to room......

It was pretty much standing room only left in the Lecien schoolhouse as we each introduced our fabric lines, about that time I changed my name to Natalie Nervous.  After introductions and a few deep breaths I was sharing my story about the Woodland collection and showing some of my newest designs and samples.

Below is the first quilt I completed with my fabric, it's called Woodland Utopia and I love how the collection is so crisp and clean against the white borders and sashings.  You can find the design over at the Lecien USA website as a free pattern - it's fun, quick and very easy to make.

I wish I had close up shots from schoolhouse of my Lecien Sista's Brenda, Lynette, Rosalie and Sarah's new lines but I am afraid I didn't get the chance to snap away while up the front - this one is courtesy of Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey. (thanks Katy)

(Image source - I'm a Ginger Monkey)

Once schoolhouse was finished it was time to head back to the show floor and set up the Woodland display & balance on a chair for the second time - it all want back together like a puzzle.  Love it when that happens, like it was meant to be. 

Here is the floor plan, can you see the little red circle? - that was me.

My entire display (excluding the book shelf) came out of a suitcase and was held together with T-pins and fishing line, nothing exotic just a little Woodland magic.

So here I am below on the eve of quilt market - hours before Sample Spree with the booth display complete, wondering what everyone would think in the morning when market doors opened.

So here is the tour of my Woodland display - from pretty much every angle.

(Refer to my Market tip #1 - colors are not true to life)

There was a mushroom village scattered over the white bookcase and a set of owls watched over the display, I believe they enjoyed the view.

I stitched up a gorgeous 'Uptown Girl' reversible hooded jacket - designed by Toni Coward from Make it Perfect.  These jackets are a must have in Isabelle's wardrobe, in fact I can imagine it stitched in each colorway of the Woodland collection.

More mushroom houses lined the book shelves.

There are also a few new things you will not have seen before and I will talk more about them in future blog posts - I wonder if you can find them.

Look out for Sew Deer, Hedgehog Happy Hour and Hedgehog Happy-ness.

This quilt above was probably the most photographed and talked about quilt in my little Woodland display.  It's called Hedgehog Happy-ness and I can't wait to show off some better images over the next few weeks, yes it's new.

If you are wondering, they are indeed dozens & dozens (40) of hedgehog balloons being held by little elfin girls = Happy-ness

These 'Slumber Party Jammies' are again designed by Toni Coward from Make It Perfect.  Indeed my daughter was happy to see these come home from Market and can't wait to sleep in her favorite pink pair of jammies.  They were hung on a make shift clothesline with Australian made pegs.

The lovely Pam Kitty Morning made a gorgeous quilt for the booth called Sugar Shop using a combination of Lecien basics (red & white spots) and Woodland which I adore, thank you PKM, it was just perfect!

Here I am with Nireko and Brenda toward the end of Market - I miss these two already, they are the sweetest ladies.

So that's all for now (let's call it part one).

Fingers crossed there will be more images of the booth popping up here and there on 'Market re-cap' posts in blogville.  With better, clearer and true to life photographs......please, if you have any shots feel free to email them to me!

In the mean time I am going to clean my camera lens and make sure this does not happen a second time, more market fun to show you next time.

Till then,

Natalie x