"More for Me" Monday | Weekends from Erin McMorris

You probably know Erin McMorris from her fabric lines Park Slope and Wildwood. Her new line Weekends for Freespirit Fabrics just recently hit fabric stores.
Weekends is described as a “fresh new collection of designs inspired by sunny days, with time to garden, bike or picnic in the park. Combining hand-drawn flowers with precise patterns and dots create designs that are summery and modern. The palettes, with butter yellow, tomato red, lavender and leaf green will take you from dawn to dusk.”

It sounded too delicious to resist, so we caught up with Erin to find out a bit more about her new line and what inspired it. In addition, because it's Monday, we've got a bit of the new line to give away to a Fat Quarterly reader!
How does your background as a graphic designer influence you?

A lot! I still think of my work as graphic designs. I love bold flat patterns and I still look at a lot of graphic designers for inspiration.

What is your design process? Do you sketch or paint your designs and then scan into a computer or do you design direct on the computer?

I usually do a really quick pencil sketch just so I get the feeling and the scale, and then I scan it into the computer and redraw it from there. I never draw complete sketches because I'm really impatient to start drawing in the computer! Sometimes an idea doesn't work, so I don't want to spend a lot of time sketching things that don't work once they are colored. I'm not a very linear thinker so I don't really know where a sketch is going to go once I start redrawing it and that’s part of the fun.


With the creation of digital printing services many quilters would like to try their hand at designing fabric. Do you have any tips for wannabe fabric designers?

I think digital printing is fantastic. It really opens the door for just experimenting and having fun with designs because there are no rules and you are the only client. I actually want to try some designs myself!

What is your idea of a perfect weekend?

Oh, it has many variations, but I think the perfect weekend would be flying to Paris on an all expense paid trip! My reality is more likely to be lots of lounging and reading, beautiful weather, yummy food, fabulous friends and laughing, laughing, laughing.

Butter yellow, tomato red, lavender and leaf green. Mmmm it sounds like a picnic! How did you decide the colourways?

I had an idea of the colors before the prints really. I knew I wanted to try softer melons and lavenders that I haven't used before. I had been seeing a lot of those colors in the market and wanted to see if I could make them work.

Where does the inspiration for Weekends come from?

That’s always a hard question for me. I find that I usually just dive in with a print or 2 that I just like. Then I sort of see where the designs are taking me and get a feeling of the inspiration from there. So because the colors started out softer, the prints started out that way too, and I tried to pair them with some harder edged designs and motifs as well. I started thinking of them being used in a picnic and what prints would be where...like "Saturday" is the print for the main quilt to sit on and "Hopscotch" would be a perfect print for napkins, and "Lilyrose" would work as a print inside of a picnic basket. That is where I found the prints going. I think the last print I designed is "Go by Bike" because it tied up the Weekend theme to me because no weekend is complete unless I'm on my bike.

What is coming next for Erin McMorris?

I have no idea, but if you had any thoughts, let me know!

Interested in winning a bit of "Weekends" for your own summer projects? We've got two fat quarter bundles to give away to two lucky readers. Simply leave a comment on this post and tell us what your perfect weekend would look like. We'll randomly select two comments next Sunday, July 11th, to win these beautiful little bundles.

Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner & A Winner!

First off a very happy 4th of July to all our readers in the USA! I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend!

Second to the winner of the gorgeous fat quarter bundle of Tufted Tweets. I can not tell you how severely tempted we were to keep this for ourselves. It has been torturous for John to keep it in his cupboard until this day.

But now to get to the winner.......

Congratulations to Patty who said:-

"Lovely fabrics I'd like to see more complicated patterns, or traditional patterns with a fresh modern twist."

Please can you email us at customerservice@fatquarterly.com with your mailing address so we can get the Tufted Tweets to you.

And a big thank you to everyone else for your great suggestions for future issues of Fat Quarterly.

***

And without further ado let me tell you a bit about Handmade Beginnings, the newest book from Anna Maria Horner from Wiley Publishing.

With 2 little ones of my own I was very excited to get my hands on a copy of Anna's book. Oh how I wish this book had been around when I was expecting!


This fabulous book is jam packed with 24 Sewing Projects and I can assure you that you will want to make most of them. The patterns are very thorough and are accompanied by sketches to illustrate what you need to do. There are full size patterns included in an envelope in the back and the book itself is of a manageable size and is spiral bound to make it extra easy to keep your place whilst sewing.

Anna cleverly separated the book into 4 sections:- Mama, Baby, Family and Nest. Everybody that is important during the pregnancy and arrival of a little one.
If you are pregnant now I recommend you go straight out and buy the book as the section for Mama has some great maternity patterns. And don’t panic about sizing as Anna explains clearly how to work out which size you need to make and has designed all her patterns so they can be adjusted for post pregnancy wear. The one that really caught my eye was the Four Corners Blouse perfect for nursing your little one, easy to use and perfect cover for being out in public.


The section on baby is packed with cute patterns for booties, trousers, a dress and a hooded top. The pattern that I am itching to make is the patchwork sleeping bag. I think this would make a great gift for new parents, easy to customise with fabrics of your choice and you could throw in some cute japanese prints as well.


I really like how Anna thinks of the whole family too in this book. When I had my second child I realised how important it was to spoil my first born too. A simple gift for the other members of your family can go a long way when all the attention is on the new baby. There is even a great pattern for a Dad Bag. This is just genius. My husband never complained but I could see the pained look whenever I passed him my flowery nappy bag!


Finally there is a section for your home. This brings back memories! I have never had as much desire to redecorate the entire house as I did in the final weeks of each of my pregnancies. I repainted pretty much every room just days before my youngest was born. If I had had this book I would have spent my time making nesting blocks, pillows, lampshades and more instead!


So if you are expecting a baby then quick, get your hands on a copy. You will not regret it.

But even if you are not expecting, this book is a perfect addition to your sewing library. It is full of inspiration and there are so many ideas for gifts for friends and family that might be awaiting the patter of tiny feet. And the photography is gorgeous - full of colour and super cute models!

Issue 2 - Sneak Peek

Just a small selection of what you will find in Issue 2 of Fat Quarterly.

Issue 2 on sale from Tuesday 27th July!

Community News

Starting on July 18th and running through to July 31st, Amy and Kate are co-hosting a Oliver + S 'Ice Cream Dress' Sew-Along.

{Photo courtesy of badskirt}

Everyone is welcome and you can join in on the fun here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/icecreamdress-sewalong/


There promises to be some great prizes up for grabs and we are looking forward to checking out all the different versions that are created.

Amy has already whipped up two dresses, they are super sweet and show how different the same dress can be.

{Photo courtesy of badskirt}

You can purchase your pattern at Pink Chalk Fabrics.

"More for Me" Monday | Tufted Tweets

Congratulations again to our Castle Peeps winners! If you haven't done so already, please send your mailing information to us at fatquarterly@googlemail.com so that we can get your prize out to you ASAP.

So it's Monday again, and you know what that means ... GIVEAWAY!

Today we are featuring one of the hottest, most buzzed-about fabric lines so far this year: the gorgeous Tufted Tweets collection by Laurie Wisbrun for Robert Kaufman.

One lucky winner will receive a fat quarter set of the entire collection!

Like what you see? We thought so! If you'd like to win these fabrics (and, to be honest, who wouldn't?), simply leave us a comment below. Let us know one thing that you hope will be included in our next issue. We'll select one winner at random next Sunday, July 4th.

Don't forget -- issue #2 of Fat Quarterly will be available Tuesday, July 27th!

Winners & Voting

Entries for the FQ reader design challenge have now closed.

A big thank you to everyone that entered, it has been great seeing so many different versions on the flying geese block. You can take a look at all the enteries at the Fat Quarterly flickr group.

We have selected four of our favourite blocks - but it is up to YOU to vote for a winner. Polling will close at the end of Sunday (27th), the winner will receive a 'Rounneries Layer Cake'.

Block 1: From Jennie at Sunflowerquilt

Jennie said: 'I call this block "Breaking Out". I originally designed it for the Pillow Talk Swap. I have never seen it anywhere else and I love the fact that it's symmetrical and a bit wild at the same time! Fabrics: background is Kona Charcoal and the geese are from the "Modern Meadow" collection by Joel Dewberry.'

Block 2: From Lisa at Upstatelisa

Block 3: From Angela at Banquopack

Block 4: From Tweedledee Designs

To vote, make your selection over on the sidebar.

Speaking of winners...the lucky 3 winners of the 'Castle Peeps' Giveaway are:

Pink Pack goes to: vada0427 said... If I was picking for myself, I'd want the green/brown colorway - saw an amazing quilt made with it just yesterday...but, my sweet daughters have declared that mommy has too much fabric for herself & that from now only they get to pick all the fabric..so, for them, my choice would be the pink colorway so THEY can have a rockin' new quilt! Karen G. 

Blue pack goes to: Sarah N. said... I'd like the blue one. I would make a lap size quilt for an auction at my son's school. They are the Knights!

Green pack goes to: Kristie T said... Fantastic fabric. I'd use the brown and green to make curtains and add some patches to a mostly solid quilt for my son's room. He'll be moving to a toddler bed soon and this would certainly ease the transition.

McKenzie from Dena Fishbein

Dena Fishbein is a very talented lady! You have probably know her better as Dena Designs, the name of her studio.

Her designs can be found worldwide on stationery, home apparel and of course fabric. Her recent lines for Freespirit include Leanika, Snow Flower and Monaco.

Her newest line McKenzie has just been released for Freespirit Fabrics and you should be able to find it in fabric stores very soon. The line is a wonderful mix of florals and geometrics and has a fresh vintage feel to it.

You can find Mckenzie at the Fat Quarter Shop and Pink Chalk Fabrics.

I chatted to Dena to find out more about her and McKenzie.

You are extremely busy with a tv show, a newspaper column and your design work. Which do you enjoy most?

Well actually the television show ran for 2 years, for a total of 26 episodes and then I decided against continuing. It is now just re-runs. It was too intensive. For each episode I had to make the finished item and then each project in each step from start to finish. I am very particular about my projects, so finding the materials and doing the research was also very time consuming.

I still write a newspaper column for Scripps Howard which is distributed to about 420 newspapers.

But I focus mainly on product design. My favourite thing to do is designing and painting. I design all sorts of products from paper, fabric, bedding, melanine, kitchen and stuffed animals.

You say on your website that you enjoy scouring flea markets for inspiration. What has been your best find?

Oh I just love going to flea markets. Probably my best find was a painting. I had been looking for an old painting of palm trees in oils in a gold frame and I saw somebody pick it up. You should have seen my face. I hovered next to her until she put it down and then I just grabbed it and gave whatever money the man asked for to him. No haggling!

I go to one which is held once a month about half an hour away from where I live and wherever we are vacationing I try and find a flea market.



So, McKenzie is your newest line for Freespirit. Why is your line named McKenzie? What was your inspiration?

Simple answer! My husband was walking by when I was thinking what to name the line and he suggested McKenzie. He said it was a cute name and you know what, it is a cute name!

Freespirit give me no brief but they did say that at the moment people are buying bright happy colours. Fabrics with a neutral palette are just not selling. People want to surround themselves with fresh, happy colours.

When designing the line I thought about what I would like to go together. I like the combination of florals and geometrics. It has a modern fresh feel. So I start by sketching ideas out in the look I want.

I keep files of colours, flowers and pattern layouts and use those to work out what look I am after.

What was your design process for McKenzie?

I usually paint on computer paper. I do a very fast pencil sketch. In about 2 minutes. I look at it and write notes and imagine which colours it would look good in. I then list the colours on the side.

I then sketch the pattern onto watercolour paper and mix the colours. I paint one colourway and then develop the other colourways using the computer.

In this collection the colourways stayed the same and there are usually 1 or 2 prints that are dropped each collection.



Describe to us the colour palette you chose for McKenzie.

The colour stories are black / pink, aqua/green and lilac. I knew that lavender was selling really well and was a trend so I wanted to incorporate that into the line. I love the richness of black and how it makes things look rich and beautiful. And aqua is my favourite colour so a little aqua worked itself into the collection It gives it a modern / vintage feel.



What projects do you have in mind for McKenzie?

I think the line combines very well for all sorts of projects, not just quilting. We have just designed an apron, pillows, dog bedding and I think clothing would look good in the line.

The collection McKenzie will be used for other products as well. I usually design the fabric first as I am always working on fabric collections and then I use those in my other product lines.

What’s next for Dena Designs?

I am currently working on another fabric line but I am not sure what it is called yet. The line I am working on at the moment has a very watercolour feel.

Then there are 2 other lines which are already finished. Pea Garden and Cummary Garden. I am also going to be working on a Christmas line for 2011. I always have several projects on the go. I am working on some greeting cards too at the moment.

Look out for projects designed using Dena's line in our October Issue!