Flare Fabrics - FREE SHIPPING

Have you heard of Flare Fabrics? I've been hearing murmurs about this great new Canadian online store and kept meaning to check it out. Well, I googled them today and the Flare Fabrics website is awesome! They offer fabric by colour, value, type and all kinds of patterns and specialty items including loads of fabrics & things ON SALE. I'm so thrifty it makes my heart sing. And its not just a few old school yucky fabrics that won't sell. There are loads of great fabrics on sale all the time.

They've been up and running for 2 years already and the quilters I know are all a buzz. They feature gorgeous batiks and bold cottons and they have free shipping across Canada?

YES, I typed that correctly! FREE SHIPPING ACROSS CANADA!

Even my best distributor only gives me free shipping on orders over $300 and if I order anything from the US I practically choke to death on shipping/duty and brokerage fees.

SO this is just my happy find of the day. 

FLARE FABRICS - Canadian women doing some great business! 

Fabric Dyeing Crossover

My good friend Pat has been visiting me for a few days and despite the gorgeous weather and our joyful ventures out to the local wineries and quilt shops, we have been playing in my studio quite a bit.

Today we washed, dried and ironed the results of a fabric dyeing crossover technique. It was so fun.

This simple technique takes 2 colours of dye and crosses them over in 8 bags of fabric. You can do a half yard for each bag (previously treated with soda ash and salt).You put a cup of soda ash solution in each bag then add the dyes gradually increasing quantities of the first dye in the bags from 1 to 8 and the same quantities of the second dye in the bags from 8 to 1. Add the fabric, scrunch and slosh, leave for 4 hours or more and voila! The result turns out something like this: 

It is so fun! You can see we have a bit of a mottled effect in the blues. The more you slosh around the fabric in the bag and mix the dye thoroughly, the more even your colour will be. As artsy as we are, we just happen to like the element of surprise. 

INKSATIONS - NOW AVAILABLE

After months of design, planning, samples, photo shoot, packaging, and lesson plans - INKSATIONS Table Runner & Silk Screen Printing Kit is now available in stores and on the Brandy Lynn Designs website. 

Add a splash of fabric ink to a contemporary table runner taking the mystery out of screen printing. Buy it online here or ask for it at your local quilt shop. If they don't have it, I can change that! Quilting Guilds can book the class here and students will come away with a beautifully silk screened and pieced project ready to quilt. Pattern/Kit fee: $29.99 CDN plus provincial tax includes pattern, silk screen, squeegee and printing ink. 

It was a serious learning curve to launch my first pattern, but I'm happy to say that the first run is almost sold out! It will be available at several Okanagan quilt shops and the fall classes are booked already. But you can still buy online! I'll be starting a second run of kit preparations in the coming weeks. Thank you so much to my family and friends who spent so much time encouraging and supporting me. I couldn't have done it without you!

Stay tuned for a list of participating quilt shops and upcoming class dates!

The Pattern Launch

I had a small serendipitous event the other day as I was consoling myself over a slight delay from the printer. After meticulously packaging the silk screens, ink and squeegees in the Inksations Kit bags, I've been eagerly awaiting the pattern and cover from the printer to complete the kits and have them ready for sale. On the day that I was told there would be a delay of a few days, I was also working on my bookkeeping and thinking I can't wait to actually sell some of that product I've been working so hard to launch because my numbers are still a bit grim. I went for lunch with the sinking realization that it really does take a long time to generate a consistent income in the start up phase of a new business. Finishing up the last of my delicious noodles with chicken and broccoli, I grabbed the napkin from the bottom of the take out bag and discovered a fortune cookie.

I've always found fortune cookies to be general and positive and at the very least delicious but not necessarily applicable to my life at the moment, but this one was a very pleasant surprise. In this startup phase of high cost of supplies and slowly increasing product sales, I certainly hope it's true! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

New Logo - Brandy Lynn Designs

I've officially been working my buns off in the quilting industry as Brandy Lynn Designs now for 5 months after 12 years of quilting and fibre art as a hobby. I am so pleased to say that quilting guilds, editors, event planners, quilt shops and quilters themselves have welcomed me with open arms as I publish articles, teach workshops across the country and, especially now, with the launch of my first pattern.

I've been plugging away at my website, blog, Facebook and Twitter, but one small thing was missing and I've finally got it designed, digitized and on the first pattern going out next week.

So here it is folks...the long awaited (only by me really...) Brandy Lynn Designs logo!

I love the mix of the traditional quilting needle with the modern circle graphic and the fonts are my absolute favourite. So keep your eyes peeled in stores as my new pattern called INKSATIONS - Silk Screen Table Runner hits the shelves...watch for that new logo!

The next two cities where I'll be teaching the Inksations class are Prince George, BC and Edmonton, AB. Contact me through the Brandy Lynn Designs website to sign up or to book a class for the quilting guild in your area.

Serendipity in Fabric

I am just dyeing to get my pattern back from the printer so I can get the kits into the Quilt Shops for sale! What better way to keep my mind off the wait than to dye fabric with a friend? I ended up with a few muddy fabrics because I tried to use some dye leftover from last week and it had lost its oomph, but the new dye I mixed up with my friend Betty brightened my day with these 2 fabulous pieces.

 

The left photo is a simple 3 colour tie dye and I used the same 3 dyes on the right with a fold and clamp technique. Now I just have to dream up a fun little quilting project to use up my new stash!

INKSATIONS video release!

Well, I've finally created my first YouTube video tutorial. It was a long day (6 hours!) of recording and I did the filming, retakes, cutting, pasting and laughing all by myself. Although it may not be the quality of a professional video shoot, it was really fun, it is me just the way I am, and it gets the point across. 5 years from now I'll be looking back at this first attempt thinking - You've come a long way baby!

Presenting. . . INKSATIONS - Silk Screen Tutorial.

Please do give me your comments and feedback! But remember. . . it was my first try. . .