Friday, March 27, 2015

French Flowers, Veranda and a Giveaway!!

To celebrate the start of Spring I'd like to give away a bundle of our new collection...
Make a gorgeous blouse or dress...
 **Blouse pattern (Veranda) :: BurdaStyle Drawstring V Neck
 **Fanfare dress pattern :: BurdaStyle Swing Dress

...or how about a little girl's dress...

Susan Emory of Swirly Girls Design created the romantic quilt below. For the free pattern, please visit our website.
Seeing all of these beautiful floral designs sent me on a Pinterest spiral into lovely flowers... below are some of my favorites!
http://floralartvt.com/blog/
 It seems I'm into wild arrangements and French Market flowers!
http://heatherbullard.com/2011/11/paris-les-fleurs/
http://www.inspiredbythis.com/wed/inspired-by-the-farmers-market-for-weddings/
What's your favorite flower? Comment and let me know ~ you'll be entered to win a bundle of Veranda!
I'll draw a winner randomly on Thursday, April 2nd. (AHHHHHH... can you believe it's almost APRIL?!?!)

And the winner is, KathleenD!!!
She said, "My favorite flowers are tulips. This new fabric line is beautiful!"

Thanks to everyone for participating!

 

Veranda starts shipping to stores on April 15th.

Happy sewing and have a great weekend!

xo,
kait



Friday, March 20, 2015

Michael Miller Fabrics & Tara Faughnan!

 In honor of National Quilting Day, I thought we'd interview one of our textile designers who is also an amazing quilter-- Tara Faughnan!
I'll start with one of her quilts... because, well, it's stunning!! 
Half Square Triangles Quilt 2014
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Q: Please tell me what you do for Michael Miller:
A: I am an in house textile designer in the Sonoma Studio, so I work on all aspects of design from conception, repeats, color, presentation of collections, correspondence with the mills, to long talks on the phone with you (Kait in the NY office)


Q: What’s your favorite piece of work that you have created?
A: I usually work with art that we have bought, where I change the designs as needed, put it into repeat, make coordinates and do color ways. I love creating a collection from various pieces of art and bringing it to life with color! One of my current favorites that I worked on was the Fiesta Collection. In terms of designs I’ve created, my favorite is probably the Unicorn Herd, we always need more unicorns looking like camo




Q: What are you working on at the moment?
A: A western collection, some more metallic and a bedding collection

Q: What are you doing when you’re not creating?
A: When I am at home I am sewing away making quilts, hanging out with my husband and my large and crazy family, going dancing with my girlfriends, making specialty cocktails. I used to love to cook, now I just eat whatever my husband makes for me so I can sit around on the couch doing some hand stitching and eating bon bons
Studio- work in progress
Studio- work in progress

Improv Log Cabin 2014




Q: What would people be surprised to learn about you?
A: I don't like the taste of white sugar


Q: Do you have any favorite blogs you read?
A: I don’t read too many blogs, but a few that I follow are cauchy complete, print pattern, quilt stories by sherry ann. I also like to look at antique quilts in online collections. A couple great sites are Quilt Study and LauraFisher Quilts.

Q: What else should we know about you and your work?
A: I started quilting in 2001 or 2002 and that is what led me into textile design.  I feel incredibly lucky to have a job that encompasses my love of quilting, one where I get to play with fun patterns and pretty colors.  

Q: Do you admire any artists/designers?
A: So many- here are a few: Lance Letscher, Jill Ricci, OdiliDonald Odita, Jason Rohlf

Q: Where else can we find you?
A: My Instagram handle is @tarafaughnan, though I’m not real consistent about posting pictures.

Q: What is your favorite…
Color: I like ALL the colors
Animal: Cats
Season: Summer
Movie: 28 Days Later- and any post apocalyptic B movie involving cannibals
Book: I like sci-fi and fantasy books
Vacation Spot: Somewhere where the sand is white and the ocean is turquoise
Food: Anything Mexican
Triangles Quilt 2013

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Thanks, Tara!! 
Happy sewing and have a great weekend everyone!
xo,
Kait