{look-out} New design competition with Indygo Junction and BurdaStyle

Amy Barickman’s new Vintage-Inspired, Modern Style Design Challenge (hosted by BurdaStyle) is an opportunity to encourage fashion enthusiasts to use their sewing skills and creativity to make a wearable fashion project. And of course, to help you sell some patterns, notions and fabric while building and inspiring your community.

This challenge was created to celebrate the history of sewing by recognizing both SINGER and Coats & Clark, who are both celebrating significant anniversaries this year (160th and 200th, respectively); as well as educate and inspire through the life and work of Mary Brooks Picken, the authority on fashion and dressmaking in the early and mid-1900s. Mary’s work is the basis for Amy’s book, Vintage Notions.

Amy made a short video sharing all the details on the challenge and how to enter. Feel free to post this video on your blog and website!

The deadline for submissions is Monday, March 12th at 11:59 pm (EST). The winners will be announced Monday, March 26th.

Indygo Junction want to provide you with some tools to help you create buzz & excitement in your store around the challenge! They encourage you to create an in-store display (they’ve got a free poster you can use), plan an event (sponsor a fashion show of the entries from your area!), send out an eNewsletter (feel free to use their graphics & videos), post on your Facebook page, Twitter page, website and blog! Don’t forget to link to the Challenge Page on IndygoJunction.com!

As an extra incentive for your customers to participate in your planned events – they are offering you goodies to do a giveaway! Coats & Clark will ship to you a vintage-inspired, 200th anniversary commemorative tin filled with thread. Indygo Junction will send a selection of patterns and a copy of the Buttonware book. All you have to do is send them a photo (via email) of the poster hanging in your store or send a copy of your eNewsletter promoting the contest to info@indygojunction.com.

For more information, Cheryl@indygojunction.com or call their offices at 913.341.5559.

{in the know} Ty Pennington’s new adventure

A note from Ty Pennington:

As you know, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is ending it’s incredible 9-season run on ABC in 2012. As you might imagine, it’s a little difficult for me to accept this. The show has been my life for almost a decade and I’m incredibly proud of it.

EMHE will continue to air in repeats domestically and worldwide and ABC is producing special episodes. By the time the series ends later this year, the show will have helped over 200 families using a half-million volunteers across the nation. It’s a truly remarkable run. Westminster Lifestyle Fabrics has been a part of the success of EMHE helping in room designs, by providing fabric and by finding quilt makers when needed.

Today, my new daytime series The Revolution premieres on ABC at 2 pm ET. This new series comes from the producers of “The Biggest Loser,” and “Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition” and will feature an innovative format never before tackled on daytime television.

The main idea behind The Revolution is to encourage change–small or huge–in any area that needs it. The co-hosts for the show possess expertise in the most common areas daytime viewers (mainly women) say they want to improve: relationships, health/medical, diet/fitness, finance, fashion/style, and home/environment. I have been working on the show for a couple of months now and I gotta’ say, it’s really exciting and fresh.

We’re just getting started with The Revolution, but already we’re excited about the possibility to showcase some of my design expertise in new and unique ways.

{win it} Home Is Where the Quilt Is

The theme of the 2012 quilt contest to benefit the Alliance for American Quilts is “Home is Where the Quilt Is,” and it calls for small house-shaped quilts. Deadline is June 1, after which time the contest quilts will travel the country before being auctioned off on eBay next fall.

Top prize is the winner’s pick of any HandiQuilter machine, and the winner will be picked by a panel of judges.
But every quilt entered will be virtually displayed on the Quilt Index, a respected online archive featuring over 50,000 quilts in museums and state documentation projects.

Because the quilts are small and the theme is evocative, this contest lends itself well to a one-day workshop for quilters at every level.

Go to the nonprofit’s website for more, including size requirements, at www.QuiltAlliance.org. This terrific nonprofit documents, preserves and shares the stories of quilts and their makers and is a good organization for quilt shops to support.

{in the know} Susanne Woods joins Interweave Books

Interweave announced today that Susanne Woods has joined the company as Editorial Director of its book group (www.Interweave.com/books). Woods begins her new role at the end of the month and will report to Senior Vice President and Publisher John Bolton. Woods will oversee the book group’s editorial and design teams and lead the strategic and creative vision for the book program.

Woods joins Interweave from C&T Publishing in Concord, Calif, where she has been the acquisitions editor for more than three years and acquired over 55 craft titles a year while developing the successful Stash Books imprint for sewing enthusiasts.

In making the announcement, Bolton says, “We are delighted to bring someone of Susanne’s
experience and caliber to Interweave. We feel confident that she will bring a tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm to her position and we’re excited about the future. She has a rich background as an editor and leader in crafts publishing and our authors and creative teams here at Interweave are fortunate to have her join us.”

“I am thrilled to be joining Interweave, a company with such a phenomenal heritage in craft publishing. I have been a huge fan of Interweave’s books and magazine brands for years and I look forward to joining such a talented community that is committed to developing content in all the new ways readers want to experience books,” says Woods.

{in the know} Bari J. joins forces with Art Gallery Fabrics

Art Gallery Fabrics Inc. is delighted to introduce and welcome textile designer Bari J. Ackerman to its team as its first licensed designer.

“…We want to bring quilters and sewers more creativity enlarging the spectrum with talented artists that bring their own vision, perspective and passion for fabric design,” said Pat Bravo, emphasizing Art Gallery Fabrics’ principle of welcoming new designers that are willing to inspire.

Pat Bravo and Bari J. share a passion for design, color and the legacy of quilting. They respect and welcome each other’s aesthetics. “To me, Bari is the epitome of the designer that pushes boundaries, while remaining true to her vision. Her modern vintage look will awaken a new trend within Art Gallery Fabrics’ fan base,” said Pat Bravo.

“Working with Pat is such a natural for me. The aesthetics at Art Gallery Fabrics are cutting edge, fashionable, and unique. There are no boundaries when it comes to designing for Art Gallery. I get to be just exactly who I am here,” said Bari J.

Their combining forces, long friendship and their unique design approach will not only expand Art Gallery Fabrics’ ever growing fan base, but also encourage and promote other designers to join the evolving force that Art Gallery Fabrics is.

Bari J.’s debut collection LillyBelle will preview at Kansas City Quilt Market 2012, and will be available at Art Gallery Fabrics in June.

Inspired in the romantic and chic 17th century France, LillyBelle feels like stepping into a beautiful French chateau surrounded by luxurious gardens, clocks and birds with beauty and color all around. It is just like a French sampler that was extracted right out of a scene of a beautiful painting.

For more information contact Marcela Loayza – Marcela.loayza@artgalleryfabrics.com

About Bari J.
Bari (the J. is for Jill, her middle name) recently moved to Scottsdale, Arizona with her two teenage daughters, Anna and Emily, and her husband, Kevin, to live closer to family. Bari describes her design aesthetic as funky vintage modern, and she is passionate about color in her life. Bari says, “color is of the utmost importance in design” … she loves to mix them in surprising ways by coordinating colors that may not ordinarily be thought of as friends to each other. It is this sense of color that makes her designs stand out as unique, playful and stylish.

About Pat Bravo
Pat Bravo began learning about fabrics, dress-making, and pattern making at a very young age in Buenos Aires, Argentina. While taking painting classes she met husband Walter Bravo, and have been and worked together for 26 years.

In 1986 she moved to the US, which changed her life drastically and went to a process of adaptation, but with her sewing machine, as her security blanket, she came back to life. During that time she discovered “ traditional quilting”, and quickly evolved to art quilts. Unhappy with limited color variations, she decided to paint her own fabrics, which caused a sensation within the quilting community. Due to the demand, Art Gallery Fabrics was created in 2004 to produce them commercially.