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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The History of Kate Spain (at Fabric Mutt)

Kate Spain Blog Hop

Kate Spain's beautiful fabrics were one of my first designer purchases as a new quilter. It was all about the color for me, and maybe a little bit about the whimsical imagination she brings to every collection. Every time I see one of her prints, especially when it comes to her Terrain line, I'm reminded of storyboard art by Disney artist Mary Blair (if you're unfamiliar with her work, you can look inside this book here and preorder an updated version at a far more reasonable price here). There is such personality in the work by both of these artists, and this is probably what I love best. So here I give you the history of Kate Spain at Fabric Mutt...



Only a week or two before I started this blog, I made my fourth (and largest to that date) quilt from squares of Fandango. My husband actually picked out the fabric for this quilt. It was to be a Christmas gift for my parents-in-law, and we were looking for something that would complement the decor in their Southern Arizona home. I now look at this quilt and wish dearly that I had done so much more with it, but I was really new to quilting back then...



My sister loved the Fandango so much that I made her a table runner and place mats about a month later out of the leftovers. Believe it or not, I still have a bit of this collection in my fabric closet which I'm saving for a rainy day.



I fell hard for Good Fortune when it was released, and I was so excited to use most of two charm packs to make a lap quilt for a friend of mine who is originally from China.



For Bunny's birthday that February, I made some little pillows and felt characters as favors for her Alice in Wonderland party. The rest of the charm squares were perfect for these, and while the felt characters bit the dust soon afterward, those pillows are still going strong!



My very first tutorial was my Abacus Baby Quilt which I made with charm squares of Central Park that I got from a friend. My girls use this quilt often for tea parties with their dolls.



The most recent project I've made with Kate Spain fabrics is my Watercolor mini quilt, and it is definitely my favorite of all the ones you see here. This quilt hangs on the wall in my daughters' playroom, which used to be one of their bedrooms before they all moved into one room together. I've spent many a night looking up at this quilt while rocking a little one to sleep, and we've kept good company together. Perhaps that's part of the allure of Kate Spain's fabrics too: there's a friendliness in all of her collections that's so very hard to resist.

Be sure to visit the blog hop page here for the rest of the schedule, and so many thanks to my friend Alyce for letting me join in the fun!

21 comments:

  1. Wow, I see what you mean about Mary Blair! From my uneducated eye and heart, it's the colours they use that tell an unspoken story.

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  2. They are all lovely projects Heidi, it's fun to look back and see how far we've come! :-)

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  3. What a great idea, thanks for the tip, I've entered a quilt in the link up :-)

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  4. Great projects! Love the Abacus baby quilt!

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  5. That's a lot of Kate Spain love going on there! It's lovely seeing all of them.

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  6. Well said, her fabrics do have a playfulness to them and are just Happy. I made a Fandango quilt for my friends 40th birthday a few years ago and it is still treasured!

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  7. Beautiful projects using beautiful fabric... thanks for sharing and inspiring!!

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  8. Wowie!! Loved reading your review/story....and seein' all the Awesome projects you've made!! Beautiful!!!

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  9. You have done A LOT with Kate Spain fabrics! My favorites are the table runner and your watercolor quilt. They're all just beautiful.

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  10. I like your descriptions of Kate's fabrics. Friendly, that's a great word for what I feel about the collections. Thanks.

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  11. I just adore your Watercolor mini quilt - it's so stunning!

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  12. Beautiful projects! I am in love with that Watercolor quilt!

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  13. These are all lovely! Those little Alice in Wonderland felts are SO cute!!

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  14. Thank you for sharing all your lovely projects.

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  15. Heidi, thank you so much for being a part of this blog hop and for sharing your beautiful work with us! love them all. xo

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  16. Beautiful use of these fantastic Kate Spain fabric lines - I think you nailed it about what makes her lines so great - whimsical imagination and friendliness about them, plus her color choices are fantastic. Also thank you so much for the Mary Blair link with the discount.

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  17. I love this! Beautiful way to work the colors.

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  18. I love this! Beautiful way to work the colors.

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  19. All of your projects are beautiful, but I really love the watercolor mini! So many favourite prints in there and lovely that you've spent so much time enjoying it :)

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  20. I'm a HUGE fan of Kate Spain too! I think I have at least a charm pack of all her fabric lines.

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