Today's post is going to be very brief. I had to write it quickly Sunday before I left for a little out of town adventure with my best friend. But I wanted to make sure I got the word out about the new Shibori fabrics in the shop.

​First up is this Stash Pack with 8 different fat eights of beautifully textured Shibori fabrics. Each one is dyed twice to add more color depth and patterning.

If you need a larger piece there are also 3 new half yard pieces available in the shop.
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Since I won't have access to update the Fabric of the Week, I'm extending Midnight as Fabric of the Week for one more week. I think this gradient is one of the best options to pair up with the Shibori fabrics, maybe as a background for applique blocks. it's my current favorite blue.
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Also this week, Black is back! If you are new here you might not know the story behind my black fabrics. When I started dyeing, there was an awesome black dye available to us. About 6 (or so) years ago, that dye was discontinued and none of the replacements met my needs of having a wonderful deep dark black plus reliable shades of gray. I spent over 6 months and 67 recipes before I finally created my own black dye. 

​Stephanie Wilds used a Black Shades Pack for her dog portraits.

Continuing the blue theme, my favorite blue gradient is the fabric of the week this week. Midnight is 20% off through Sunday. This gradient would be a wonderful border for a scrappy blue quilt or the background for a stormy sky or undersea scene.
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I had so much fun in the dye studio last week. Sometimes I meticulously plan what I'm going to dye, sometimes I wing it and sometimes I have a little plan. These 2 new gradients are the result of a little plan. It carries a lot of risk with gradients because they generally require a meticulous plan. Last week I lucked out. 

​At least, I think I did because I love both of these new gradients.

Can you tell that I was thinking about the beach with this one? This one reminds me of the lighting at the very end of the day when everything looks a little faded. You are out for your last beach walk of the day and you are enjoying the vista of seafoam, seashells and driftwood on the sand. 

Reds and oranges are my favorite colors and it's been a while since I designed a gradient for myself. Coral Atoll is for me and hopefully someone else will like it too! I can't wait to design a project to use with this one. The color is definitely coral. Not red and not orange but something beautifully in between.

There's even a new Shades Pack, Coral, to coordinate with the gradient or to use separately in your project. In the swatch photo you can see how Coral falls between the oranges and the reds.

What would you do with these new gradients?
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The fabric of the week this week is the Frolic Gradient. It's a really popular one for landscape backgrounds. It's 20% off through Sunday.

This week I have a new Stash Pack for you. Stash Packs are sets of 10 fat eights in a loose color theme. Sets of browns are only second in popularity to greens. This new one is called Underground. Each set has 10 fat eights of fabric with lots of color texture.

This quilt to the left is one that I made with 2 Stash Packs mixed with a hand dyed solid. I used the Accuquilt Hunter's Star die to cut the pieces.

Stash Packs are very highly textured fabrics. Half are mottled and half have stripy effects. Here are 6 of the fabrics in this new set. So many possibilities!
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I also have some new Stars in the shop this week. Stars are one-of-a-kind one yard cuts of fabric. Stars are available in a wide variety of colors but this week I focused on the colors of summer at the beach because I can't wait to get there myself.
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The fabric of the week this week is the Skyscapes Stash Pack. It's like having the beach vibe of the new Stars in a Stash Pack like Underground. Skyscapes is 20% off through Sunday.

There's nothing like a riverside vacation with beautiful sunsets to inspire a new gradient. It's called Awaken but it can be your sunrise or sunset, whatever you need.

This gradient could also make it's way into a lovely baby quilt. It would also work well in a bargello technique, without all the annoying strip piecing the way that John Anderson did in his bargello using Morning Glory. He only had to add in a bit of black and then he was ready to cut and piece, significantly speeding up the process.

I also have 2 gradient that are back in stock this week.

Blue Sky Gradient is, hand down, the best selling gradient. Here are just three art quilts made using the Blue Sky Gradient. All three of these beautiful pieces are made by Patricia Caldwell.  Click on each one to see more detail.

This newsletter is totally focused on gradients so the fabric of the week must be a gradient too. Get ready for some summer gardening with Vintage Rose. It's 20% off through Sunday!
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The newsletter is short and sweet this week. I'm putting one of my favorite categories on sale for you. Reflections are dyed to be very streaky to add great textures to your project. They are sold by the yard.
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I will be away March 28 - April 2 so no orders will be shipped that week. If you need something please get your order in before Sunday.

I just don't thing there's any more beautiful hand dyed fabric than Shibori. I love dyeing it, I love collecting it and I love sewing with it. I don't make as much of it as I should because it's just so time consuming but when I do, it's pure joy and I hope you see that in the resulting fabrics.

This week I have one new Shibori Stash Pack and 6 new individual half yards.

Here are 4 of the pieces in this new Stash Pack. Each fat eighth has a dark side and a light side created by overlap on the pvc pole.

Here are the 6 individual pieces. Each is a half yard. In the listings you can see full images of each fabric. The only on the lower right is the first true brown shibori that I've ever achieved. Check them all out in the shop.
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Since Shibori fabric is traditionally blue, I selected the beautiful Indra Shades Pack as the fabric of the week. This blue is just a little brighter than the blue of your favorite denim jeans. It invokes deep seas and midnight skies. It's 20% off through Sunday.

I know. It's Spring and I should be dyeing some bright greens and clear pastels. Lately I've been dyeing a lot of gold and blues. I love all colors, even an occasional pink. I love the Spring colors. I love the golds and blues. But the color that speaks loudest to me is orange. My bedroom is even painted a dark orange. Last week in the dye studio I "needed" some orange and Pumpkin Patch was born.

So just for a minute channel some Autumn vibes for this new Pumpkin Patch Gradient. I'm thinking that if I start now making a star quilt like Patricia's, that I could have it done in time for Autumn.
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Woodlands and Jenny Lake Gradients are back in stock this week. As I look at them I see that the whole post is out of season!  I'm OK with that. I love the rich autumnal colors. In fact I could see adding these fabrics with Pumpkin Patch in my star quilt.

Here are 2 customer projects that use these popular gradients. Miriam Ahladas used Jenny Lake for the background of her quilt and Rene Iannarelli used Woodlands and a few other fabrics in her Fall Marsh quilt.
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I'm sticking with all kinds of themes with this week's Fabric of the Week. It's a gradient, autumnal colored and it's the gradient that I'm working with in my current project. Summer Sunset gradient will be the border for a large Lone Star center. If you want to use any gradient as the color story for your project I can always custom dye individual colors the way that I did for this project. In fact I recently did a kit for this quilt for another customer in a different palette. The pattern is Mardi Gras from Vector Quilts.

I believe that Reflections are the fabrics that are the most fun to make. I absolutely love making them and I need to plan a traditional quilt around them. I admit that I mostly design them for art quilters to use as nature elements like sky, water and land, but they will look great in traditional blocks as well. With my equipment I can only make 4 designs at a time which is really convenient for creating the display tile for publishing.

In this set I've created a blue with streaks of gray for a moody sky. The green could represent fields or, at a close level, reeds and blades of grass. There's another Reflections in the shop that's darker green with dark browns that this would work well with. The dark purple could be moon reflections on a midnight sea. The pink/orange was the most challenging for me.  I'm somewhat hardwired toward dark fabrics so it takes a lot of discipline to make a super light fabric. I've done lots of fabrics in these colors but this time I finally succeeded in making a subtle sunset (or sunrise) fabric. I'm patting myself on the back for this one for simply sticking to my pre-dyeing notes for the first time ever.

I hope you enjoy these and that one will inspire a new project for you. If these don't meet your needs, check out all of the other Reflections.
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I don't know what things are like where you are, but we have had one heck of a gray winter and this past week feels like nothing but clouds and rain. I need some sunshine and today I'm relying on fabric for those rays. Sun Rays Stash Pack is the fabric of the week and is 20% off through Sunday.

Stash Packs have 10 fat eights of fabric in a range of colors in the theme. Stash Packs are great for stash building. Yellow is a color that many people avoid but we all need a little of it from time to time. This stash pack is a great way to get a lot of little bits of yellow to enhance your fabric stash.

​If you have sunshine where you are please send some to Virginia.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I thought I was dyeing On the Horizon? Instead I applied the dye in the wrong order and got NOT On The Horizon. There's still some of "Not" on sale but now I have the real On The Horizon back in the shop! You might have seen this quilt in the Customer Gallery. Patricia Caldwell used On The Horizon for her sashing and borders to great effect.

Also back in stock this week is Imperial Dragon. Patricia Caldwell sent us another of her beautiful quilts, this one using Imperial Dragon as the background. She added lots of thread work, fibers, painting and beadwork to make Rainbow Reflections.

The Fabric of the Week is the Mulberry Shades Pack. This one seems to be most popular for monochromatic portrait quilts. Stephanie Wilds is the expert that I loot to for portrait quilts like this one of Lady, done in black. Mulberry would be a nice choice for some skin tones.

Mulberry is 20% off through Sunday.