Tula Pink

I would like to take a small Parisville break to introduce y’all to my Hushabye rejected swatches. It’s a hard thing to throw out certain pieces when I am busy deciding what makes the cut and what doesn’t. There are soooo many reasons why one choice is made over another. In the end I have a nice little pile of fallen soldiers that were maybe just a tad too green or didn’t have the punch I was looking for or, more often than not, they just didn’t play well with the others. What ever the reason, I have them and I love them. Once their fate has been decided I have a couple of options. They can sit in a drawer which would be boring and useless or I could take these little one of a kind gems and make something out of them.

I channeled a fictitious Grandma to come up with this little number. My real grandma wore Chanel and fancied her middle finger above all others. She was not a quilter but an expert shopper and maker of tiny tuna sandwiches. We miss her.

Anywhoo, there are some real treasures in there.  I love the idea of having a quilt that is absolutely one of a kind. It makes me feel happy and special.

I get asked a lot about how I come up with my ideas. My thought process is anything but linear. I have been holding onto this issue of Vogue magazine since September of 2006 when it was released. I loved the idea of a Teen Queen and the movie, Marie Antoinette, by Sophia Coppola was mesmerizing for me. I have no idea what the dialogue was because the volume on the visuals were at like 10,000 decibels. My eyes took over and apparently took all the function out of my ears.

I consider myself to be a maximalist, if there is a swirl, a drape, a flourish, a color I will use it, multiply it, blow it up and roll around in it. This whole era of decadence has been screaming at me for 4 years. I finally got the chance to do it.

This is my idea landscape. It’s how  I start thinking about something. The photos set the mood, I start gathering colors and making sketches. More often than not some Dr. Seuss characters will creep into the pics to see what’s going on. They are good at letting me know when something is getting too stuffy. When a picture is finally starting to form in my head I will begin to draw more seriously. I usually know exactly what the collection will look like before I ever start drawing. Then it’s like I’m my own production slave. I like working for myself. I am a good boss, fair but firm and I always bring good snacks.

I have never been called a tease by so many strangers in my entire life! Usually people get to know me before they start calling me names. I mean, it’s the polite thing to do.

So here it is… Parisville! Finally! In all of it’s glory. My sample yardage should arrive in a few weeks so for now I leave you with this. Enjoy!

I don’t have a final date for availability but I will be debuting the collection at Fall Quilt Market in October. I believe it will start shipping in November but don’t hold me to that. As soon as I know, you will will know. Now is the time to start letting your local shops know you want it!

Oh, and how about some laminated fabrics? Sound good? Okay…

As long I am waiting for my fabric to come in I thought I might just start at the beginning and work my way up to the present. It seems like the most orderly and logical way to proceed.

So imagine this… There’s this 21st century teenager with mad style and a tendency toward the over dramatic.  Maybe she doesn’t have a lot of money for fancy clothes and junk so she exercises her creativity with a bottle of hairspray and a well placed bow. She sits in the back of a coffee shop, shrouded in a veil of aqua net, reading a second hand copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance or maybe something from the Dr. Suess oeuvre, depending on her mood.

People look at her, they stare even. The people wonder if that small corner of the world lacks gravity like that mystery spot in the Redwoods where the ball rolls uphill. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t notice. I’m pretty sure her shoes are untied, a dilemma that seems infinitely more pressing than the many wondering eyes. I mean, how does one bend over with all of that hair on their head?

Maybe she’s just a regular girl cursed with too much hair and no way to tame it so she just accepts it for what its worth and works with what she’s got. I think I would want to know her. I would probably design a collection of fabric just for her. I might even call it Parisville…

This is pretty much just a gratuitous quilting post. My personal quilt ninja, Angela, has done it again. This is actually the back of a quilt that I am writing a pattern for. This was the test quilt. I can’t wait for Parisville to get here so I can make the real thing the way it was intended. Then I can show you the front! Yay! All of the colored fabrics are my bleached Plume and Neptune pieces. It’s weird but in in a good way. That mini dot is some random Japanese fabric I found at my mom’s shop (thanks mom! I promise I’ll pay for that someday, maybe but probably not).

Oh, and a shout out to Polly and Laurie (Of Minick and Simpson fame) for their luscious black plaid. It’s like butter to work with. Way to go Ladies! I never work with black, it’s not in my palette. I always set my fabrics on white because I only want you to see the fabrics and nothing else. I was feeling rebellious that day and since I work for myself I was the only person around to rebel against. Every time my brain told me to do something I did the opposite, hence the black. There was some scratching and biting but in the end I made up with myself. It was a very schizophrenic day in Pinkerville to say the least. I should have my own reality show.

I never intended to put these up for sale but I received about a million emails so here it is. The store is up! But only for a while. If every one who emailed me actually buys a pair I might take a vacation or maybe buy a years supply of grilled cheese sandwiches, which ever way the wind blows that day.

A few things you should know… First, these are men’s sizes, the woman’s shoes were cute but not my style, just a hair too “Gidget” for me, there is a conversion chart. Second, if I am walking down the street and I see you wearing them I will rush and then proceed to tackle you, just because. Third, if I see you on the street and we are wearing the same exact pair at the same time then we will link arms and possibly skip together, either that or we’ll kick some trash cans over.

Check out the shoes here

For a fabric designer the color palette is kin to the elusive unicorn. You may catch a glimpse of her but if you miss her you are dead in the water. On the other hand, you may catch her only to be speared by her weird horn thing. Basically, I’m saying it’s tough, you got that, right?

Anywhoo, for the sake of progress by transparency of process I introduce you to my current unicorn. This is by far the most complex palette to date. There are so many little details in Parisville, each with her own personality. It left me feeling obligated to honor each of them with their own color. Side note: I have heard rumors about people that have a lot of friends and have to remember all kinds of birthdays and attend lots of parties. I never leave my studio so I’m not sure if this is true but it could be, you know, somewhere “outside”. Crafting the Parisville color palette is what I think that might be like.

To give you a scale reference please note the following statistics:
Full Moon Forest: 13 Colors
Flutterby: 14 colors
Nest: 14 colors
Neptune: 10 colors
Hushabye: 13 colors
Plume: 11 colors
PARISVILLE: 35 COLORS! What?!? That’s crazy talk! No, it’s true!

I have been hinting at a lot of changes coming up for me. It’s finally time to start talking about it! If you follow me on Twitter then you already know. I have been keeping this all bottled up for months and months. I just couldn’t take it anymore.

So here it is… I am now officially working with Free Spirit! I am so excited to be in such good company! My new line is coming along fantastically and I can’t wait to share it with y’all. Parisville is the evolution of Tula Pink. Everything I have learned in my previous six fabric collections has culminated here. There is more POW and candy colored goodness than these little threads of cotton could possibly contain. I actually feel bad for the cloth being burdened by so much awesomeness.

Parisville is the collection that I have always wanted to design but didn’t have the guts to do. This idea has been sitting in my brain trust for a few years but I had to wait for my skills to catch up with it. I drew my pants off for this one. For real, like 6 months of drawing to get it all right before I took it digital or even thought about color.

I am still tweaking colors and working out some of the production junk, you know, the “job” part of fabric design. Keep checking back for updates and sneak peeks over the next few months. I am so excited I could spit!!! or take a nap but I probably won’t do either, I’ve got work to do.

In between re-runs of America’s Next Top Model I was able to get some new products up in my store. Yay for me! Yay for you! I received a ton of emails about the quilt labels that I use on all of my quilts so now I offer them up to all of you. I have also used them on the inside of tote bags as pockets. I am pretty excited about them and if I happen to see them everywhere I won’t mind at all.

My little Tula Cans come in 5 colors, Eggplant, Aqua, Sweet Pea, Mustard and Tomato (I couldn’t come up with a cute food related name for Aqua. We all have our short comings). I feel very strongly about labeling projects. I just know that in 100 years or so people are going to be taking my quilts to the Antique Road Show on Mars. They will all be properly labeled and there will be no question about their extraordinary value.

I always label mine with the date, pieced by, quilted by and location is a good thing to have on there too. I also like to add special info like the fabric I used, the pattern or technique I used to piece and any info about why I made it (like if it was for a special occasion, charity, show, quilt market, pattern sample). What really makes a handmade item special is it’s history. You won’t be around to explain forever so leave a clue, ya know?

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