A fabric by any other name...

The decision has finally been made! It’s engraved – literally, on the selvedge of the fabric. The name of the new blue/tan line is “Refresh” courtesy of a joint decision between myself and the art department and the tone-on-tone line will be named “Counterpoint” courtesy of Pam W’s suggestion here on the blog. I’m very happy with both of them. The blue/tan IS very refreshing and "Counterpoint" is the perfect name for the positive/negative prints.

Now all I have to do is wait. Wait for the engravings to be completed so that they can strike-off the prints in the colors I’ve requested. Strike-offs are small sections of fabric that are printed by hand using the engravings (or screens) to make sure that everything registers properly and that the colors are correct. These pieces are sent to New York from the print plant in Korea, divided in half and a section is sent to me. Then the fun begins. The Art Department at Timeless is so good at what they do that we rarely have to color correct anything more than one time. Quite often it is perfect the first time and sometimes it is exactly what you asked for – but not perfect. I will keep you posted as to the progress and let you know when the strikes arrive. Pam will have to wait even longer to receive her fat quarters of the finished goods.

I should have said that all I have to do FOR THIS LINE is wait for the strike-offs. I have the preliminary art for my next line on my desk, drafts for another line on the computer and I've been researching antique fabrics to base a home dec line on for next spring.

In the mean time I've been spending all of my spare time making things with zucchini! Our tomato plants look pretty sad, the peppers don't look much better. The cucumbers are taking over the garden and the zucchini..... let's just say they are VERY happy plants. We are going to be eating zucchini bread all winter long.

Soggy

I tried to be nice about the weather. I was being opened minded when I said that the sun and showers and temperature swings were a nice mix. Now I’ve had it – or we’ve had it, “IT” being too much rain. I think we are all starting to mold! Rain is one thing, but daily torrential downpours are quite another. Enough! I want it to stop!

Hopefully the weather this weekend will be nice for the Millennium Quilt Show in Bridgeport West Virginia. Deb and I will be vending there and I am the featured teacher. If you are in the area, stop by to say hello, we would love to meet you.

The official update on naming the new fabric line is “we haven’t decided”. We are close, I’ve narrowed it down, but once you select a few ideas you have to research them. We not only want to eliminate any unfortunate word associations but we also have to eliminate any confusion. For example, one suggestion was for “Brandenburg” which also happens to be the last name of Barbara, another fabric designer/author. If you Google the fabric name, I want you to come up with me, not another person that works for another company (although Barbara is a talented person and it would be a pleasure to be found in her company). It also takes quite a bit of time to research what names the other fabric companies have been using or have recently advertised You can’t just Google “Midnight Garden” and have it pop up “That was a fabric line designed by Karen Montgomery several seasons ago’. You have to actually tread through the major fabric sites, recent fabric history and really do some digging. You also need to eliminate any unfortunate associations. It’s the World Wide Web out there and those nasty porn people have a weird way of infiltrating things and making some word associations that any normal person would NEVER think of. It pays to be careful; I certainly don’t want a typo in your search for my fabric line to land you somewhere you definitely don’t want to be!

I do appreciate all of the great suggestions, both on and off line. I got a kick out of several of them. The person that suggested I name the floral group “Bernie” was my best friend Bernie from Florida. Sorry Bern, this art is a little too serene for your personality! If I every do a line with flamingos – you’re on!

Among other things Barb O suggested that I name it after a famous Pittsburgh person or perhaps my grandmother. I got a kick out of the grandmother suggestion; Barb had no way of knowing my grandmother’s name was Gladys!

The Monday deadline for the name was extended just a bit because of my request to resize a few of the pieces, but we have to let the print factory know by Friday (the name is printed on the selvedge edge) so that they can start the engraving. I will have a definitive answer for you by next week, after a fun filled weekend in the Bridgeport West Virginia High School Gymnasium. (April Cornell named her most recent line “Portugal” which I am certain had something to do with writing off her travels for business. You can rest assured I will not be calling the new line “high school gym”)!

Enjoy!

Karen