Tula Pink Trunk Show

Last Wednesday I attended the afternoon Tula Pink Trunk Show at The City Quilter, Manhattan.  Here's my piccies from the day and a few notes as we go along.

Explaining The Design Process

Tula's sent many colour samples for each of her fabric designs which she then has to narrow down for the final collection that will be manufactured - she loved the orange fabrics but orange wouldn't work commercially which always has to be part of the final decision.

The 'Full Moon Forest' design process - pencil sketch of half an image onto squared paper.  Only half an image is needed as the other side will be a reverse of it.  The design has to fit the fabric printing cylinders so it has an exact size to fit the cylinder options available as there can't be a gap or overlap in the pattern when the printing cylinder rotates.  That's why Tula sketches onto square paper - to ensure she stays to the correct size.  Once she's sketched her design in pencil she transfers it to the computer and then adds colour and then overlays the design detail onto the coloured copy.  The final copy at the bottom is the finished piece of fabric.  The colour samples along the bottom are from paint charts and attaching these to her design is the best way for Tula to ensure that the fabric manufacturers use exactly the colour she wants.  Each time a fabric has to be returned for a colour to be revised adds 6 weeks to the manufacturing process.

 Looking At The Fabrics

some archived and some current

 

 

Tula said that we were all quilters together and everything she'd brought with her was to be examined, held, and touched - we weren't to hold back.

 The voile was the revelation of the day - Tula suggested using it for a quilt backing or even for a whole quilt.  It is soooo soft and silky and it's smooth and cool to the touch - it would be heaven to sleep under.  The beauty is that all Tula's voiles are 100% cotton and, even though it so silky and lightweight, it sews just like quilter's cotton.

 The Original Design Pencil Sketches

Not the best photos as there's a lot of light reflecting on the images as they were inside plastic wallets but you get the idea :)

What's Coming Next?

SaltWater and also a new collection of ribbons!

Tula's Quilts

This is the first quilt that Tula ever made when she was 14.  She saw a Kaffe Fassett design and thought she could do that - without a pattern.  The size of the blocks kept changing as she altered everything and learnt more about quilting as she went along.  She wanted to show her rebellious, goth, teenage side so she hand embroidered skeletons on dolphins onto the finished quilt.

Each of these quilts was originally made to showcase Tula's fabrics at Quilt Market.  Deadlines are too tight to get new fabric lines through customs in time to make up the sample quilts but 1 yard of each fabric is allowed through without delay.  So ... Tula has made each of these quilts using only 1 yard of each fabric design.  There's never enough fabric to make the quilt backing so Tula has these oversized fabric panels made for each fabric theme and uses them as her 'quilt label'.

Tula makes 30-50 quilts each year and still has every quilt she's ever made.  She keeps them all in a climate controlled room in her home and thinks there's around 600.

Quilting Detail

All of Tula's quilts are quilted by Angela Walters of Quilting Is My Therapy.  Tula visits Angela every Monday (even at Christmas) to drop off and collect that week's quilts.

The Book Signing

love this pic of me with Tula and below is my signed copy of Quilts From The House Of Tula Pink

I have to say that Tula is a total delight, she's open, honest, friendly and very, very entertaining.  

Thank you Tula Pink for a very fun and inspiring Wednesday afternoon :)

PS: If you want to see more pics, I've 'shared' The City Quilter's photos of the day on my Facebook wall and you may want to check out Tula's new web store I♥TulaPink.

For details of other fabric, yarn, trim and notion stores that I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my sidebar :D

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

An Unexpected Trip to Mood

All fired up after the Tula Pink event at The City Quilter (detailed post with lots of piccies to follow), I headed off to Mood, Manhattan with Ivete from Rose Smoke.  Ivete was keen to pick up some fabric for a jacket she's making and I just tagged along because I'll go anywhere if there's fabric involved and sometimes even if there isn't!

So, long before Ivete found even the first item on her list, I'd fallen in love with a woollen plaid.  During the summer on a trip to Purl Soho daughter, F, had spotted Aqua La Femme Deco Vines Essex Linen by Melissa Crowley for Robert Kaufman.  There and then she decided that what a girl really needs to go off to university in England next Autumn is a new quilt - not just any quilt but a quilt made in this fabric and this quilt has to be lofty.  Deep joy!!!  I've never worked with lofty batting before but I picked up some tips from Kati at Kati's Quilting and Sewing as I know she used 2 layers of lofty batting in her log cabin quilt, and my nervousness is now confirmed - watch out shoulders you're in for a rough ride.  I didn't buy the fabric there and then - they didn't have anything that appealed to me for the backing and I wanted to mull it over, but it's been nagging me ever since because I knew she wanted it so much.  I went back to Purl Soho last weekend to buy the fabric regardless and they'd sold out - feel an internet search coming on!

Well when I walked into the wool section in Mood I spotted just the thing - I knew instantly that it was exactly the backing fabric that I needed, a fab pink plaid.  Off to have it cut, there was no price tag attached so I was sure to ask the price up front as, quite rightly, Mood say you have to buy fabric once cut.  As there was no tag the guy asked a colleague who confirmed $18/yard.  I'm busy contemplating how much I need for a whole quilt or whether a bed runner will do the trick ... I'll make a bed runner or throw and maybe a few cushions with the left overs, so I'll go with 3 yards ... "what exactly do you think this fabric is?" I ask, "wool" he replies, well I knew that but it feels pretty amazing for a wool plaid ... he cuts the piece and then he finds the price tag deep down inside the inner tube.  "F**k" he says, which really caught my attention, "this fabric's Betsey Johnson cashmere and it's $25/yard".  I stayed still and calm, pondering over the fact that Betsey Johnson makes fabric and knowing there was 3 yards of the stuff cut on the desk and Mood says once cut you have to buy.  He obviously wasn't best pleased at the dilemma on his hands and then he reluctantly said "I'll have to let you have it at the price I said".  I breathed a sigh of relief and did a quick mental calculation to confirm that I'd just saved $21 on what I thought was a bargain purchase anyway!

I've researched how to pre-shrink the wool before I make the quilt and found this easy method using just wet towels and the tumble dryer by Off The Cuff - (click the link and scroll down to 7 September for instructions).  I'll give it a go and let you know how I go on.

Guess I'd better get myself cracking with my internet search for Aqua La Femme before I end up with just the backing and no quilt top!

Christopher's Dress at Lord & Taylor

 

Daughter, F, loves the new wool plaid but is so much more impressed with my 'Mood' story of my face to face encounter with Fabio from Project Runway - well more of a face to neck tattoo encounter as he's a bit taller than me - it was one of those 'if I step to the left will you step to the right or step to the left as well?' moments.  Love his work but have to admit to rooting for Christopher Palu especially having seen his fab evening dress on display in Lord and Taylor's window on 5th Avenue. 

 And for anyone who might be wondering, given how this post started, Ivete got everything she needed for her jacket too - what a good day :)

PS: I've just watched this week's episode of Project Runway (the mums and babies episode) and daughter, F and I couldn't believe our eyes.  Fabio made the mum's dress from a fabric that I'm using to make a dress for F (should have made it this last summer but got carried away with my quilting!).  Just to prove that we chose it first I've taken a photo and included my Mood receipt - 30 March 2012 still it's good to know that we're 'on trend' but by the time I make the dress it'll be more like 'so last season'!!!

For details of other fabric, yarn, trim and notion stores that I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my sidebar :D

Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.

A Rock Inspired October Bee Block

I can't believe that my October Bee Block has arrived - where's this year gone?!

Bernadette is the October Queen Bee and her block inspiration is a lined landscape painting.  She's asked us to fussy cut the 2 striped fabrics into a pattern, geometric, wonky or whatever 12.5" block. 

For my inspiration I started going through holiday photos that I've taken of rocks - we have many as I studied rock formations a few years ago for my ceramic collection 'Earth's Abstraction'.  I settled on this image taken on a walk through Kentmere in the Lake District, England.  I then photoshoped it using a Coloured Pencil Artistic Filter which gave it the pink colour and made the surface planes more obvious.  I printed this out, outlined the shapes and then drew stripes over each rock plane to represent the striped fabrics.

I cut the initial pieces of fabric according to the lines I'd sketched on my image but quickly I started to move away from the image and add fabrics in the colour/direction that instinctively felt right and I also started to use the reverse of each fabric to create more depth by creating shade and shadow in the tones.

And here is the final block

This will certainly be a quilt to watch - I can't begin to imagine what the finished top will look like and I'm wondering how others will interpret the brief - if I'm honest I'm really quite nervous that this won't be in keeping with everyone else's blocks.  I'll keep you posted but for now I've posted the block to the NYC Mod Guild Blog.

And you can click this link to see all of my NYC Mod Quilt Guild Bee Blocks and Challenge Blocks/Quilts.