These are exciting times for crafters and designers, especially when it comes to textiles and print. With the emergence of sites like Spoonflower and the even newer Fabric on Demand, designing and working with your own fabrics is becoming more and more achieveable. Which in turn is leading to a wonderful wealth of new independant textile designers, selling beautiful, original prints through their websites andof course Etsy.
Two of my favourite independant designers are Cath and Kirsten of Prints Charming, who spend their time screen printing the most amazing designs on to fabric and then making beautiful quilts, clothes and accessories out of them. And if you're lucky enough to live near their Annandale studio in Australia, you can not only experience their work first hand but also take one of their classes and have the pleasure of designing, printing and sewing with your very own fabrics.
Of course Cath and Kirsten don't only print their own fabrics, as they made the cross over in to the mass market a couple of years ago and through Marcus Bros have recently launched their latest collection of beautiful fabrics called Rainbow Garden. Which means that if like me, you aren't able to pop over to Autralia to take a lesson (oh how I wish!!!), you can still have the pleasure of enjoying their wonderful designs and using some of their super soft cotton poplin.
As Cath told me, Rainbow Garden "was conceived through us as children of 70's mothers, who made amazing kaftans and always read us Dr. Seuss. It has that fun fresh feel and is again printed on the soft polished poplin"
I was extremely excited when Cath and Kirsten sent me samples of Rainbow Garden and am absolutely in love with it all. It's great to see their Starburst design available in even more colourways as well as the hugely popular Bubble print. But it's also great to see that they've once again tapped in to the need for modern, cool boys fabrics with their Trees and Cars print.
Another definite favourite is Baby Paisley. I've used the taupe colourway to line a new purse and love it combined with the chartreuse laminated cotton that I chose for the outer (I'm going to come back with details about the purse properly another day).
The great thing about Prints Charming fabric is that the softness means that it's perfect for clothing as well as quilting which is why a large number of Bella's dresses and quilts have been made using previous collections. In fact, the first dress that I made for Lily was made using Prints Charming fabric because I knew it was perfect for a new born. It really is softer than any other cotton I use.
But you don't have to take my word for it, because I'm going to be giving away the fat quarter packs below, starting with the one on the left which includes Baby Paisley in taupe.
So if you would like the chance to win a pack of three fat quarters (each pack has three fat quarters in it) then all you have to do is leave me a comment, telling me how much you'd like to get your mitts on it. I'll be leaving the comments open until the end of the week, when I'll use the random number generator to pick the winner.
And don't worry, I'll be giving away the other packs too as well as giving you more info where you can buy yardage from - just watch this space!
