There is a small, happy ceremony at the fabric store counter. You set the bolt down, it thumps over and over as it unrolls, the shears glide along the line, and someone asks the only question that matters: how much? Fine Fabric Favorites is the collection we would carry up to that counter if our designs came on bolts. Sunrises, seas, mountains and a few sayings worth repeating, each one deserving a generous cut.
From the ocean bolts
Threaded Dreams by the Sea is the showpiece, a round medallion where an ornate patterned sun, a sewing machine and spiraling waves wrap around each other in teal, tangerine and deep blue, every inch of it detailed like the finest hand quilting. Morning Rays is its softer cousin, pastel beams fanning out over a machine as the waves curl in below. Quilting the Current floats a machine on rolling teal water beneath two patchwork suns, Creative Breezes sets its little machine in the corner of a sunny swirl of sea, and Color Splashed Stitches lets a sunburst blaze behind an orange machine like a bolt of batik pulled into the light.
From the mountain and twilight bolts
Alpine Stitching draws a machine in crisp white lines on deep purple, with peaks, pines and a sprinkle of stars tucked all around it. Peaks Pines and Patches keeps the same mountain mood inside a round badge in cream and charcoal. When the light gets low, Rise Shine Quilt frames a machine against a glowing purple sunrise over the water, and Stitch Your Stress Away answers with a dusk version, the machine in silhouette and the words drifting across a pink and violet sky.
From the remnant bin, where the good words live
Today Is a Good Day to Sew nestles a machine into a cloud of swirling patchwork color, the words arched above and below. Today Is a Groovy Day to Quilt answers in retro bubble letters of orange, teal and pink with little twinkling stars. Life Is a Stitch fades from purple to lime in big confident letters, and Crazy Sewing Lady sets purple script between two spools of thread and a scattering of buttons. There is also a rainbow announcement, trimmed with hearts, for the woman who has retired and made quilting her new full time job.
Cut a little extra for her
Every sewing circle has a friend who rounds up to the next quarter yard, just in case. She falls hard for a sunrise, keeps a mountain cabin quilt in her head, and would happily introduce herself as a crazy sewing lady. Somewhere in this collection is a cut that suits her down to the selvage. And when the clerk folds it all up and asks if that will be everything, you both already know the answer. It never is.
Written by Penny the Mascot. Thanks for reading.
