Freestyle Block of the Month - Shop Picks

Our Freestyle Block of the Month is just around the corner and as promised in a previous post, we're going to show you our picks for the project - yes from our very own stashes. 

Diane is first up.  If you read the newsletter, then this will sound familiar.  But she decided she wanted to do a blue and white quilt. She had some blues and whites in her stash, and initially picked out a blue and white French General print, but while looking through her stuff she rediscovered some wonderful Dutch Indigos she bought in the 90's.  They are 8" squares, and were pricey even by the standards of the time. She's adored these prints for years, but could never bear to cut them. She'd been saving them for the "right" quilt but questioned what that meant and whether or not she was only saving them to look at every few years but do nothing with. From there she tossed in some other prints from her stash that complemented the Indigos, and there it was - her palette was ready to go.

In case anyone is curious or concerned, when she cut into the first piece to make Block 1, the world did not end. Not even so much as a tremor.  She mused that as quilters we get kind of possessive of these special fabrics and then they sit and mature in our stashes but don't get made up into anything.  A great tip to pick up from her color selections is that maybe it is time to revisit and reimage some of your most precious pieces of fabric that, like her Indigos, were aging on the shelf waiting for the "right" quilt.  

Lauren had a different hurdle to get over than getting into the mindset to use prized pieces.  Whereas Diane had a pretty clear idea of what she wanted to do for the quilt...Lauren had no clue what she wanted to do.  She spent what is (probably) a silly amount of time thinking about it.  Should she use a fat quarter pack she'd been hoarding away?  Another scrap quilt?  Yet another "Falloween" themed thing?  Nope, nope, and nope.  She tried several times to find a color scheme, and kept coming up with bupkis. If you haven't read our previous post How to Get Over a Color Choice Rut, go give it a read because here's the proof in the pudding. She walked away from picking colors a few times as suggested.  But inspiration eventually hit in the form of finding inspiration in music.  

She was listening to a playlist while working on a different project, and the song "Green Man" came on. The song is about the Green Man and the changing of seasons, specifically the change from winter to spring.  How appropriate!   This made her think of foliage and the wide range of greens we see in the springtime as everything is leafing out. She went for everything in her stash that was leafy and green (much of which has punches of purple, go figure!). This time, a song playing in the background did the trick. 

Hopefully this helps give you some ideas with what to use in your own stash!  Let us know in the comments what you're thinking of using. 

2022 Trends

So we've talked some about what we (as in The Cotton Patch) have in store for 2022, but what about what what the quilting industry has in store for us as quilters and shops?

Let's start off with the Colors of the Year.  Both Pantone and Robert Kaufman put out Colors of the Year every year that really set the tone for trends in clothing and quilting:

Pantone's color this year is Veri Peri...Periwinkle.  It's such a lovely bluey purple, and as a random Fun Fact™, periwinkle is one of Diane's favorite colors.  It was the color of her bridesmaids dresses at her wedding!

Robert Kaufman is brining Cosmos, a lovely orchid-y purple.   

So if purple is your favorite color, you're in luck.  We're about to see lots of purple coming through in 2022 lines.  You know what else will still be hot?  Gnomes.  Gnomes are everywhere and you'll see them a lot especially in holiday prints - St. Patrick's Day to Halloween, to Christmas to Valentine's Day and plenty in between.  And as a side note, these aren't your traditional Garden Gnome style gnomes we think of most of the time - they're more in the Scandinavian "Tomte" style.  

Garden Gnome (L), tomte (R).  The tomtes are cute but I do prefer the classic garden gnomes.  

Tonal small prints are back.  Whimsy by P&B (in store now!) is a great example.  Blenders are reflecting the trends too.  More blender lines are incorporating popular textures (like marble) and metallics.  Metallics are making their way into more than just Christmas prints.  Metallic Studio by P&B (in store now!) is another great example, with more to come.  Speaking of holiday prints - pink is making a major comeback in holiday prints.  Looks for more vintage pink style in Christmas prints, and bright pops of pink for Halloween.  Halloween prints this year will have a little more sweetness.  Christmas will be either very modern, or very traditional with little middle ground.  

Wovens are a thing now, but these aren't your grandma's wovens - bigger scale plaids, brighter colors, and a lot of variety.  We'll do a post about this later too, but wovens are super versatile and you can use them in so many ways (and yes, combine them with other fabrics).  We have a lot of these great wovens in store now.  Modern is here to stay, and we're seeing it becomes more and more prevalent as it's more accepted by the "mainstream" quilting community than it was even a couple years ago.  Look for more lines with approachable modern aesthetic.

Greyed down farmhouse has been all the rage the last few years, but it's finally on the way out of fabrics. Wide backs have totally exploded and companies had noted the demand.  Greige good on those have vastly improved than in years past, and there is so much more variety.  but something new for wide backs is we will be seeing more statement style pieces in widebacks.  Looks for unique florals, very large prints, and more color range.  Animal prints - meaning, prints with animals on them versus their fur patterns - are coming back big time.  Domestic cats and dogs, wild big cats, and woodland creatures are going to be in a lot.  Even Tula Pink's Tiny Beasts line (coming in May, we will have it!) features racoons and other forest-y animals.  

We'll be seeing more sophisticated kid prints. The days of super saccharine baby prints are behind us at least for now, as is grey in kids lines.  Look for more brights there too.  Watercolor art in fabrics remains a major trend, especially for florals and seascape style prints.  Colors are vibrant, but soft.  Batiks have undergone some changes in 2022 lines too.  We'll still have a prevalence of traditional batiks, but there is a real movement toward more printed artwork style and again modern aesthetic.  

Something else we'll see is reprints of old fabric.  Some will be old prints in new colors, but many will be straight up reprints especially by noted designers.  For example, Tula Pink has Parisville being reprinted.  This is great if you missed some lines the first time around and had some regrets.  

And finally, digital prints are here to stay.  Most companies have starting putting out digital prints in some capacity, where others have gone nearly all digital.  Digital is definitely the way of the future - it's cheaper for companies to produce, and the detail in the prints is sharp.  It's a win-win there, and for those worried, they are colorfast.  We'll do a post about washing fabrics and fabric shrinkage later.  

What are you looking forward to seeing most this year?  Leave us a note in the comments.

News for 2022!

 Now that 2021 is in the rear view...

2021 in a nutshell, am I right

It's time to look ahead!

First off...starting January 1, 2022 our Saturday hours are changing from 10am-5pm to 10am-4pm.  These were our hours years ago, and we're going back to that schedule.  

Secondly, the It Takes a Village Block of the Month will start in February, not January.  Take your pick of our blue colorway ($155):

or you can choose your own adventure for $85 - get the background of your choice at the shop and then supplement with your stash, scraps, and precuts:

Come see the scrappy version live and in person on January 7th and 8th at 10:30.  Did I mention this pattern is a one of a kind exclusive for The Cotton Patch?  The ONLY way to get this pattern is to join the program! 

So what's next?

You will see more classes, and a lot of variety among them. Some will be small projects or make & takes, and others will be longer and more complex.  If you know our teacher, Cheryl, she is working on a new quilt to teach - and if you know her, you know it's going to be awesome and a lot of fun! Diane will be teaching curves in the near future too. Looks for more techniques and skill builders.  As always, we will try to keep the class costs down, but like everything costs are going up.  Speaking of which...

Fabric prices are rising  r a p i d l y  and unfortunately, the jumps are significant. 

Same, Luke. Hard same. 

We don't like it either. But here's the thing. When we think of fabric, generally we think about just the yardage. But there's more going into it than just the greige goods. Transportation costs are HUGE at the moment, and everything is going up - even things like packaging.  With all that considered, we will continue to strive to keep our prices as close to double wholesale plus shipping. It really kills us to see wholesale at $6+ per yard for regular cottons, but despite our whining, groaning, and gnashing of teeth, there's nothing we can do about it.  We tried.  On top of that, various fabric companies have established MSRP rules that shalt not be broken, we are bound to sell at that price. Don't worry, we'll address that ol' chestnut another day.

Despite the fabric cost increases, fabrics are still arriving at velocity, and we have some super cute stuff coming! More wide backs are on the way. Tula Pink and Kaffe Fassett lines will be showing up too, so that's new for 2022! We have some fabulous new batiks on the way.  As everyone knows, this year has been tough supply chain-wise (please refer to the picture at the top of this post), but hopefully we will be getting resupplied on basics - solids, thread, etc.

The pandemic has sure changed a lot - where we gather, how we work, and how we shop.  That being said, internet traffic is up for just about all businesses and we're no different.  We are looking forward to revamping our website to make it easier to navigate and more user friendly overall. Look for more on the blog and on Facebook - we'll be doing more videos and live feeds in 2022!  So if you don't follow us on Facebook today, now's a great time - click here: to get to our Facebook page.  If you don't have your own Facebook account don't worry, because our page is a public business page and visible even without an account (you just won't be able to Like/Comment/Share).  

You have already seen (and loved!) our Sew Simple 3-Yard bundles, but you'll be seeing more cut goods and kits coming in.  So if you've been missing pre-cuts and grab and go projects, you don't have to wait much longer!  You'll see more monthly programs as well. We also have a few great Block of the Week programs lined up through the end of 2022 - stay tuned for more. 

We hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year. We're excited for what's to come, and we hope you are too. 

Do you have something special you'd like to see us offer or carry in 2022?  Leave us a comment below.  

Backing Day is Friday, December 31st!

Here's a reminder from your friendly neighborhood Cotton Patch that Backing Day is this Friday, December 31st!  

If you're new here and don't know what Backing Day is...

Bring in your finished quilt tops (100% complete, no more borders to add, done) on the last day of the month and receive 25% off your backing of choice, even Clearance!

The usual rules apply:

• If the last day of the month falls on a Sunday when we're closed, then Backing Day is the day before (Saturday). 
• Discount valid on single-fabric backings only.  Sorry, this is not valid on several cuts of different fabrics for a pieced backing.  
  
• Sale prices not combinable with any other offer (this includes deals from Five Stars, redeeming points, and coupons)
• Sale prices good in-store only on the sale day and limited to stock on-hand. 

We can't wait to see what you've created - see you on the 31st!

The Principles of Art (in Quilting!) Part VI: Emphasis

Every time I hear about Emphasis in art, I immediately think of this scene from "A View from the Top:" 

Sure we're not talking about spoken language here, but it's still funny (to me).  Annnnnyway...

Emphasis is the focus of the piece which is achieved by arranging the other Elements and Principles of Art in such a way that the portion you've chosen is the first thing you eye goes to upon looking at the work. This is the thing you want viewers to pay the most attention to. It is the focal point. 

This art quilt is called "Tom" by Margaret Abrahamshe - she used color and quilting lines ot create Emphasis on the subject's face, which is just slightly off center in the quilt.  The eye is drawn into his face and gaze.  

Most commonly in quilting, we use contrast in size, shape, and color to create emphasis.  Think about the accent colors you use to pop and draw the eye into your quilts.  

This quilt uses yellow to emphacize the solid lines that create a broken woven texture in the quilt overall.  Your eye goes right to that yellow and sees that weave before it really registers all of the black and white prints in the background.  

This quilt emphacises the flower appliques

Backing Day is Tuesday, November 30th!

Here's a reminder from your friendly neighborhood Cotton Patch that Backing Day is this Tuesday, November 30th! 

If you're new here and don't know what Backing Day is...

Bring in your finished quilt tops (100% complete, no more borders to add, done) on the last day of the month and receive 25% off your backing of choice, even Clearance!

The usual rules apply:

• If the last day of the month falls on a Sunday when we're closed, then Backing Day is the day before (Saturday). 
• Discount valid on single-fabric backings only.  Sorry, this is not valid on several cuts of different fabrics for a pieced backing.  
  
• Sale prices not combinable with any other offer (this includes deals from Five Stars, redeeming points, and coupons)
• Sale prices good in-store only on the sale day and limited to stock on-hand. 

We can't wait to see what you've created - see you on the 30th!

The Principles of Art (in Quilting!) Part V: Pattern/Rhythm

For the Principles of Art you might see Pattern and Rhythm interchanges, but most often you'll see it defined as Pattern. This is the repetition of the Elements of Art we talked abut before, but with the intention of creating consistent intervals.  It goes hand in hand with Movement. Pattern and Rhythm guides the eye as the artist chooses, and if used in a particular way, can give the impression of Movement or depth. 

Pattern is prevalent in quilting, from the prints on a fabric and the placement of colors in a block, to the repetition of the blocks through a quilt.  We see it most in the fabrics we use and in how we repeat blocks.  Here's a few examples, some more literal than others: