Basics In The FreeSpirit World

This is a guest blog By Nancy Jewell who is the Managing Director at FreeSpirit Fabrics.

When you talk about basics in terms of FreeSpirit, words like colorful, spirited, quality, value and availability come to mind.  Why you ask?  Because FreeSpirit basics are fabrics with personalities that are as expressive as the designers whose names grace the selvedges. Plus, basics in the FreeSpirit world are part of the company’s reorderable program.

Solids With A Buttery Hand

FreeSpirit has 173 Designer Essential Solids that offer the quilter brilliant colors, matching back perfectly to the vibrant, bold prints created by its portfolio of well-known designers.  It has been said that FreeSpirit solids have one of the best hands in the industry, “like buttah,” and I would bet in a blind folded feel test, these solids would win, hands down.

Within these 173 solids, Denyse Schmidt has hand selected a grouping of colors specifically for the modern quilter. Denyse earned the status as the “mother of modern quilting” when, after several career path changes, she began designing and selling quilts for home interiors.  With her deep love of old quilts and the history behind them, she took the traditional patterns, added her clean aesthetics and love of accidental beauty and dubbed her creations ‘modern’ to overcome stereotypical thinking about quilts.

The FreeSpirit Denyse Schmidt Modern Solids are comprised of 75 FreeSpirit Designer solids. These colors move beyond the basics and predict color trends for the modern movement based on Denyse’s intuitive style and her recognized leadership role in color and design. The colors are modern, mixable, full of possibility and excitement. All are available on 15-yard bolts as well as an assortment of precuts, including a 75-piece fat quarter box.

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In addition, Tula Pink curated 22 colors to fill a void in matching perfectly to her own palette.  Now, you can enjoy the same luxurious quality of the FreeSpirit Designer Essential Solids in colors such as iconic Tula bright pink called Tula, teal-ish Julep, deep purple Diva, a very sip-worthy Cosmo, a wonderfully neutral Putty and more, perfectly matching the colorations Tula consistently carries across her lines.  Tula Pink Solids also come in 15-yard bolts, plus precut options like a 22-piece fat quarter, 40-piece design roll and 42-piece 5”, 10” and 4.75” Hexagon.

Iconic Designers, Reorderable Fabrics

There is a plethora of color and designs from iconic artists like Kaffe Fassett and his collective of Brandon Mably and Philip Jacobs, Tula Pink, Morris & Co and Tim Holtz.  These reorder fabrics represent the crème de la crème. Let’s break this down by category.

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The Kaffe Fassett Collective offers over 250 skus that have withstood the test of time and are abundantly used by the Kaffe team as basic prints in everything they do, including the creation of over 21 patchwork and quilting books.  Such well known patterns as Roman Glass, Millefiori, Paperweight, Japanese Chrysanthemum and Mad Plaid can be found within this litany of well-curated fabrics.  Did we mention the 28 Aboriginal Dots, the true Kaffe near solid filler or the 45 spots? All part of the Classics. 

The Kaffe Fassett Collective Classics are available in 15-yard bolts as well as colorway precuts entitled Lipstick, Peacock, Citrus and Island, pairing nicely with patterns from GE Quilt Designs.

Next in the Kaffe Fassett Collective reorderable portfolio is a small assortment of what is known as Stash.  197 fabrics whose sales history and quilty love warrant they be available to the not so faint of heart, Kaffe aficionados. These fabrics run the gamut in terms of color, from the bluest of purples to the starkness of black and white, and bridge the quilt maker’s design gap with florals, feathers, leaves, fungi, stripes, fans, paisleys and so on . . .  too many to list.  Kaffe Fassett Stash is available in 15-yard bolts.

If you are looking for a Kaffe solid, you need to look at his fine, lustrous shot cottons, available on 15-yard bolts. As you know, a shot cotton gets its varying colors from the two-tone effect created by using two different color threads for the warp and weft fibers.

Last, but certainly not least in the Kaffe Fassett Collective repertoire, is the Design Wall Flannel Grid.  Designed by Kaffe and his quilting expert, Liza Prior Lucy, the medium cool-grey background enhances color.  The 2″ gridded white lines are guidelines only, helping you to keep your blocks straight up and down.  A 2-yard cut is the perfect canvas for working though your quilt design. 

The ultimate coordinates in the world of Tula Pinkare her True Colors called Pom Poms and Tent Stripes. These are the basic, go to patterns for any quilt or project.  Designed to offer a long shelf life, these serve as a color interlude, highlighting the best of each print Tula has ever designed, past, present or future. Described as the pieces always needed, but never designed, they bring to the shop owner and the quilter, the right color palette and the right added flair at the right time. Tula True Colors are available in 15-yard bolts as well as a combo Pom Pom and Tent Stripe assortment of precuts. 

FreeSpirit honors the spirit of the work of William Morris with exclusive access to the unrivaled archives of The Original Morris & Co. This allows us to delve into fascinating original works and colorations, some dating back to 1861. Here you will find 30 of the most iconic William Morris designs like Strawberry Thief, Bachelors Button, Snakeshead, Chrysanthemum and Willow Bough, all available on 15-yard bolts.

Capping it off is the unique aesthetic and nostalgic mix of timeless elements from Tim Holtz Eclectic Elements. His Foundations brings forth 30 of his best-selling fabrics that effortlessly work together and across his newest offerings to create a timeless program of on-going fabrics. Partner these 8-yard bolts with the grunge of his Provisions solids and you are offering fabrics that are unrivaled in terms of an uplifting vintage, urban look – nothing else like this in the business.

I’m exhausted, how about you?  Here is a better idea.  Instead of reading this long guest blog post, click here to flip through the Fall 2018 Reorder Catalog where you can see every FreeSpirit reorderable fabric.