Art Journal by Bari J for Windham Fabrics

Have you missed our regular fabric posts?? Back to our regular programming...Bari J has been a busy girl (read below for the details). We are so glad to see her newest line for Windham! She's with us today to talk about Art Journal, a collection that is both whimsical and elegant, painterly and feminine. The colors are fantastic -- saturated, but not too bright pastels that flow together; lavender, teal, goldenrod, spring green, pink and fuchsia. Thanks to Bari for being our guest today, and let us know what you think of Art Journal!

Catch us up on the Bari J studio... in the past year you’ve launched a line of beautiful sewing patterns, new products, and now a new line of fabric, have been featured in several great craft publications, on top of running your store, your design business, and moving. How do you divide your time and what have you learned from juggling all of these ventures?

Wow. When you say it all at once it sounds scary. And you forgot writing a book! LOL! It seems like I'm working all of the time. I'm lucky to have a husband and kids who are really supportive. They all bagged the patterns for instance. But I'll admit it's really, really difficult. I work a lot. But I love what I do. I learned a lot from the process of creating patterns. The illustrating and diagrams alone were a huge undertaking. And we aren't moving until mid-summer, so that's been low on the radar.

How long did Art Journal take to design?

I want to say it took several months, but ideas were brewing here and there for years.

What is the inspiration and how is it a departure from Full Bloom?

The inspiration was mixed media art journaling and collage art. You can see that especially in the alphabet print and the bird print, I think. It is a departure from Full Bloom in that it has less all over florals. But it does still have the painted look that I love.

What do you hope to see your fans create from Art Journal?

I think it makes a great baby and kids line. I also see it on handbags (in particular with the florals), aprons, quilts and more.

What’s out next for you?

My newest line is scheduled to deliver to stores in October. It's called Country Lane, and I feel it's my best work so far. It will have a really wide appeal both to people looking for vintage/country and those that are looking for more modern style. I also love that although you can mix all of the pieces together the way you can with Full Bloom and Art Journal, you can also separate them into darks and lights. Really, I just love it. And I'll be teaching at Quilter's Affair in Sisters, Oregon July 5 through the 9th.

Bari J. Ackerman
Bari J Blog
Bari J Website

Spring Market: Sunday

I'm still trying to catch up on our hundreds and hundreds of photos from the weekend! It's funny -- the time goes by in such a blur, I can't even remember what happened until now, looking back at the photos. Here are a few more memorables to share!

Oh first though...Dr. Seuss (September) is almost in the house! And this striking French Reel kit from Maison de Garance (October). Both are iron-hot items for which you will want to sign up for notification, because they will be out the door in no time once they arrive!

Joanna's Snuggle Softies -- cow or pig? I say a delightful crossbreed.

The Cottage at Cardiff Farms booth. The heart quilt, of course, caught Cheryl's eye :) (She likes hearts. Heart those strippy hearts!)

Amanda Herring from The Quilted Fish. Love this sweet lady!! And a funny, creative genius, to boot. Her line, Sweet Divinity, will be out in the fall, and oh em gee we wanna show you so bad!!!! Soon! Soon!

Here's where I wanted to tell Lynne Hagmeier to "Shut up" Stacy London style. But I didn't know if she would take it the wrong way. How gorgeous is this Summer's End quilt!? Shut up, Kansas Troubles!

Yummy Sweetwater booth. Everything is just the right shade of calm. It reminds me of "brown paper packages, tied up with string...just a few of my favorite things" :) Pure delight!

Meadowsweet Two!! Thank you Sandi for gracing us with more Meadowsweet!

Why Patty Young won 2nd place double booth. Yup. That's her upcoming Playdate line! We'll have it, of course! And her knits, too!

I felt like shopping in the Favorite Things booth -- yet the baby made this photo "aw"-able.

How could I not post this?? Kate Spain wrapped up in Fandango. It's a wonderful thing to be wrapped up in.

Patty and Sandi Henderson in front of the Fig Tree Quilts booth. I love seeing how their creative spirits foster this incredible friendship.

Kim Kight and Caroline Devoy! It was such a pleasure to meet/catch up with them. Thanks for obliging me with all the many photo ops and beautiful smiles :)

Kansas City Star's booth displaying so many gorgeous quilts!

The LakeHouse booth, showing off Fun Flowers! Rachel Griffith's quilt is smack dab center. Keep your eyes peeled for it because we get to kit it! Woop!

The G.E. Designs booth! A minty fantasy of Halloween and Christmas!

And this photo just can't contain all this talent.

I also can't neglect to show you Kaari Meng, the French General we all salute for bringing us Rouenneries, Rural Jardin, and now Maison de Garance! Your fabrics are wonderful!

Moda at Market

So we spent the weekend drinking in amazing, wonderful, delightful, awe-inspiring fabric designs for the approaching season. Of course, as always, Moda is the company that always brings us something new and fun in their booths and themes.

We were always so excited to come home and show you what we got from them!! ...so we did!! All of the lines we have bought from Moda this season are now on our Coming Soon page!

They are...

Bliss by Bonnie & Camille

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Fig Tree Quilts

City Weekend by Oliver + S

Clermont Farm by Minick & Simpson

Collections for a Cause - Hope by Howard Marcus

Dream On by Urban Chiks

Happy by Me and My Sister Designs

It's a Hoot by MoMo

Lily & Will by Bunny Hill Designs

Lollipop by Sandy Gervais

Maison De Garance by French General

Remembrance by Brannock & Patek

Go look! But don't attempt to reach into your computer screen (trust me, never works).

And now...the winners! (Trumpet blast please)

The Bliss FQB goes to Carol!
The Maison De Garance FQB goes to Jennifer Feicht!
The Amy Butler thread goes to Ellen Eder!

And...oh hey...what the...we have two boxes of Kaffe Fassett thread to give away too! Guess the bonus winner will be...Cory!

Congrats all...keep coming back as we'll still be recapping all week long! :)

Spring Market 2010: Saturday

First thing this morning, we met with our wonderful Moda rep for our favorite appointment of the weekend. We saw (and tweeted) of the wonderful new lines, which we will get on our Coming Soon page very, very soon!! The exciting new addition are these cute new Moda Candy Bars, available in light & dark versions, depending on your taste! Each cute chocolate bar box contains 4 - 2.5" x 5" 'candy bars' and includes a project sheet with 6 project ideas! The "Light Chocolate" variety contains candy bars of Bliss, Breakfast at Tiffany's, City Weekend, and Fandango. The "Dark Chocolate" variety contains candy bars of Clermont Farm, Collection for a Cause - Hope, Luna Notte, and Remembrance. (YES, we bought all of these new lines!)

We got our little photos of the boxes online, so you can check them out! You can help us out by going to our Coming Soon page and signing up to be receive notification when they arrive, so we know how many to order now! (Arrival is slated for June, so yes you will get them before the fabric hits stores! THANKS MODA!) 

I got to spend more time with the lovely and talented Vanessa Christenson of V and Co. I was so glad to get to know her better. Cracks me up, that one :) Here she is with the Bunny Lady (who won first for best double booth award) and that Thimble Blossoms gal. Patty Young won a very close second, and I love that two very different styles won these!).

We then whisked away to our other appointments of the day -- Robert Kaufman, Andover, and Michael Miller. (Michael Miller won first place for the best multiple booths, BTW!)

Wanna see the Michael Miller area?

Patty Young's Potty Girls!

It's Valerie and Anne, aka Pillow & Maxfield, back with Pretty Bird! The birdies are going to be a free pattern available on their new website!

And we finally had some time to walk the show a bit, just meandering up and down the aisles and drinking in all the patterns and quilts and booth details...

Daniela Stout of Cozy Quilt Designs, a perennial fave.

Always, always warm, rich and inviting -- Anna Maria Horner. Love you, Anna. All hail.

Alexia, an Anna Maria helper, chillaxin' on the pretty couch.

Baby booties. Sucker for this display.

Melissa Averinos let us hold her unicorn.

Heather's Sanibel display is drenched in sweet, summer-bright yumminess. Completely drenched.

Kati Cupcake rocks across the aisle with adorable children's boutique apparel!

Andover appointment...I see you, Spot!

Chatted with Lynette, who is one of the most pleasant people around! Scandinavian Christmas quilt in the background!

This heart quilt at The Cottage at Cardiff Farms caught Cheryl's eye!

Brandywine Designs with adorable paper doll quilts on display!

Yellow Creek Quilt Designs, who won first place for a single booth, and for good reason! Porch swing!!!

Miss Rosie's Quilt Co., of course!

Birch Organic Fabrics' booth with a cute PJ set from their upcoming lines.

A teaser of Heartspun Quilts upcoming Prairie Women's Sewing Circle Journey club. You can check it out at FQS!

Terri Degenkolb rockin' her Whimsicals booth!

Vicki Bellino, sweet as ever, at her Bloom Creek booth in front of the amazing Aunt Grace Circle of Friends Block of the Month she designed for Marcus Fabrics!