Previews for 2010: the New Year's fabric

So, knowing about the box of summer 2009, here's the rest.  A little over a year ago, Jeff and I flew out to Hawaii to visit Brad and Alice, who were living outside of Hilo, Hawaii at the time.  While we were there, Alice took me to Dragon Mama, a futon shop in Hilo that also carried a gorgeous array of fabric for sewing and quilting. I'd known about the store ahead of time and had made a point to browse through the fabric shops in Huntsville and Atlanta to know what I had access to locally. I wanted to be able to recognize fabric I couldn't get at home when I saw it.

The answer?  'Everything they carried.'

When I found out recently that Brad and Alice were about to move back home to Vancouver, I asked Alice if she'd be willing to make one last shopping run for me. I sent them money via paypal, asked her to use it to buy fabric and ship it, and to keep some for herself.

Half of the fabrics Alice picked up for me at Dragon Mama in Hilo, Hawaii. Hooray for Japanese and Chinese fabrics you can't easily find on the mainland! See the entry on my site: domesticat.net/2010/01/previews-2010-new-years-fabricHawaii fabric, part 1 of 2
 by domesticat.
['Hawaii fabric, part 1 of 2']

Half of the fabrics Alice picked up for me at Dragon Mama in Hilo, Hawaii. Hooray for Japanese and Chinese fabrics you can't easily find on the mainland! See the entry on my site: domesticat.net/2010/01/previews-2010-new-years-fabricHawaii fabric, part 2 of 2
 by domesticat.
['Hawaii fabric, part 2 of 2']

These arrived on my doorstep this week. I celebrated because I only had one of these fabrics -- the pink print with tiny birds in photo #2 -- and it was a fabric I'd liked, used heavily, and was sorry to see the end of.  Fate seems to have decided to put it in my hands yet again.

I love many of the fabrics Dragon Mama sells. They are not the Stereotypical Asian Fabric you often see, and it's been fun to make contact with Chinese and Japanese speakers to confirm that these fabrics do indeed carry meaningful, coherent messages. I've enjoyed working with the fabrics for the past year, and it seemed worth incurring some up-front cost to get access to a little more before I lost easy access.  It temporarily pads the stash, but I'll use the fabric, and if I hadn't bought it, I'd regret it eight, nine, ten months from now.

Jacob's Christmas fabric

When Jacob showed up for New Year's, he brought a present.  Raise your hand if you don't see this coming.

Jacob asked if he could bring me some fabric when he visited for New Year's 2009/2010, and asked what I was like. I suggested bringing OCP** fabric, and left the exact execution up to him. What he found were fat quarters of fabrics all relating to food. I joked, 'I should sew these all together and call it 'Eat This Quilt.'' I think the name may stick. See the entry on my site: domesticat.net/2010/01/previews-2010-box-summer-2009Eat this quilt!
 by domesticat.
['Eat this quilt!']

In for a penny, in for a pound

So, of course, while he was visiting, Patches and Stitches had their year-end sale. By the point I'd admitted defeat and acknowledged that I was making my fabric purchases for the year. I said, "Wanna go?" and he said "Sure!" So I gave him carte blanche -- within reason -- and he picked out fabrics he thought suited me well.

While Jacob was here for New Year's weekend 2009/2010, we took advantage of a sale at Patches and Stitches. I gave him carte blanche, and asked him to pick fabrics he liked. These are his choices. See the entry on my site: domesticat.net/2010/01/previews-2010-new-years-fabricNew Year's shopping
 by domesticat.
['New Year's shopping']

Clearly, I need to get to work.

all tags: 
hawaii
quilts
fabric

Comments

On , jhugart said...

Hard to see in this view, but there are two fabrics before the green in the first row: one is a sort of batik, the other is a kind of chocolate-colored pattern of leaves, I think.

Underneath the yellow, but above the packet of blues in the lower-right corner, are two rolled-up fabrics. One is purple with a kind of gold striping; the other is a beige with some butterflies on it.

The rusty splotches with the visible white border next to the packet of blues is a pattern I refer to as the "Volcanoes of Mars."

The red batik underneath that, with the gold, is two-sided -- the other side lacks the gold but otherwise has the same batik pattern. I wonder if Amy will use that feature to any effect.

The sort of wavy, aqua fabric between the two blues in the top row caught my eye because it reminded me of the wavy paint patterns used to decorate the end papers of books once upon a time, which seemed appropriate for a woman who works in a library and enjoys reading.

The dark blue fabric adjacent to the yellow looks like you are looking through glass (I think the official name is some kind of prism). The funny part is Amy had that fabric as a scrap at home, but in a different color.

I have to say that picking out fabric like this is probably more fun than selecting truffles to enjoy. There's a large variety, and you can convey different emotions and senses (like logic and rationality from something geometric, or burning intensity from a red, or playfulness with a whimsical novelty print, etc.). Having seen the things Amy does with fabric, I find it fabulously creative and can't resist feeding that side of her. I can't wait to see where some of these end up!

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I'm looking forward to the beginner series that Melanie will be holding as I think many people are interested in sewing, but don't know where to begin. Also, starting with smaller projects (with some fine guidance from Melanie) could give people the confidence they need to work on more projects themselves and bigger ones too!eating for energy review