Briar Rose (in quilting cotton and in jersey) has arrived! Plus, a free sewing pattern....

I am so pleased to announce that my new fabric line, Briar Rose is now available in quilt shops everywhere. The collection includes twenty prints on a nice quilting weight cotton, four of which also appear on a buttery jersey.

The jersey is perfect for little leggings like the ones below, so we've made this original pattern available as a free download. The pattern includes some tips on sewing with jersey on a basic, mechanical sewing machine, for those who don't have a lot of experience with this fabric. We are looking forward to hearing what you think, and seeing what you make.

We'll have another pattern available for you next week, a cute little blouse that's just perfect for the Briar Rose quilting cottons. If you'd like to know about it as soon as it arrives, consider signing up for our newsletter!

Download the FREE Briar Rose Jersey Legging pattern here.

Thank You.

I think that it is difficult to describe this community to people who don't understand it, who've never depended on it, who haven't seen it in action. I'm not even sure what to call us, because the words "market" and "online network" don't do us justice. It is about handmade, and craft, and sewing, and homekeeping, and quilts and art and certainly love, but it's also about something bigger. We are a sister-hood of sorts, coming from every direction, leaving our economics, religion, and politics with our coats and hats when we come to the common table. And while the things we make - the quilts and the books and the pictures and everything else - may seem small, words fail when you try to describe the power they have.

I have to believe that there is something that sits in a very deep place within each of us, older than language or marriage or medicine or money, a relic of pre-history, a miracle of thumbs and sticks and fire, that tells our heart to trust the hands who have made us something, because they belong to someone who loves us.

Thank you for helping my family, we are honored and grateful. I'm thrilled to report that our benefit was a great success, thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make it so. I'm just now home from Santa Cruz with a long list of winners to announce... stay tuned!

Announcing BRIAR ROSE, by Heather Ross for Windham Fabrics

I am so pleased to introduce my first line of quilting cottons (and a few buttery jerseys!) for Windham Fabrics: Briar Rose.  I think it’s perfect for patchwork (this quilt, designed by Rae, is amazing, right?) and for kids clothing and accessories, but if you want to make up a little summer skirt for yourself in Frog Pond, we say go ahead and do it. Here's the official Wholesale Catalog..... We look forward to posting more information with you in the coming months, and expect the fabric to start hitting shelves in July.

We get a lot of requests from people looking to buy fabric from us, but have never sold it directly in our online shop, until now! Our friends at Windham are making special Collectors Packs for us, which include a half yard of each print, which we will be combining with a limited edition 13” by 19” signed print called “Field Strawberry”, shown here, which is really just a giant ode to our most favorite sign of spring: the wild strawberry. We love the way this particular print looks with the Briar Rose Rainbow Quilt, which was designed by my friend Rae, and for which there will be a FREE pattern available over at Windham beginning in July. You need a half yard of each print to make the quilt, conveniently!

The Briar Rose Collectors Pack will be available by reservation only. If you’d like us to make one for you, you just need to fill out this simple form. We won’t invoice you until it’s ready to ship. We expect that will happen in July, about the same time the fabrics begin to appear in stores.

 

 

On "The Feminist Housewife"....

I must admit, I didn’t read the whole thing, I ran out of time because it took me twenty two minutes to convince my 19 month old daughter to let me put on her shoes and then I had to literally run to the subway to make it to a meeting, so maybe somewhere near the end the author stopped to consider the fact that the subject of her story, much like every other woman living within the bounds of this magazine’s domestic subscription service, is a member of the only generation of american women to have ever lived that truly have the luxury of choice between career and full time motherhood, not to mention anything in the ever-expanding grey area that lies between that we might be crazy enough to consider attempting, and I just missed it.

Its an awesome thing to consider, isn’t it? That we actually have that choice? And I don’t know about you, but when you consider that fact it makes listening to someone like this woman prattle on about her adorable husband and giving up her gratifying pre-baby career sound a whole lot like the two women standing behind me at the coffee bar at the Tribeca Whole Foods this morning discussing wether or not they should have to pay their housecleaners extra for doing laundry, and not just because both discussions are incredibly boring.

And the idea that this woman has this luxury of choice, between career and raising their children, because she has an education? If that were true then my husband, who holds several degrees and also has a real knack for managing our toddler, would have a choice too, when the reality, at least for him, is that taking a few years off to raise our children would be career suicide, and would probably also cost him, through the rules of social norms that have applied, unchanged, to men for centuries, many of his friendships.

This woman has this choice, this luxury of a choice, as difficult and decadent as it is, not just because she has a skill or an education, but because of the generations of american women who came before her, because of the rules that they broke and the laws that they challenged and all of the frightening and humbling and brave things that they had to do, so that their daughters would have the freedom - within their society as well as within their own minds -  to choose between two equally righteous paths. How disappointing that this woman, who has "put her children first", is on the cover (in a proud pose that almost completely obscures her child, I might add) when an inspiring story about a loving, committed for life, couple made up of two women, which runs in the same issue, is not. Feminist housewife, indeed. Who here, is the courageous one, bilking the system and blazing a new trail towards equality? Or wait, what's the definition of feminism again? I'm getting confused. I thought it was something about believing in the importance of freedom of choice.

This is not a new or newsworthy debate, it’s one that plays itself out in the mind of every american woman through every phase of her life, and regardless of the side we each choose or the variation or combination of the two paths that we opt to attempt to wrangle on a daily - no, hourly -  basis, it will not be concisely answered by any one of us, regardless of trends. Each of us must do what is best for us, and for our families and our children, and like it or not, we all must choose a side, and then, in the name of good manners if nothing else, we ought to just respect, even support, one another and the decisions we each have made, and shut the hell up about it.

Introducing Heather Ross Prints!

I am so pleased to tell you that my newest crafts book, Heather Ross Prints, is now available.

This project is truly close to my heart. Inspired largely by the community of crafters that exists online and the infectious spirit of generosity among them, I set out to create a usable digital library of my own (favorite) fabric designs. I spent the better part of a year exploring new digital printing technologies and trying out new craft techniques (lamp making, bookbinding, wallpapering) searching for new ways to use my artwork. With the help of STC Craft, Brooke Reynolds, and John Gruen, I bundled it all into a book (which comes with a dvd full of artwork!) that I couldn't be more proud of. I also included a chapter on my own creative process with a step by step guide to designing fabric in Photoshop, and a bunch of full-page images of my prints that are on perforated paper so that you can rip them out for giftwrapping and scrapbooking.

There was one other objective set forth early in the project: to make this book affordable for everyone. Alhough most of the crafts books that STC Craft makes are hardcovers, Heather Ross Prints will make it's debut in paperback at the absolutely fabulous price of $24.95.

Here are a few of my most favorite projects and photos from the book:

Digitally Printed Wallpaper! There are more than 5 print files in HR Prints that can be uploaded onto this website to create standard sized wallpaper - including Underwater Sisters, Horses, Frog Prince, and The Owl and The Pussycat, and another 40 prints that can be used to create wall murals. You can even choose to have this paper printed on a self-adhesive substrate that can be easily applied and removed. This photo was taken in my daughter Bee's bedroom at our house in the Catskills. Vera and Pauline hung it the day before the shoot, and there it remains.

More wallpaper, this time my Horses, plus a decoupage project on a little white storage stool. I love the little Pendleton Blanket we found for this shot! I think if we hadn't already hung the unicorns that this would have been my choice for decorating Bee's room.

 

Thisis one of my most favorite paper craft projects in the book. I thought it would be fun to mix a printed fabric bound cover with a printed paper endpaper. The inside pages are blank, simply a stack of fresh white printer paper. I included a few sets of print combinations, but especially love the Wildflowers with the Playing Horses print. The fabric can be printed via Spoonflower and the paper can be printed at home or at a service bureau with a wide format printer (like Kinkos). Very basic bookbinding techniques are employed, as is my favorite new crafty find: Padding Compound.

Here are my Racecars exactly where they should be: in a little boy's bedroom. These prints are two of about forty in the book that can be used for anything and everything, including fabric. This is Spoonflowers lovely linene / cotton blend. We washed this in very hot water and the colors stayed fast, the fabric became softer.

This photo didn't actually make the cut, but it was one of my most favorites. We shot it in Bee's bedroom, upstate again, with low lights. That's my grandmother, her great grandmother, on the mantle. I was seven months pregnant and absolutely sure she would be a "Trixie", but she's not. She's a Bee. Still, how cool is it that you can make your own lanterns from rice paper and lamp making supplies?? (more of that over here) and cooler still, we have included versions of the print file (yes, rice paper can be used in ink jet printers!) with EVERY letter of the alphabet on the DVD in the book. These could be used for parties, weddings, etc. etc..... Here's a close-up, they all have my Far Far Away prints on them!

I'll be back next week with more details, including a descripton of what it's like to set up an outdoor shot in the pouring rain when you are seven months pregnant and cannot zip up your raincoat.

Heather Ross Prints is available now on Amazon. It's been shipping for a few days and should be hitting your neigborhood bookstore's shelves very soon. I can't wait to hear what you think of it!