You could use it for so many things! Keep the kids occupied before dinner by letting them draw on the table or, make them a special lunchbox, using our Lunch Bunch pattern,  where you can write their name and a new message every day.

For serious students, use the Composition Cover pattern for a special notebook cover…

Chalkcloth is even great for parties! Your guests will always know which glass is theirs when you’ve made Chalkcloth Koozie Koutures.

Have you used Chalkcloth before? Any good ideas you want to share?

Voile, for those who don’t know, is a sheer fabric usually made of 100% cotton, or rarely, cotton blends. The term is French and means veil. If you haven’t sewn with it you are missing out. The fabric has a great hand and amazing drape. Voile can, of course, be used in many different sewing projects. It makes a lovely light curtain panels, incredibly soft bedding and, from what I hear, most of Europe uses voile in their quilting.

I like to use voile for garment sewing. It has a lighter weave than a quilting cotton which give the garment a nicer drape and, I think, a fresher, more professional look. These days lots of designers such as Joel Dewberry, Amy Butler and Anna Maria Horner are getting on the voile bandwagon by including a voile collection as well as their quilting cottons. See below for some of my favorite voile solids and prints, and some suggestions for projects!

FreeSpirit not only offers patterned voile, but an amazing variety of solid colors… So now you need a voile project don’t you? Well, we have some suggestions for you.

The Klassic Kimono loungewear pattern would be a great match for voile. It’s going to be hot soon and a lightweight robe will be perfect for summer.

The Chic Cowl Neck Shift would be lovely in voile. The drape of the fabric will be really flattering in this style dress.

If you are looking for the perfect blouse for this summer, the Garden Party Pullover made out of voile would be perfect with capris or skirts. Make it out of a fun print, or a solid if you want a shirt that will take you everywhere.

The Over the Top Tunic is another great option to make in voile. This is another garment that is perfect on it’s own for summer, or you can layer it for fall. And you can make it in either a shirt or dress length!

Have you used a lot of voile in your sewing before? What do you love about it? Is there anything you don’t like? Let us know!

So, the booth started out like this. Disaster!

But, with a little team effort…

Amy’s excited to introduce our new brand!

Donna at rest in our chair and ottoman covered in CROSSROADS

The booth was finally finished!We had three booth spaces at market. We used the far left space to introduce SoHo Bandana, the middle section was for order taking, and the far right was for Crossroads Denim. We worked hard to keep it organized during the whirlwind of market.

We had a great response to our new fabric lines, SoHo Bandana and CROSSROADS Denim, as well as to our new coordinating patterns. It is great to hear such positive reviews, after working so hard on a project! Bandana won’t be shipping until July, but we are ecstatic to hear that CROSSROADS is ready to start shipping any day now. So be sure to request your local fabric store carry the lines and schedule a trunk show, so you can see all this in person!

 We will have more Quilt Market recaps and inspiration over at the Amy’s blog, so be sure to keep an eye out.

Lotta’s fabrics would work well as Home Dec projects, in fact, I have a secret dream of making an entirely Lotta Jansdotter Kitchen with hot pads, tea towels, cloth napkins, table runners and even a placemat or two. Perhaps I will use our Bay Blanket or Alpine Army Table collections as a starting point!

I’m excited to be able to share the news that we are working with Lotta on a line of  patterns! We are just getting started, and will share more as the process moves along. The patterns will debut at Houston Quilt Market in the fall, and we think you will love them.. stay tuned!

Do you dream of a Lotta room? Or maybe a bag or quilt? Let us know!

Booth design is very important at Quilt Market. The booth needs to tell the shop owner all about your brand, in the instant that they walk by. This year we have an extra large booth, so we’ve worked very hard to design it. This extra work we have put in will not only make it look great, but also make it easier to set up!

It all begins with the crate, which we ship full of samples weeks beforehand. Here Amy is rolling the crate at Pittsburgh Quilt Market.

When you arrive, your booth is nothing but a metal divider. The first thing to go on is curtains.

It’s important to really highlight your favorite new items for that season. This booth from Houston Quilt Market does a great job drawing attention to Vintage Notions, which we had just released. It also shows off our Indygo Junction logo, which had just been re-designed.

We bring a lot of mannequins to our booth. It is the best way to show the garments off properly. These ladies have traveled all over the country with us!

In the end, you have a sea of beautiful booths. Here is a bird’s eye view of Pittsburgh Quilt Market.

This year we sent two large crates and a variety of smaller shipments to meet us at Market. Although the contents might look haphazard, they are well-packed for ultimate organization. It’s almost time to crack them open and start setting up!

An award-winning booth!

Amy’s husband Bob was on hand to help that year…

Even little Jack put some hours into the booth!

Now, here are some images of IJ’s booth from  Spring 2012 Quilt Market in Kansas City. It’s amazing to see how things have changed!

This cute little elephant is from our Patchwork Pals pattern, which was made to coordinate with our Patchwork Pals fabric line.

These lovely ladies are the Recycled Sisters. They are made of repurposed sweaters, notions and hankies.

The Yo-Yo Monkeys were much loved at market. Don’t they have the sweetest faces?

People thought they PJ Pet Pillows were pretty perfect. A friendly face and a spot to pack your PJs. They were so popular we made smaller Zipper Critters as well!

Have you made any of these guys yet? I have a nephew’s birthday coming up, I think he may be in need of a new stuffed toy….

Here Amy meets with a store owner who is wearing a lovely example of our Great Fit Gored Skirt pattern. (Amy is wearing the Day to Night dress)

The Shopper is a popular pattern! This sturdy bag has plenty of room for all those catalogs and samples you gather at market.

I wonder what patterns we will spy next week in Portland? If any of you are coming to market next week, wear (or carry) your favorite Indygo Junction pattern and stop by our booth, we would love to see it!

Happy Mother’s Day!

]]> http://www.indygojunction.com/blog/uncategorized/quilt-market-countdown-i-spy-ij/feed 0 http://www.indygojunction.com/blog/uncategorized/quilt-market-countdown-fabric-lines-of-years-past http://www.indygojunction.com/blog/uncategorized/quilt-market-countdown-fabric-lines-of-years-past#comments Sat, 11 May 2013 18:34:24 +0000 Indygo Junction Staff http://www.indygojunction.com/blog/?p=3957 As you know, we are really excited to debut our new fabric lines, SoHo Bandana and CROSSROADS Denim at Quilt Market. Which got us thinking about our fabric lines from years past…

One of our favorites was the sweet, vintage inspired A Stitch In Time with Mother Goose.  This line coordinated with our embroidery book, A Stitch In Time which has 24 vintage nursery line art designs. 

The Sew-It Book collection had a lot of great prints, and projects, in fact,  The Sew-It book is still available!

Mother Goose was a very popular line for us. Everyone loved the nostalgic fairy tale prints.

In 2008 we debuted Tiny Tots, which was inspired by a 1940′s pre-reader book for children. You could recreate the book with our fabric panel, or use it to make other fun children’s projects.

The Dressmaking Collection was another popular line, based off of images from Amy’s book, Vintage Notions.
One of our favorite lines was Halloween Masquerade, which was inspired by 1920′s/1930′s vintage images. It’s always fun to go all out for Halloween, and this let us decorate to the nines!

It’s so interesting to see how our lines have changed over the years. Which has been your favorite? Did you miss out on something that you covet? I wish I had gotten more of The Dressmaking Collection and Halloween Masquerade, two of my favorites!