This is one of the times of the year when our suppliers release their new collections of fabric that will ship many months in the future. With all the recent shipping delays, customs delays, and warehouse delays, we take the projected delivery dates with a grain of salt.
I once estimated that we look at 150,000 designs/products per year, and choose about 14,000 of those products. In other words, we cherry-pick for a very specific demographic…YOU!
We are seeing 2 trends in all the new artwork. The first one, which is most exciting, is an explosion of creativity and artistry, with unique and exquisitely rendered illustrations and paintings that are being translated into repeats for fabric, often with digital enhancements.
The other trend represents the designs that we do not choose. That is the over-saturation of simple cartoon-like artwork that is repeated in so many collections from so many companies. These are artists who are looking at current artwork and copying the simple style of designs that are easily imitated, that don’t take a lot of practice or talent to emulate. We have seen, for instance, 20 collections of cartoon animals that all look the same.
It is obvious that during the pandemic, many artists have spent that time in their studio practicing, experimenting, creating, and upping their game. You don’t have to have an MFA to create beautiful artwork or designs for fabric. But you do have to know what is out there in the market, so you can create something that is unique, high quality, and approaching the upward sweep of a trend, not sliding down the backside of a trend.
So for those of you who aspire to be illustrators and designers, we invite you to research the various fabric companies, and get a sense of what has already been done. Then when you spot a fresh design trend in a parallel industry…in the art or fashion world, you can develop that idea to launch in our industry…timed for success.
It takes about a year for an idea or trend to be developed into an artwork concept, then expanded to a collection, then sampled and corrected with the factory, production happens(!), packing and shipping across the ocean, landing and clearing customs, being trucked to a warehouse, then shipped out to quilt shops all over the country. So intrepid designers have to literally see into the future and project what trends will be ripening a year from now. The timeline is a little shortened for digital production, but it is still a long process from concept to a bolt on a shelf.
When we unwrap a beautiful piece of art on a new bolt of fabric, I think of its long journey, and I think of its last few steps…being shipped to you, being cut up and sewn by you, and being hung on a wall, smoothed over a bed, or snuggled by a special little person.
Thanks for letting us be part of your quilt story.
…sharing your love of fabric,
Luana and Paul
