A Rose By Any Other Name

I promised to keep you up to date on the design process for my next fabric line. We are working on a very tight time line; the next line will be introduced in October at Quilt Market in Houston. That is a very short time frame to take the designs, put them into repeat, have them engraved, produce strike offs, color correct and go to production. It will be hectic, but think it might be fun for you to follow the process from the very beginning. It all started last week when I took several ideas to New York. I met with the team at Timeless Treasures and we discussed, pondered, considered and looked at the other ideas that they are developing for the in-house line before selecting one of the ideas that will be the best all around fit. (drum roll please).

The winner is…..

The floral graphic line! (Applause).

I love this concept. It’s hip in a very mainstream way. The colors are softer than most of the contemporary designs on the market and the color pallet is based on shades of light blue and beige with a bit of soft green tossed in. I also requested that we add some lavender, but that might end up on the cutting room floor. What looks lovely in paint chips sometimes doesn’t work so well when you layer the colors. To my way of thinking this softer color scheme means that many of you will be able to live with the fabric line. You will be able to decorate your room around it, not just add them to your stash.

There are a few multi-color coordinates for the main print, but I had my heart set on doing some tone-on-tone pieces. Luckily everyone liked the idea well enough to move the tone-on-tone pieces into a separate group. Now we will be doing both groups for fall market. There are 5 designs in the second group. Each of them will be printed in a positive/negative format for 10 total pieces in the group. Two of the tone-on-tone prints will be direct pull-outs from the floral graphic line. That way the lines will work well together and it should give me plenty to work with for the quilt projects.

While the art department works on sizing the prints to the proper scale and puts everything into pattern repeat, I have to come up with a name for the collection. …….. Any ideas? Naming the fabric collections is usually the hard part. It has to be something catchy, something fresh, and something non seasonal, not too long, not currently in use and…… perfect. Because we are marketing these as separate lines, I have to come up with names for BOTH of them. It was easier to name my children than to come up with a name for a fabric collection. Actually, the last line WAS named after one of my children. I wonder if one of the other two would want these named after them? – Too easy.

Luckily while I was typing this, Jerry, our ever diligent UPS guy delivered the preliminary artwork. Here's a sneak peek at the first round of art. I've already typed up a page of adjustments so don't fall in love with anything yet! What would you name this fabric line? Remember there are two different lines represented here. And the stripe didn’t make it into the photo – it may be my favorite piece! If you do make a suggestion and I end up using it, Ill happily send you a fat quarter of every piece in the line as soon as the fabric arrives. Remember, we are under a time crunch here. I have to make the corrections and name this line before Monday! It isn't ALL fun and games!

Karen