Joel Dewberry at Houston International Quilt Market 2012

I know that the lighting on this picture is terrible. This is a shot of the original quilt made for Joel Dewberry for the Houston Quilt Market 2012. It was made by Barbie Mills and I took this picture when she presented it at our Salt Lake City Modern Quilt Guild Meeting before quilt market. She did a great job, and I think Joel's take on a chevron is a great use of this bold fabric. The slanted pieces are cut diagonally which makes it even more interesting and probably makes the fabric easier to work with. This pattern will be available for free soon. For better pictures of this, go to Barbie's blog and see her photos. They are much better than this.

Notting Hill in Turquoise color way at Fall Quilt Market 2012

This color way is only available in home dec weight or "cotton sateen" as Westminster calls it. The are from Joel's booth. On the rich is a stack of his brochures. He covered the boxes himself, and I sewed the hat from his Pieced Pinwheel Hat pattern. It is such a great, reversible hat. I highly recommend making it.

Navy Pockets Aplenty Diaper Bag

Of all of the lovely color ways that were represented in Joel's Quilt Market booth, the Navy color way was most admired, or so he says. This bag was made by Leigh. And it is just lovely.

Joel Dewberry's Pockets Aplenty Bag made in Cotton Sateen

 This bag was also made by Leigh.

Can you stand the pink and grey color way? It is so lovely. Again, a color way available only in heavy sateen fabric. The pink skirt and the yellow and aqua skirt in the background are voile. I actually made both skirts and the Pink and Grey Pockets Aplenty bag. What a pleasure it is to sew with such beautiful fabric. And it was a very cool feeling to know that I was the first one to ever sew with fabric from such a beautiful line.

I made this beautiful dress in Voile with the Red color way from Notting Hill. I also made the Hobo bag from another of Joel's older patterns. I didn't expect to love the red color way so much. The color is vibrant and beautifully contrasted by the blend of colors that surround it. That plaid is so well done. This photo shows my three favorite prints from the line: Plaid, Kaleidoscope, and Poppy. I love the fabric walls that Joel had printed with old London street maps as well as the fun subway signs that he designed and had printed to decorate his booth and highlight words that tie into the Notting Hill line.

The Westminster Fibres booth included this lovely quilt , dress (Vintage Flutter), and many lovely pillows. There was so much on display to highlight Joel's Notting Hill fabric line.

I sort of wanted to take off with those pretty pillows or at least take a little nap on them. I might have embarrassed my husband had I actually done that.

Anyway, I am super biased because Joel is not only my favorite designer but also a close personal friend. But I was super impressed by his booth at quilt market in Houston and recognized the enthusiasm in so many who took a look. Now go sew something with it. You won't regret it!

Fall 2012 International Quilt Market in Houston

It really is a treat to attend the International Quilt Market in Houston. The 2012 Fall quilt market was not a disappointment. It was filled with beautiful fabric and wonderful, creative people. I will have to break this into several posts because there was too much eye candy to put in one post all at once. 

Sadly, I forgot my SLR camera battery at home, so my pictures are all from my camera phone (which is super stinky) so sorry these pictures are a bit of a disappointment.

I think I will start with some of the wonderful designers from Westminster Fabrics. Westminster did a new booth at this market. It appears that they took a lesson from Riley Blake on how to make really good use of booth space, allowing walls for each designer within their space. This is great because spectators get a really good look at what each of their designers' new lines are like even if the designers don't actually have a booth at market.

Of course it is always a delight to talk to Amy Butler and to look closely at the beautiful projects that display her designs. Amy's newest line is Alchemy. I really love Alchemy much more than her past two lines, Cameo and Lark, though they both had their own gems. Amy is a kind and sincere person who always seems sincerely interested in getting to know me and any others who visit her booth.

This is an interesting quilt that was on display. It was very chunky and textured. 

The skirt with the circles in this photo is a velvety feel and would be great for a coat or a couch.

I think that this picture is the best show of how beautifully these fabrics work together. I love the rose print toward the front.

This is a quick peek at a quilt in Jennifer Pagnelli's section of the Westminster booth. It is as bright and floral as most of her lines. Pretty. 

Tula Pink is just lovely. What would a market blog post be without a mention of Tula? She is funny and cleaver and obviously super talented. I enjoyed my chat with her and really love her new line, which is so interesting and beautiful. The line is called Salt Water and it has a beautiful ocean motif, including octopus prints among other more mellow prints. The orange is my favorite color of them all, but I could embrace any of these with enthusiasm.

Here are some of the things in Tula's portion of the Westminster booth.

Tula Pink Salt Water Quilt from Fall Quilt Market 2012

Joel Dewberry Fabric on Modern Family

I am a big fan of Joel Dewberry's designs and I am just as big of a fan of the hilarious show, Modern Family. Each week I wait to see what fabric one of the gay characters, Cam, will have on the cuffs of his shirts. It adds to his flamboyance, and is such a great detail in showing Cam's personality. On the most recent Modern Family, the show started with Cam wearing not just flamboyant cuffs, but a whole shirt in one of my favorite Joel Dewberry prints from his Heirloom collations. And my husband was the one to spot it first. He has become pretty knowledgeable on fabric lines.

When I posted these pictures on instagram, designers started asking how they can get their fabric on his shirts. Some designers said that the manufacturing companies send the fabric into the costume departments in hopes that they will choose those fabrics for the shirts. Riley Blake did this, and they did use some of their fabric on his cuffs. But in the case of Joel Dewberry, he nor Westminster had any hand in this. A Michael Levine person (Michael Levine is a huge fabric outlet in the fabric district of Los Angeles) came through quilt market and told Joel that the costume designers come through their store and pick out fabric for Cam's shirts. And I think that is how this happened. 

Joel's fabric has also been featured on Cougartown. There was a whole bedroom set made out of one of his lines on that show. There was also a diaper bag on a daytime soap (not sure which one) and I saw an episode of Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood where Tori made a dress to wear in the hospital when she had her baby, Hattie. The whole ruffle top on it was made with a fabric from Aviary 2 in granite.