Lily Ashbury

Holy crap, everyone.  Could it be another blog post?

One thing that happened this year that I'm really excited about is some new work I've taken on.  For the past 6 months, I've been sewing samples, writing and editing patterns, and even doing a little design work for Lily Ashbury!  Lily Ashbury is the name of a Moda fabric line designed by the amazing Stephanie Carter, who works right here in Vancouver.  You can read the Lily Ashbury blog and find yourself some cool tutorials and projects.

I'm beyond thrilled to be her helper, and one of the perks of this job is getting to see the new fabric lines waaaaaaay before they hit the stores.  The most recent collection, called High Street, was released in May of this year.  The next one is called Folk Lore and I completely adore it; it's partially inspired by Mexican folk art prints.  I cannot wait to get started on projects.

With the High Street line, Stephanie asked me to write/edit the patterns and sew up samples for a sweet ruffle-pocket apron, a travel sewing kit, and an appliqué quilt.

Me modelling the Chelsea Apron in very terrible lighting.

The High Street quilt sample, nearly done (unbound).

Printed patterns! Exciting!

Patterns, Travel Sewing Kit sample, High Street Quilt sample,
 and fabrics on display at the Cloth Shop on Granville Island.

Stephanie and I also worked on some block designs for submission to a 100 quilt blocks magazine.  I don't think we've heard yet which block(s?) have been selected for publication but the three below are what we came up with.

The first two blocks are pieced, and the third is appliqué.  I must admit, I haven't done a ton of appliqué in the past but I think I'm managing it well.  The pieced blocks have an interesting secondary pattern when put together into a quilt top.

Coming soon will be a pattern for the Bon Voyage Cosmetics Tote. I pretty much designed this from the ground up -- with a number of samples made and a lot of feedback and tweaking from Stephanie, of course. The pattern has been submitted to Moda and I believe the final pattern sample will be made of the yet-unreleased Folk Lore line.  The image below shows the final prototype; it includes a pouch pocket on the exterior, a zip pocket on one side of the inside, and a set of 5 expandable pockets on the other side of the inside.  These expandable pockets are perfectly sized to hold your travel-sized bottles of shampoo, conditioner, bodywash, cream, etc.  There is plenty of additional interior space to hold other necessary toiletries or even a small zippy pouch full of makeup.

I wish I could give you a sneak peek of the Folk Lore line -- the colours and designs are so fabulous.  Perhaps soon!

xo

Heather