playing with color

Happy New Year, dear readers! I hope 2015 is off to a great start for all of you!

Over a year ago, I discovered Sarah Waterhouse's screen-printed fabrics and fell in love. I quickly decided that I wanted to stock her designs in my shop, and selected a number of prints from her Geometrics collection to carry. Though her organic fabrics are a heavier weight---perfect for upholstery, tote bags, pillows, and zipper pouches---they actually work quite beautifully in quilts, as I discovered while working on this improv wall quilt.

I started simply with small swatches of each of the fabrics in the line. I outlined each print with a white border, and then built up blocks using solids which coordinated with each of the prints. Each block was pieced improvisationally, so no two are alike in size or layout. I used various shades of white for the surrounding background, and anchored the blocks to a center horizontal line.

For the backing, I chose a quirky Japanese print I've had in my stash for years, which had most of the colors featured in the top. I quilted it with a grid of diamonds in white thread and bound the quilt with an orange-red crosshatch print.

This piece came together organically, and I really fell in love with the results. I hope to do more piecing of this type; it's fun to go into a project with no set plan! This quilt is now listed for sale in my Etsy shop, and you can find Sarah's prints there as well, to use in your own crafty projects.

Photos by Caroline Okun.

salty oat: the fabric shop!

Today, I'm so excited to announce the next phase of Salty Oat: an online fabric shop! I've always loved screen-printed fabrics (both their modern aesthetic and their handmade, earth-friendly nature), but have often been unable to find the designers I love in shops in the U.S. So, I decided to do something about it, and am so excited to add the first batch of screen-printed fat quarters to my virtual shelves.

You can now purchase prints by Umbrella Prints in the shop, including a few from their newest collection, Floating World, which launched just last week. Umbrella Prints makes beautiful, organic fabrics and is run by two talented women, Amy and Carly. I've loved working with their fabrics, and competing in their annual Trimmings Competition (you can see my past entries here and here). 

I have a few other designers lined up for the shop, which I'll be adding in the coming months. If you have any favorite independent designers you'd love to see in the shop, please let me know!

a look at fabric screen printing

 

Have you seen this gorgeous video on fabric screen printing, featuring the gals behind Ink and Spindle? Their printing set-up is enviable, and I love the system they've rigged up for drying fabric once it's been printed on!

(Video by Artisan Magazine.)

2013 umbrella prints trimmings competition

These days, I'm pretty much smitten with screen-printed fabrics. I love the look of one and two-color prints and I love being able to support independent designers who produce their work by hand. One of my goals for the year is to incorporate more screen-printed fabric into my work, so when I saw the posting for this year's Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition, I decided to enter for the second year in a row (you can see my entry from last year here). I love Umbrella Prints' screen-printed fabric, and this competition is such a great motivator for me to cut into fabric I typically hoard.

I mulled over my options of what to do for weeks, and this past weekend I finally decided to make something from my growing to-make list: a drawstring bag using Jeni's tutorial.

For the front, I scaled down Faith's Greek Cross block from the Summer Sampler series and made a mini quilt block.

I sewed the remaining scraps together at random to create a panel for the back, and used chambray for the remaining panels.

I lined it with a Denyse Schmidt print that complemented the Umbrella Prints' fabric in both style and color, and used up some leftover Kei Honeycomb Dot binding (originally made for this quilt) for the drawstrings.

Voting for the competition starts Saturday and runs through June 5. To vote, simply pin all of your favorite entries over here.

Will you be entering the contest this year? If so, please share a link to your entry in the comments; I'd love to see!

P.S. You can see some of my photos from the recent Portland Quilt Market over on Instagram! You can find me there under the username @saltyoat. 

screen-printed fabric by small talk

Two weekends ago, I had a chance to run through my very first Crafty Bastards Arts + Crafts Fair (I was on my way to work, so I couldn't stay long). While there, I picked up a swatch of screen printed fabric by Small Talk, a studio based in Baltimore. 

I still haven't decided what to do with my panel, though a pillow is on the top of my list.

P.S. Thank you, Seaside Siblings, for the lovely mention!