SOUND OFF--- Fabric Designers-- cant they get it right???

[Diane O.]

I am just sounding off because I am tried of the way fabric panels and novelty prints are being designed. There is so much waste in them that I am to the point I am going to stop buying them unless there is a REALLY GOOD SALE associated with them.

I just bought a cute fabric called DIVA'S IN TRAINING. ( this is not the only fabric this occurs with, just my latest example) Cute little girls playing dress up..Something that calls for fussy cutting.

None of the motifs were of similar sizes. They were 5x5 to 6x6 making it hard to fussy cut them so you get the same size blocks.

The motifs were too close together. You can not get a balanced motif so you had a decent amount of background around the motif so you could have 1/4- to 1/2 inch around the motif to square it up and look centered in the block. Spacing the motifs about an inch further apart would just make the fabric usage easier on the quilter.

The motifs ran off the fabric ... YOU HAD ONE HALF GIRLS ON THE EDGES ON BOTH SIDES... over 6 to 8 inches of the fabric wasted. They could of had the background poke-a-dots at the edges of the fabric so it would be useable somewhere if not this quilt then in another. OR have the print more centered so you did not get chopped motifs.



To me this is just shoddy design ... and a ploy to get me to buy more fabric... sorrrrry but I will just buy different fabric in the future and not cutesy fabric until it is on SALE!



I KNOW I CAN BE CRABBY AND GET BUGGED BY THE LITTLEST THINGS!!

[Hannelore N.]

Anna, I hear you, and I agree!

Lorchen

[Beth A.]

Timing of this post is interesting.

I just emailed a fabric manufacturer this week. They make a large panel, obviously intended for very small children, but the 3 separate pictures on the panel are so large that it is almost impossible to make a BABY quilt out of it. The manufacturer's free pattern is a TWIN size. Who wants to make a twin size quilt for a baby?? Maybe later, but not when the baby is born!

I emailed the manufacturer asking if they had any suggestions for using their panel to make a smaller sized crib quilt. That was several days ago. No response yet...

BethMI

[Gloria H.]

I'm working with 2 panels now that I got from JoAnns. They are flannel and chenille put together in squares with fuzzy butterflies appliqued on it. It is so pretty but put together poorly. You cannot straighten it out so everything is wavey. I'm stitching in the ditch and hope the puckers and waves aren't too noticable. My coworker is having twin girls so these will be a gift. I spent too much to chuck them.

[Jill B.]

Hi,

I totally agree and have been so disappointed with some of the panels i bought over the years, and they look so great that you just can’t help yourself and buy some. But i am glad i am not the only one who is sick of this, they are the professional manufactures with heaps of staff with the expertise to get it right i would have thought.

Jill
Australia

[Diane O.]

These are exactly the reasosn I never buy panel fabric PERIOD. I don't care how much is it on sale for, there is still too much waste. Even if you have left over pieces, the background is usually plain so you don't want to use it in smaller pieces for anything else. And that is IF there is enough between the motifs to even get a square or something out of it for a scrap quilt.

I don't care how much I might like a panel, if I can't get the part I want cut out, with enough for a seam allowance, and with out cutting into the next motif, I will pass it up and leave it on the bolt.

Diane in Colorado Springs

[karen f.]

How timely. I watched Fons and Porter this morning and there was a fabric designer (and quilter) who talked about this exact thing. Being a quilter too she described how she goes about avoiding these problems with panels and border stripes when she designs them. It was very interesting. Karen

[Margo C.]

Way back in the 80s, before Jinny Beyer started designing fabric, what few border prints there were out there would have THREE lovely borders across the width of the fabric!!! Talk about waste! You had to buy twice the length in order to have enough for all 4 borders. That was one of the things that she specifically worked to change in the industry, and I think that anything she designs now has 4 borders per width.

Wasted fabric around panel prints is not an accident!

[Margo C.]

JOIN ME IN MY BATTLE.... every-time I buy and panel or a print where it is badly designed making it hard to use because the motifs are hard to use I write and complain loudly.

I too am buying less and less panels and motifs because of poor design. Maybe someday they will listen.

[Mary K.]

Great info! I generally don't think about it when I am looking at panel fabrics, but will from now on! Thanks, All, for weighing in!

[Mary K.]

I went fabric shopping earlier... I plan to make the KALEIDOSCOPE quilt. I wanted some light colors to go with my selection of brights and batiks.

Alex and Ricky are right when they say that there are only about 10% of the fabrics in a shop can be classified as light... I am not talking about white on white or cream on white but patterned tonal in light colors that would spark the batiks. I wanted a light color wash or hand dyed but they all seemed greyed or dull in someway.

Why do the designers (especially the brights / batiks) not think that they need to balance their collections with light colorways. I always have better luck with repros, florals finding varied hues, values so I can get better contrast. When I look to the brights / batiks I have a hard time getting the right contrast fabrics.

Do you think it is the dying process for the batiks that restrict the lighter fabrics and colorwashes? I just wish designers would think the process through better.

Yes I am crabby again... I went to three SUNDAY open stores and could not find anything that worked. That means I have to drive down into Detroit to see if I can find something better.

[Beth A.]

Lady Rags, I had to laugh when I saw your post. I live in Shelby Twp (right next door to Rochester, MI), and I am intending to drive to Fabric Fair in Bay City for some fabric I have been looking for. the Detroit stores don't seem to have what I want!

BethMI

[Beth A.]

This is a very interesting discussion, so I hope the fabric designers are listening.

Cheater prints could also be included in this discussion. Panels, border prints and cheater prints should be printed on the straight grain of the fabric. Unfortunately, they often are not. I like to use cheater prints sparingly in quilts to add complexity to a simple pattern. So, I just have to make certain that they are printed straight on the grain.

[Beth A.]

Beth,

What are you looking for ???

For brights and batiks ... I ususually go to CHRISTINE'S in Rochester

Christmas fabrics and brights to Village Quilt Shop in Canterberry Village off of Joyslyn Rd Auburn Hills or Lk Orion

Apple Tree in Linden has batiks/ brights / more of a mix... very INTO the current Quilting Fad

Quilters Garden in Fenton is good for batiks and brights also current quilting fad

Mabelena's in Ortonville has a good mix... wools too... some repro and what I call kitch`

YOU can not beat ELAINE's in Hadley MI for florals, romantic repro 30s-40s, HUGE CIVIL WAR selection, ( doing the CW TRIBUTE ) Thimbleberries, some kids, lot of blenders... discounted prices.

Linda's Quilt shop in DAVISON ( on M15) has a variety... repro 1800- and Civil War, current quilting fads... SHE never keeps her fabric for over a year... if it doesnt sell back to the sale room.

Be sure to pick up the COUNTRY REGISTER in one of the stores and it will tell you about all the quilt shops


Here is a link to one of the best QUILT SHOW LINKS I have ever found...

http://needlemarket.com/quiltedmomen...-quilt-shops-2

[Beth A.]

Lady Rags - I am (now was - I ordered it via the internet) looking for particular Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric. It is an older themed fabric (now a year or two old) so not generally available. I finally found what I wanted from a store in the state of Washington (Fourth Corner Quilts) which promises very prompt service.

I checked all the obvious stores around here and didn't have time to check any more.

I never made it to Fabric Fair (which I love - GREAT selection of batiks!) because it is closed on Sunday, which was the only day this weekend I had free.

(I hate having to work for a living - really cuts into my quilting time! I work late most evenings, so even evening hours don't do me much good if it's not REALLY close. And I can never sign up for classes because I'm never sure if I'll have to work that night. So I just buy books and drool over the patterns.)

Thanks for the tips on SE Michigan quilt stores, tho!


BethMI