In the past few years, I've realized just how much I love fabric. I was recently able to go to a quilt show in my home town. Where I live, there aren't many quilt shows, and I am not able to drive the few hours it would take me to get to a bigger city and see more of them. So you can imagine how wonderful going to this quilt show was for me.
I ran around from vendor to vendor, looking, fondling, and drooling over all the beautiful fabric that is out there. Wishing I had an unlimited amount of cash in my pocket. Quilting fabric has come a long way. It's softer, sturdier, and doesn't 'bleed' as much as they used to. Running the fabric thru my hands and feeling the softness, gazing at it's the beautiful designs really gets the inspiration flowing.
One thing noticed at the quilt show was how many panel fabrics there are out there now. It seems to me to be a growing number of manufacturers are making them. This is the one I bought for our Summer At the Beach fabric swap. Isn't it darling! There are so many panel fabrics out there, no matter what your interest, I bet you could find one. And to go with the panels, many quilt stores sell kits to go with them. Already made up for you, so you just grab 'em and go.
Jess has some great kits in her store
http://webstore.quiltropolis.net/stores_app/Browse_dept_items.asp?Shopper_id=6660518841176660&Store_id=691&Page_id=17&categ_id=2&parent_ids=0
Kits for all the beautiful mystery quilts she makes up. Kits for the Geisha girl panel challenge the Q&N is doing. Kits from our fabulous Connie Eicher designs. And many more. As my good friend Pat pointed out also, Jess is very accommodating when it comes to making up kits. I know when I ordered a kit for the With this Ring pattern, Jess let me take some of the fabrics out and add others that I preferred. Kits are great, as they take all the guess work out of "how much of this do I need". And for me, that's always helpful.
Have a great day, and stop by and see us at www.thequiltandneedle.com
Dorian
For a glimpse of what you can do with these beautiful fabrics take a look here at Lizzie's completed Friends and Fellows quilt top. Lizzie and I were travel buddies and I kept teasing her that our luggage might "accidentally" get switched at the airport. She kept telling me that no they would not that this quilt was "going home with her." Well now I have ordered my own Taxi fabrics so I do not have to drool over Lizzie's quilt anymore ... well maybe only a little. ;-)
