Never Say Never!

In previous posts, I proclaimed a "disturbance in the Force", a phenomenon known to all Star Wars fans, and a phrase I borrowed to describe a bend if you will, within me regarding a very long standing choice.  

A change in a long standing choice.....of what?

Well....this stuff I LOVE!  Say the word cheddar and I'm there, cracker in hand.  Say the word cheddar regarding fabric......well.......not so much.  

I'm on record for many years and in several publications that "I don't do cheddar" fabrics.  I know they were popular in the 1800's, and I maintain that I wouldn't have liked them then either.  It's just a personal thing and I know I'm in the minority here.

About the change.....so have I changed my mind?  No....not really.  Confused?  

The good folks at Marcus Fabrics called a few months ago to ask me if I would design a few cheddar prints for them.  Not one to shy away from a challenge, after a few minutes of thinking about it, and reminding them that cheddar is not in my wheelhouse, I accepted the challenge for several reasons.  Designing cheddar fabrics is much easier than designing a quilt using them, and......I think it's good to step out of your comfort zone now and then to stretch your imagination and skills.  

This new collection, called Cheddar & Friends has just 12 sweet prints.  

These are the six new Cheddar prints.  They range from a warm autumnal orange to the very bright classic cheddar orange.  There are prints suitable for small blocks and others for large pieces such as setting squares, border and sashings.  

The trouble is, for those quilters who really enjoy using Cheddar prints, they're not often available, so this little group will help them feed their stash!

 Cheddar make up six of the new 12 prints.  What about the other six?

During my conversation about the cheddar collection, I mentioned my love of taupe color fabric and how that color was another that is also missing on the quilt shop shelves.  I notice a definite trend for using more and more taupe fabrics in CW Reproduction style quilts.  I don't think it was an authentic color of the time period... I think what it does is give an aged look to quilts made with it.  We've all seen antique quilts where the muslin or light print looks brown and dirty and that is the color the taupe can show.  It's a warm color that I adore.  A true taupe is hard to find.....or shall I say WAS hard to find!

The "friends" in Cheddar & Friends are the six taupe fabrics included in the collection.

  The darkest print is a chocolate brown with taupe and burnt orange.  It mixes the two fabrics beautifully and would be gorgeous as a border or sashing with the cheddar and taupes.  I can hardly wait to begin playing and designing with them!

Click here to see the entire Cheddar & Friends collection.  The fabrics will be delivered to your local quilt shop in March, so if you like them, ask your favorite shop to order them!

Normally, I offer Fat Quarter and Fat Eighth bundles of every collection I desing but hesitate to do so with the collection.  I'm sure interested in hearing what you think about the Cheddars and the Taupes.  

If you have time, please leave me a comment about what you think and I'll choose a bunch of winners for free patterns AND a few people will get a Fat Eighth of these new fabrics.  

As any loyal Star Wars fan would say.....may the Force be with you!  Especially this weekend with the release of Rouge One!  Teehee!