Sew Fun

It’s fall in New England and these fiery orange Chinese lanterns are reminding me that I really must make something from the beautiful Lantern Bloom fabrics I bought last fall.

Lantern Bloom is a collection by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller fabrics. I am intrigued by it because the designs for the fabrics are taken directly from her paintings, that’s right, paintings! None of this computer-designed, geometric stuff that has become de rigueur in contemporary quilting fabrics. We’re talking brushes, canvases and “paint in your hair” kind of things (as is the name of Ms. Gunn’s blog). You can actually see the brush strokes and textures in the fabric. Brilliant.

There is an interesting interview with Laura over on True-Up, the website that is all fabric, all the time. She shares insights about the designs, her motivations and the unique challenges of transforming her paintings into this unique fabric line.

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I discovered True Up while I was doing some research about copyright protection in fabric design. This site is a feast for the fabric-fanatic: the tag line is “All Fabric, All the Time” and does she ever deliver!

Recently, while getting my daily dose of the Daily Swatch, I saw this:

It’s a swatch of vintage Danish Cotton. How do I know it’s vintage? Well, aside from the fact that she has it tagged in the “vintage” category, this fabric also proudly appears here…

in my knitting needles case (formerly, my grandmother knitting needles case) which was made by a friend of hers when I was of single-digit age.

I was completely delighted by the discovery, even more so by the coincidence that my daughter had recently returned from Denmark and brought me the one thing I wanted (after her safe and happy return): fabric.

She bought me “en meter” of the thinnest, slinkiest knit fabric I have ever beheld. She assured me the print was “very Danish”. (I think that means uber-cool). She said the fabric store across from her apartment was nothing but knits, knits, knits – everywhere! We speculated that it has something to do with the enormous popularity of leggings in Denmark. Remember leggings? “Hello, the 80′s are calling…. “. Please hang up quickly. In any case, apparently leggings are very popular in Denmark and I’m guessing from the Back-to-School advertising that bedecks the local mall, leggings are back in the U.S. as well. Much to my horror.

Refusing to ever sport a pair of such atrocities ever again, I rejected the suggestion to make leggings out my gorgeous Danish fabric. But what to make? I only get “one chance”. Once I cut into it, if I mess up, there is no going back to the store for another yard, er, I mean “meter”. So, I settled on a case for my sunglasses. At least I’d have “something” made from her fabric – something that only used a teenie bit of the fabric until I could decide what I really wanted to make. The case keeps my glasses looking fashionable and even though it’s just a little thing, it’s the little things that make me think of her.

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