Springtime means Quilt Market time! This year the spring Quilt Market will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have never been the SLC and am looking forward to seeing it--I've been told it's beautiful.

This Market I will be showing my newest fabric collection Tapestry for Art Gallery Fabrics.

Tapestry weaves together an eclectic mix of multicultural-inspired motifs, combining traditional designs with modern graphic brushstrokes in soft, earthy tones.

Summer Garden Colorway

Winter Garden Colorway

I love designing new collections and creating a story around what I am designing. The story helps me keep focused and makes for a more cohesive group of fabrics. I don't like matchy matchy but the prints need to make sense and compliment each other--almost as if one were pulling fabrics from their stash to make a quilt. I like to think my collections have a curated look to them.

The story for this collection started with the cat print. Catalyst as my print is called made me think of a cat sunning itself on a Persian rug or out in a sunny courtyard. It was as simple as that that started the thought process behind Tapestry. Here are a few behind the scene looks at the inspiration for some of the prints.

Vintage photo of movie star Clara Bow 1920s

The Tracery pattern was inspired by the beach ball in this 1920s photo of Clara Bow. I thought this would be a fun blender type print and the way my pattern turned out as radiating hexagons it reminded me of ripples in a pond.

I have a fascination with African fabrics and created my Mudcloth print from the various graphic imagery used in African textiles.

Tree of Life on Mata ni Pachedi, printed cloth offering to the mother goddess http://eyeburfi2.tumblr.com/page/16

The Tree of Life pattern is used in many cultures and was the perfect motif to add to my garden of prints. I love woodblock printing so my print Eternal was created to simulate the woodblock printing technique. Complete with birds, my print has a light airiness to it and great left whole cloth or cut up in patchwork.

The print Rosewood was also created to look like a woodblock print and another nod to handcrafted global-inspired artistry.

Over the next several weeks I will be busy sewing quilts and other samples for my booth. I have two fabulous makers helping me this time. Heidi Staples of Fabric Mutt is making bags for my booth and Alexis Wright of My Sweet Sunshine Studio is making children's clothing from my new collection. Here's a tiny peek into some of the quilts I have been sewing.

Good news for all of you waiting for me to republish my Orange Peel Table Runner project. I will be remaking the runner with my new Tapestry fabrics and rewriting the instructions to update this super popular free project. This runner was the first pattern I ever wrote and published on this blog when I first started in September of 2010. I cleaned house and pulled many of my old projects because I have changed formats and let's be honest--improved considerably since those first early days! I am hoping next month to have that project available again for free downloading.

Art Gallery Fabrics has designed some fun graphics to share on your social media feeds. Use Either or both of these "I Want Tapestry" buttons to let your favorite quilt shop know you'd like them to stock the collection in their store! xxxx