QKO Notebook

September 30, 2008

Alhambra from Art Gallery Fabrics…

Filed under: Coming Soon!, What's New? — Tags: , , , , — Don @ 7:20 pm

10/5/08 – UPDATE!  ALHAMBRA IS HERE AND AVAILABLE ON OUR WEBSITE! KIT COMING OUT NEXT WEEK!

See the Alhambra fabrics at: http://www.quilt-kits-online.com/products.php?cat=49

We’re anxiously awaiting arrival of Alhambra, a newer fabric line from Art Gallery Quilts.  Alhambra is another fantastic design by Patricia Bravo. Alhambra combines rich, diverse and exotic design elements

AH-126 from the Alhambra warm colorway

AH-126 - Art Gallery Alhambra

from the near east and around the world with today’s modern urbane color palette, creating an exciting blend that will inspire you to create your own fantastic creations.  We’ll also be kitting Alhambra along with Patricia’s exciting “Mosaic” pattern, which was created especially for this fabric line.  We’ll be carrying the warm colorway. (We like browns, bronzes, corals and pistachio)  :)     As always with Art Gallery, their fabrics are printed on premium 100% cotton with a very tight weave and rich dyes.  Art Gallery tests all their dry goods before purchase to make sure they are good for all types of quilting and sewing projects, including machine and hand-quilting, applique, and general sewing. Besides quilting, you could make some nifty, funky clothing from it too!    Oh, oh…  Getting another idea!    “Cindy, how about an Alhambra apron kit!”   :)

Alhambra will be available on our website about October 4.  Can’t wait!

Bali Pops Delayed…

Filed under: Coming Soon! — Don @ 7:25 am

After waiting for several months (since July) for our Hoffman Bali-pops shipment,  we got word that they’ve been delayed.   We were promised September delivery, and when September came close to ending without us seeing our shipment, I called Hoffman’s yesterday.

I was told they got “shorted” on their shipment,  so they naturally passed their problem on to us.  They promised we would be on “rush” status for the makeup shipment due in 2-3 weeks.

So, hang in there, we should have them soon!   I hope…   :)

September 24, 2008

Celtic Christmas, Here at Last!

Filed under: What's New? — Tags: , , , , , , — Don @ 9:07 pm

We finally got the last two fabrics of the Celtic Christmas line from Fabric Freedom.  Boy are these fabrics beautiful!   We’ve had several of them for a couple months now, but were missing two of the blenders.  We had to wait until a new shipment came across the pond and then had to wait for them to be rolled.

We finally called and cajoled enough so that we got them shipped.  Now we have the entire product line.  I just today put all the fabrics up on the website, and will attempt to finish putting the kits up tomorrow.  The kits we’re offering with these fabrics are a hexagonal table topper, and table runner and placemats kits.

Celtic Christmas Hex Topper

Celtic Christmas consists of three panel sets and four matching background fabrics. All the colors go with all the other colors in the entire product line. There are 6 different main pictures, which vary in color composition over the three panel sets. Each individual picture is about 11 1/2 inches by 9 1/2 inches. Each set is about 24 1/2 inches of fabric, or about 2/3 yard. We’ll selling them in complete sets.  There are four background colors which are various colored celtic swirls on gold backgrounds. The colors are antique green, antique cream/gold, red, and black.

We’ll be doing something new and different with these, offering them in your choice

Celtic Christmas table runner and placemats

Celtic Christmas Runner and Mats

of fabrics with online configuration of your kit. You’ll be able to take the standard kit as shown in the pictures, or change the fabrics around however you like to create  your own combinations from the available fabrics.  We’ve always done custom kits, modified our kits on request, and offered kit options, but this is the first time we’ve tried online configuration of the entire kit.  If it works out, we’ll be doing more of it!

As usual, Bryan Taphouse has hand-painted all the original artwork for these designs, and they’re fabulous. You have to see them to believe them.  If you want to look before you buy, just order our Sample Pack for this fabric line.

One other note about Celtic Christmas.  The only thing that we can see that makes this a “Christmas” fabric line is that it has a thin border around each panel picture showing holly berries and leaves.  Cut those off, and wha-lah, no more Christmas fabric, just a neat Celtic design!

September 23, 2008

New easy apron kits…

Filed under: What's New? — Tags: , , , — Cindy @ 6:24 pm

Four Corners Apron in Sunflowers

Cindy is working on a few new small project kits, and they’re not quilts!

She recently completed a new apron kit using the Four Corners apron pattern, Fabric Freedom’s Sunflowers and a Hoffman 1895 green batik for the trim and back.  It’ll be up on the website today or tomorrow.

We’re going to make this another custom kit, i.e. you can take the defaults and get it just as shown in the picture, or you can pick your own fabrics from the pulldowns and we’ll build the kit with your fabrics. If you don’t like the fabrics offered on the pulldown menus, you’ll be able to type in the product numbers for any two fabrics on our website!    We’ll do this with any kit on a special order (no extra charge) basis, but we’re trying to make our website even more responsive by letting you customize your own kits right online.

Oh, and we guarantee you’ll look better in this apron than Don does.  :)

Clothworks Fanciful Felines by Laurel Burch…

Filed under: What's New? — Tags: , , , — Don @ 6:05 pm

We still have the Fanciful Felines fabrics and kits.  Since Laurel’s recent passing, her fabrics, which were always popular, have gotten even more scarce and prized.  If you’re looking for the Fanciful

Fanciful Felines Wallhanging

Fanciful Felines Wallhanging

Felines, we have it, and at great prices.  Many of the suppliers are running out of one or more of the fabrics.  We ordered enough to make quite a few kits, so we’re still well supplied, but at our new price points they probably won’t last too long.  If you’re thinking about Fanciful Felines, you’ll want to act soon before there isn’t any more to be had.

Tennessee Waltz in Morris Springtime…

Filed under: What's New? — Tags: , , , — Don @ 5:57 pm

Morris Springtime from Fabric Freedom continues to please us and our customers. This rich selection of prints based on William Morris prints is rich, the handpainted designs really come

Tennesee Waltz in Morris Springtime Blue

Tennessee Waltz in Morris Springtime Blue

through making this one of the classics.  We’re getting a little short on a few of the fabrics so we had to take them off our website, but we still have enough for our kits. Cindy took the blue colorway and put it into the Tennessee Waltz pattern by Sue Bouchard, and the results are stunning.  As usual the Morris fabrics have great feel and sewability.  We can also do this quilt in the green or brown colorways, and we have lots of the matching pillow feature panel fabric available for your pillow shams!

This kit is a lot easier to make than it looks because of Sue’s great piecing techniques.  You get the book along with this kit that shows how to make it in about a gazillion sizes.

And, as always, we can make this kit in any size or in your selection of fabrics.

Park Lane, New from Fabric Freedom…

Filed under: What's New? — Tags: , , , , — Don @ 5:43 pm
Park Lane Kit

Park Lane Kit

Our new Park Lane fabrics and kit have been well-received. Everyone who has seen them has gushed about how rich the colors are, how realistic the prints are and how great the feel is on these fabrics. This is one classy set of prints and blenders!  Bryan Taphouse has another hit in these fabrics and the quality of his work, and that of his small craft producer in the UK shines again.  All the newer FF prints are made from hand-painted proofs and printed on the finest fabric in two select Korean mills, allowing Bryan complete control over the finished product.

Cindy has constructed the Park Lane quilt top, proofing the original pattern, explaining, correcting and amplifying where necessary to help you be successful with your project. Included in this kit for the first time are additional pictures she took, explaining the construction of parts of the construction that may be confusing.  This is one beautiful quilt top, we wish you could see it in person!

New from Hoffman

Filed under: Coming Soon! — Tags: , , , , — Don @ 5:11 pm

We recently added several new 1895 Bali Batik colors to our growing selection of these blenders, and also added a few unique Bali handpaint batik prints, also from Hoffman.  We’re impatiently awaiting the arrival of the new Bali Pops, which should be in any day now (it is late September, isn’t it?)

Bali Pops - Butterscotch

What’s a Bali Pop?  Well, it’s Hoffman’s version of a jelly roll, i.e. a great selection of color-coordinated batik strips.  Each “pop” contains 40 – 2 1/2″ by 40″ strips of Hoffman Handpaint and 1895 batiks. There’s also a free pattern available for the pops at Hoffman’s website.  There are six different “pops” to choose from, and as usual now we have them at the lowest prices around.  Or will have, right now we’re taking pre-order reservations for them.  At right is a picture of the “Butterscotch” pop.  Click on the picture and it will open a new window into our webstore so you can see the full description as well as looking at the other pops.   These are a great value, get yours soon!

Fabshopnet Membership

Filed under: General QKO Info — Don @ 4:52 pm

We’ve recently joined the Fabshopnet Retailers Association. Fabshopnet puts on several online and brick n mortar fabshophops every year and is also a great organization in bringing together the retailer with our suppliers.  We’re also now advertising on www.fabshophop.com with a sidebar ad, and will be participating in the Holiday Hop in November-December 2008. You’ll notice our website now proudly displays the Fabshopnet Retailers Association logo on the home page.

In Now! Art Gallery Fabrics – Dashing Roses

Filed under: What's New? — Tags: , , , , — Don @ 9:51 am

Art Gallery Fabrics

Art Gallery - Dashing Roses

We’ve recently received our first shipment from a new-to-us supplier, Art Gallery Fabrics. This is a small craft fabric house from Miami Florida, operated by a wife and husband team, just like us! They design and manufacture quilting fabrics of 100% premium cotton. Patricia Bravo’s designs are unique, fresh and exciting. Cindy is in the middle of sewing up a sample quilt made from their “Dashing Roses” collection, and we’ll have this on our website, along with the fabrics, very soon. You can check out their fabric swatch pictures on their website but be aware the pictures are not taken from the actual fabric, which is a lot prettier than the pictures. We’ll have a new Sample pack out soon for you to look at, in conjunction with the new kit.

UPDATE: Dashing Roses is now available on our website!  Kit coming soon!

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