Another Guest Blogger...Kate from Needle and Spatula

Today Kate from Needle and Spatula is here to show some awesome Verna, 12 Days of Christmas and Central Park projects. She thinks that she needs a Kate Spain support group so we can all support each other with our addiction to these fabrics! I guess our first step would be to join the All Things Kate Spain flickr page :)

Thanks so much Sha for having me here for Kate Spain month! When I heard you were doing this, I was so excited to join in since Kate Spain is one of my favorite fabric designers and also such a nice person (as anyone who has read her blog or interacted with her on twitter knows). I am just an all-around big fan! I'm glad that everyone reading this is a fabric junkie too so I don't sound so weird gushing about how much I love a fabric designer.





I first saw Kate Spain's fabrics when I was searching online two years ago for fabric to cover a guest book that we were having made for our wedding... I hadn't delved much into online fabric stores before (believe it or not), and I kept coming back to look at the fabrics in her then-current line, Verna.

Photo by Heather from Creatively Kept

Our wedding colors were green and blue and I finally decided on this fabric, and I love how it turned out! (Heather from Creatively Kept did a great job - I totally recommend her if you are in the market for a handmade wedding guest book or baby book).  Funny story - we actually unintentionally got the matching Kate Spain verna paper plates and napkins from Target for the day after our wedding brunch, and realized later that they matched!  I'm not kidding, I really am drawn to her designs.

Then last winter, I was looking for holiday fabric to make some placemats and kept coming back to the cute 12 days of Christmas fabric... once I realized it was also a Kate Spain design, it all made sense why I couldn't resist it and I went ahead and bought some up (which I still have to actually make into placemats - hopefully this year).

(Don't you love those fa la la's? And the adorable ornaments??)

Then came my serious love affair... Central Park. I really adore this fabric and bought up a bunch.

First I made a baby quilt for a friend using the green, turquoise and purple prints. I also used quite a few coordinating prints from my stash - I love how well these prints play with the fun dots and other patterns that I threw in there! (You may notice that I snuck in some of the same Verna print from our wedding book).

Next I made a drunkard's path quilt top using the orange, yellow, and green prints from this line, and again throwing in a number of coordinating prints from my stash which I think play well here. If you like the Drunkard's Path design, come check out the Drunkard's Path Quilt-Along that Kristie from OCD and I are hosting right now - there's still plenty of time to join in!

Here's some close-up shots of the blocks so you can see the lovely Central Park prints:

I confess, I was hoping to have finished this quilt to show off to you, but I was laid low with a serious cold this weekend so I only made it as far as basting the quilt. But at least I can show you the cute pieced back I made last week for this quilt - I actually love simple quilts so I think something like this would make a great quilt top too!

I haven't managed to get my hands on any of Kate's most recent line, Terrain, yet but I sure hope our paths do cross someday! And I am sure I will be making a few more Kate Spain quilts in any case, since I still have enough Central Park left for another quilt if I stretch it (I think)... plus, since Verna holds a special place in my heart, I bought up a few charm packs of it that I could still find earlier this year - I'm hoping to make them into a special picnic quilt or maybe a lattice quilt in the future.

I mean - look at these gorgeous fabrics - how could I not snap them up when I found them?

Thanks again for having me Sha! It's great to get to share with all of you, and know that I am not the only Kate Spain fabric addict out there - maybe we need to form a support group!

That was great Kate! Now I want to go try to find as much Verna as I can get my hands on!