As one would expect, Quilt Market booths were draped with colorful, striking quilts—examples and inspiration for creating with fabric manufacturers' upcoming fabric collections.
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| Painted Ladies quilt (center) featuring Street Art batiks from Banyan Batiks. |
I attended two schoolhouse presentations by Banyan Batiks. Designer, Tiffany Hayes [Needle in a Hayes Stack], talked about her upcoming Sazerac batik line for Banyan Batiks. The collection was inspired by the era of the Speakeasy and is portrayed in sultry, rich earthy colors with spicy citrus-toned accents.
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| Tiffany Hayes talking about her Sazerac batik collection [Banyan Batiks]. |
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| Banyan Batik quilt at the schoolhouse session at Quilt Market. |
Karen Gibbs from Banyan Batiks talked about the batiking process and passed around an example of the hand-crafted tjap [pronounced "chop"] that is used to stamp and create the designs and motifs on the fabric.
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| A tjap used in making batik fabrics. |
Technique Reboot!
Classic patchwork techniques and quilt blocks are just as fun and popular now as they ever were! Diamond Textiles featured its textured cotton embossed collection with this one-block Carpenters Star quilt. The cotton embossed fabrics are created with a resist process—much like the process for making batiks.
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| One block Carpenters Star quilt with Cotton Embossed [Diamond Textiles]. |
The Superior Threads booth featured Leesa Chandler's Melba fabric line using the classic Stack N Whack (kaleidoscope) technique. The Melba collection [from Australia-based fabric company, The Textile Pantry] also has a teal/silver colorway that is just as striking in the Stack N Whack quilt.
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| The Melba fabric collection [The Textile Pantry] is stunning in the stack n whack quilt. |
Northcott Fabrics is pushing the traditional attic windows technique to new levels with its upcoming collection, The View from Here. What's the view you'd like to see out your window?
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| The View from Here from Northcott Fabrics. |
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| The View from Here fabric collection |
The Log Cabin goes Uptown
M&S Textiles Australia brought a contemporary twist to the traditional log cabin quilt. A mix of colorful aboriginal prints paired with a light fabric offers areas in this on-point log cabin setting for fun machine quilting. In the classic log cabin patchwork style, it's all about the placement of the lights and darks!
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| Log Cabin quilt in the M&S Textiles booth at Houston Quilt Market. |
The big block Durango pattern [Villa Rosa Designs] offers easy piecing for this log cabin quilt. It's a great pattern to show off a variety of large scale fabrics like these aboriginal prints.
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| Durango [Villa Rosa Designs] quilt in the M&S Textiles booth, Houston Quilt Market. |
Whether you're a cat or dog lover, this clowder of "calico" cats is a cute way to show off the Australian aboriginal fabric designs. The Cat City pattern [Villa Rosa Designs] is a fat quarter friendly pattern.
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| Cat City quilt [Villa Rosa Designs] using Australian aboriginal prints from M&S Textiles Australia. |
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| Log cabin quilt in the Primitive Collection from Batik Textiles. |
We never tire of these classic blocks! They stand the test of time because they are so versatile.
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| Primitive batiks at Houston Quilt Market. |
New Techniques
MJ Kinman's booth showcased her stunning gemstone quilts. MJ has trained a team of Gem Affiliates from across the USA and Canada in her unique piecing technique.
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| MJ Kinman's Gemstone booth at Quilt Market. |
Northcott Fabrics is bringing her gemstone designs to the quilting community with fabric panels and jewel-toned coordinates in its Jewel Box collection. Now quilters can achieve gemstone designs in multiple ways.
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| MJ Kinman's booth at Houston Quilt Market |
Ask your local quilt shop [YLQS] about these fabrics and any classes they will offer to help and inspire you in your quiltmaking endeavors. YLQS is your source for what's coming in the quilting world.
