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Ohhh Voile. You’re Such a Pretty Girl.

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VOILE-La! Another Substrate To Add To Your Repertoire.

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OMG! Have you seen the lil’ Boston Terriers in voile? Can you get any cuter than this?  It’s ridiculously amazing what Japanese manufacturer Kokka has come up with in this sweet new design.    I’m so curious about who is going to make a dress from these teeny pups! Or who is going to sew a set of infinity scarves to give as presents to their friends?  Who is going to start a Boston Terrier gang?!  Who wants pajama pants in grapefruit colored terriers?  All I know is that it’s begging to be made into something great.

100% cotton and 100% cute, this voile fabric is soft, sturdy, and waiting for its forever home. 

You’ve seen Rashida Coleman-Hale’s Koi voile, right?

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The Way of the Flowers in Jewel.  Organic cotton voile. Beauty.

What is this voile, you say?  Voile a lightweight fabric that has sheer qualities to it.  Because of its lightweight nature, voile is best used in situations where it can shine, move, and drape like dresses, curtains, or scarves.   Having said this, a voile quilt is not out of the question.  I’ve witnessed the beauty of a voile quilt with wool batting.  Luxurious.  Let us not be afraid to mix substrates when constructing new projects.  Add another tool to toolbox, kids.  These lightweight cottons will inspire. (Don’t forget about the hand drawn kitties in voile, too.)

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De-Stash Bash :: Sewing for a Cause!!

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It’s time to DE-STASH! And let’s give to our community while we’re at it.  Crimson Tate is partnering with our dear friend and fabric rep Laurie Voggenthaler to present DE-STASH BASH.  The gang of Crimson Tate and Laurie have cut through our years of stash building and assembled kits to create pillowcases for members of our own community at the Wheeler Mission Center for Women and Children. 

How can you get involved?  Here are the deets:

  • WHO: You and all your sewy pals are encouraged to participate.
  • WHAT: Sewing pillowcases to be donated to the Wheeler Mission Center for Women and Children.
  • HOW: Come to Crimson Tate and make a $12 donation to Wheeler Mission CWC to receive a pillowcase kit.  Each kit includes three coordinating fabrics and a pillowcase pattern. OR Use fabrics from your own stash and  make a suggested donation of $12 when dropping off the pillowcase.
  • WHEN: Return your completed pillowcase donation to Crimson Tate by Tuesday, October 1st.
  • NOW WHAT: Then, join us Friday evening October 4 to celebrate your generosity.

First Friday in October, Crimson Tate will feature

  1. Your cutie-tootie pillowcases lining the cultural trail (weather permitting).
  2. A very VERY important chili cook-off competition between me (Heather) and my sister Tana.  We need the public to decide once and for all WHO MAKES THE BETTER CHILI?!
  3. Beer.  Beer. Beer. YESSSS!!!
  4. Celebrate on Mass Ave with Harvest of the Arts and other retailers and restaurants featuring local artists.
  • WHY: Our dear friend Laurie Voggenthaler came to us with an idea of how she could clear out leftovers in her stash AND make a difference.  100% of your donation goes to the Wheeler Mission Center for Women and Children.  What a lovely way to touch lives as we head toward the holiday season.  And how wonderful that we can hand them not only a generous stack of pillowcases but also cash to support existing programs.  This is gonna be good.

Get down here and gather-up some stash (or get to digging through your own)! And get to sewing.  We’re excited to see what you will create.

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Is that Liberty of London Lifestyle cotton in that kit?! Why yes it is.  We’re not holding back the good stuff in the kits we’ve created!!

Hello Friend. Hello Double Gauze.

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Have you met double gauze fabric yet?  Let me introduce you.Image

Japanese artist Naomi Ito has designed a luscious line of fabrics using the name Nani Iro.  What you see here is a sub straight of 100% cotton called double gauze.  Double gauze is just that, two layers of gauze that are intermittently woven together on the loom creating a light, lofty essence to the drape of the fabric.  Image

Gauze is more loosely woven therefore breathes easily.  One layer of gauze, however, is not enough for most of us to construct a dress unless we’re interested in creating a scene.  The Nani Iro double gauze is the perfect solution for a lightweight garment that has a little bit of hang and movement.  It’s super soft and buttery when sewn.  You’ll want your world to made from this magic fabric. Image

In the store we have a great example of a Washi Dress made from double gauze.  Many of you have witnessed it when you’ve visited.  Of course, I can’t find a photo of it right now but will amend my post once I have one to show you.  It’s fabulous.  And it’s time to start making some simple clothes.  I know what you’re thinking “I’m a quilter.  I’m not a garment sewer.”

 

The truth is, with simple patterns like the Washi Dress or the Staple Dress, you don’t need a lot of experience in garment construction to give it a go and have success.  It’s time, yo.  It’s time.Image

Karen LePage is COMING HERE TONIGHT!!!

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Tonight at Crimson Tate we welcome KAREN LEPAGE 6-8 PM!!  

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The author of Sewing for Boys is hanging out tonight at Crimson Tate, giggling, sewing, answering questions, and have a jolly good time! We hope you’ll join us TONIGHT and meet one of the dearest people we know.

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Get down here and giggle with our girl @onegirlcircus !! We love her!!!

 

BIG BIRTHDAY SALE @ CRIMSONTATE!

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We’re TWO Years Old!

 

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Holy holy!  We’re two years old.  Can you imagine?  It’s such an exciting time.  Do you remember the first month we were open? We started with 20 bolts of fabric, two book cases, and a song and dance saying “it’s only gonna get better!!” And here we are two years later, nearly 1000 bolts of fabric and an AMAZING webstore.  Still today, we say “it’s only gonna get better!!”

Here’s a photo of our space three months after we opened.

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But this time, it isn’t just me that’s saying it.  

The past two years wouldn’t have been possible with out my faithful sidekicks David and Melissa.  Nor without the help in transporting of all the diet cokes random strangers will bring or the kindness of my parents, Jack and Cathy, our AMAZING IT GUY who overwhelms and surprises me often, my deary-lou Jamie who makes dinner most nights and has adjusted to eating that dinner at 9:30 PM, our KFC & DJ for their consistency in working toward our vision, our dear friends at Silver in the City, plus the countless others who play with us on Mass Ave. Obviously, the list can go on and on.

 

Get down to 845 Massachusetts Avenue and celebrate!! We’re open SEVEN DAYS A WEEK!!   If you can’t make it down, you can now shop 24 hours a day at crimsontate.com.  Wooowee!!

 

Thank you as always for the comraderie and friendship.

Tell your friends! Tell your neighbors!  It’s time to CELEBRATE!

Lots of XXXOOO,

Heather + the gang

 

What’s on sale?! Liberty of London, Echino, Erin McMorris, Parson Gray, Birch Organic, Monaluna Organic, Lotta Jansdotter, Denyse Schmidt, Anna Maria Horner, RJR Solids, Melody Miller, Amy Butler, Carrie Bloomston, Heather Ross ———-> oh wait!  The ENTIRE STORE is on sale!!!!

 

USING THE CODES:

At the crimsontate.com checkout, you’ll be asked to enter a discount code.  Only one of the codes (happybirthdayct or newsies) will work.  You’ll need to decide which code is appropriate for your cart.  Everything in the store is 25% off with the code happybirthdayct except for the newest collections from Heather Ross, Amy Butler, and Carrie Bloomston (Such Designs).

If you want to use both codes, you’ll need to have two separate transactions in order to benefit from both codes, just make sure you separate the items.  Shop often.  We don’t mind.  But unfortunately, we can’t apply both codes to one cart.  We won’t be able to go back and manually change that code for you.  Sorry!  So filler up TWICE! Or three times, for good measure.

IN STORE PICK-UP:

We super love that you’ve chosen in-store pick-up!  Please give us 24 hours to pull your fabrics, notions, and goodies.  We look forward to seeing you in 24 hours Downtown Indianapolis.  By then, we’ll have your goods ready to go.  If you won’t be able to make it downtown for over a week, let us know so we can keep your goods organized and not front and center.  We’d rather not shuffle ’em around too much.  Give us an estimate of when you’ll be in and we’ll bring your purchases out from their secret hiding place.  I mean, they’re precious, right?!
 

Quilt CAMP!! Quilt Camp!! A boom-chicka-boom!!

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Holy CATS!  I cannot tell you how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE camp in all of its varieties.  Everyone should be a camper and then when you’re too old to be a camper, you need to be a camp counselor and when you’re too old to be a camp counselor, you need to send your kids to camp.  And when you have the opportunity, you need to go to QUILT CAMP!  Sewing and camping combined?!  YESSSSSSSS!!!!!  Camp Tecumseh YMCA in Brookston, Indiana hosts an adult quilt camp six or seven times a year and in fact is the very place that I learned to quilt along side of my mother a few moons ago.  In my twenties, I was a camp counselor, adventure trip leader, and outdoor educator at Camp T.  Actually, some campers and staffers don’t know my real name, they know me by my camp name — Heli.  Heliotrope was my camping pseudonym.

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Crimson Tate :: Modern Quilter was honored to be the 24-hour camp store at this July’s UFO — UnFinished Object camp.  Historically the July camp is without distraction of organized projects, classes, or even camp store but the Quilt Queen Emeritus Beth Wright was recently in the store Downtown Indianapolis and decided it was time to have Crimson Tate man the camp store and teach a class on Modern Quilting.

Here’s a look in at the pop-up shop we constructed for the five day quilt camp.  You can shop the camp quilt store 24 hours a day.  It’s what we all dream of!  We took the new Amy Butler Stash Belle collection with us knowing this gang would love to have first dibs on Amy’s newest line.

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We spent time sewing, chatting, eating, hiking around camp, and making new friends.  A hayride resulted in a lil’ jaunt across the suspension bridge over Richard G. Marsh lake.

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It was such a great few days helping my friend Andrea make her FIRST QUILT EVER!!! 

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Right? She’s a rockstar.  I love that she jumped into the Hexy Sexy Love quilt by Amy Butler using Denyse Schmidt’s Shelburne Falls fabrics!  SO GOOD!!!!  Here she is with her prize from the week.

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And of course, our David was a charmer and a champion sewer.  He sewed together the back of a GINORMOUS quilt and matched the pattern perfectly, like he does.

ImageHanging out at camp reminded me of so many great memories from pulling pranks on other cabins, sneaking out at night to go on a pizza run, finding life-long friends, and being thoroughly exhausted and totally understood.  I secretly wish I could live there forever.  Being an instructor and getting to chill at camp did my soul extra good.  Thank you Beth, Sarah, Christine, and the gang for making it such a great experience.Image

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Mark your calendars!!  We’ll back in action for next year’s June Quilt Camp @ Camp Tecumseh.  We want OOOOODLES of our friends to join us where the Wabash River meets the Tippecanoe.  Noonway, lovelies.  Noonway.

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Birch Organic, I’m in love with you!! More Quilt Market Review.

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ImageInternational Quilt Market in Portland is still swimming in my head.

Seriously.  Birch Organic is doing things right.  Not only are their designs contemporary, innocent, and sometimes woodsy, but they speak to the modern family that wants imagination and beauty in their world.  I love Cynthia and Jaysen, owners of Birch Organic.  I secretly want to be best friends with them.  It’s true that I like to imagine their house filled with sand from the beach, tropical flowers, and everyday magic. I imagine that they make their own sushi, decorate with luminaries when they host dinner parties, and would gladly welcome a neighbor to their kitchen counter for coffee any morning.

Daydreaming aside, one of the main reasons I like Birch Organic and the designs they’ve curated for their collections is because they create an imaginative space for kids to be kids.  I find that the simple drawings on their fabrics lend themselves to a story that isn’t obvious.  It inspires.  And I want to make just about everything from their world.

Here are some selections from their booth at the International Quilt Market in Portland.Image

ImageOrganic knits!? With Elk?! Done.

ImageCharlie Harper designs.  Above a simple dress and below a Lunden Designs quilt.  Girl!  We need that pattern!Image

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ImageStar Gazers quilt.  Pattern found at Crimson Tate.

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ImageAnother quilt pattern by Lunden Designs called Happy Trails.  We have it Downtown Indianapolis.

Below is a line called Fort Firefly.  I couldn’t resist this line.  It’s beautiful in its sage greens and burnt oranges.  You’re gonna love it.

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ImageOrganic CANVAS!!!!! Oh man.  Those birds.Image

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Quilt Market Review will continue until I run out of photos.  I’m thinking by the Houston Quilt Market, I’ll be done. 😉  Rumor on the street is that bolts of ModBasics from Birch are coming in a few days to live Downtown Indianapolis.  It’s always a celebration when new fabric arrives.

xoxo

Heather

“Excuse me! Are you Tula Pink?!” — Quilt Market Review Continues Including Best Quilt At Market, IMO.

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Day two of Quilt Market, I was standing in the aura of Tula Pink, Freespirit Fabrics designer, trying to take it all in when a woman interrupts my Tula Pink coma saying “Excuse me! I’m so sorry.  Are you Tula Pink?” And so it begins.  I’m later to find out that this character that confuses me with Tula is Mary Fons of Quilty Magazine.  We giggle about the incident when a series of events finds me chatting with her after I’ve inadvertently crashed a quilting magazine industry party on the eighth floor of a hotel that is a few miles away from my hotel.  This whole story is way better told in person.

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Tula Pink can’t be stopped.  I am at times speechless just trying to take in the abundance of pattern, color, design, absurdity, beauty, and cohesion that is Tula Pink.  Take a closer look at her quilt market booth.

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Fabric flowers in vases.

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A really great series of pillows.

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As quilts.  As garments.  As home decor.  It all works.

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Holy.  This butterfly quilt was designed by Tula Pink as a block of the month.  You can bet your sweet bippy that we’re gonna do this at Crimson Tate.  It’s absolutely stunning.

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Here’s an up-close look at the quilting.  So good.

But let’s chat about THE BEST QUILT found at quilt market.  It’s this one —>

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I’m angry that I don’t have a better photo of the entire quilt.  I can still hear Tula’s voice as I’m franticaly trying to get a photo of it at her School House chat “Don’t worry.  It’ll be in the booth.  You can get a good photo of it later.” But in fact, I never saw the quilt outstretched again after that moment.  I couldn’t get a full view of it.  Ugh!  But I did get a few close-ups so you can see why it’s so incredible.

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That Angela Waters.  Whoa.  And closer still.

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As my friend Lindsay of Ellesquare says “You drank the Kool-Aid.” And in fact I did.  Coming to live at Crimson Tate in the next few months is not only Tula Pink’s entire line of quilting weight cottons from her collection, Acacia, but also her hand piecing kit that makes this quilt.

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Seen again here along with needlework pillows, also coming to Crimson Tate.

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Boxes of Tula Pink Aurifil thread, both the large and small sizes along with her newest collection of ribbons for Renaissance Ribbons.Image

I have a serious Kool-Aid mustache.  I might have gone a little crazy.  I leave you with a few other random bits that are interesting and all Tula Pink.  Holy mother.

xoxo

Heather

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Congratulations, Uncle Eric!

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If you ever come to Crimson Tate on a Saturday morning, you might catch a glimpse of our Eric who is a master at understanding value and scale.  From his meticulous attention to detail in sewing to his wonderful laugh that overflows and is contagious, especially when he can’t contain it, Eric is an awesome staffer of Crimson Tate.  You might recognize him from the Staff Fat Quarter Bundle Challenge.  He’s the current champion!

Yesterday Eric rolled up to Crimson Tate straight from his day job. (Look how dapper he is!  Yep, smart, funny, and good looking.) If you missed yesterday’s read, you should know that Eric’s best friend Becky chose him and Crimson Tate to help in the gender reveal of her and her husband Mark’s newest baby.  Here’s the photo essay of Uncle Eric finding out who’s gonna live at the Myers household.

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IT’S A BOY!!!

Here’s Eric ready to pass along the chosen fabrics.

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And then Becky and Mark showed up to pick up the fabric that Eric and Crimson Tate-ers chose for the newest member of their household.

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Later we’ll show you the fabrics chosen for this special little boy.  Congratulations Becky and Mark!  And thank you so much for letting us be a part of this special moment.  WE LOVED IT!!  (And truthfully, we all might have cried.  LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!)

xoxo

Heather

Boy or Girl?!!

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I’m taking a quick break from Quilt Market recap fun-time to share with you what is happening at Crimson Tate this evening.  Let me tell you an amazing little story about Becky. 

 

Becky came through the door with her all-time best friend Eric wanting to take a quilt class.  Funny.  Smart.  Meant to be friends.  These two were a riot to have in class together. They are both incredibly fabulous and wonderful.  When Becky and her husband Mark found out they were pregnant with their second baby, they decided the best way to find out the gender would be to have Eric and their new friends at Crimson Tate pick out the fabrics for the baby’s first quilt. 

 

So tonight Eric is making his way Downtown to open the envelope, to be the first to find out who’s about to enter the world, and honor this new life with a quilt.  We are going to assist Eric in choosing the fabrics for this quilt and then swiftly package them so there can be no peeking.  The gender will be revealed to Mark and Becky at dinner.

 

What do you think it will be?!?!  We’re so excited and honored to be the firsts to know this baby and thrilled to be a part of this important occasion now and as this family grows.  Love to all!  It’s a great time to be quilting.