Fall fabrics now online

I've just put the new selection of fabrics for Fall on the website Fabric Choices page. You'll see there are lots of swatches, including rich corduroys and wool blends, sumptuous plaids and velvety stripes.

Many of these represent a new direction in Red Delicious fabric offerings. There many with velvety and silky textures, like the chocolate and black stripe shown right. All of these have a luxurious look and feel, with the benefit of being upholstery grade for durability.

There are also plenty of cottons and cotton blends, like I regularly use, such as this elegant heavy-weight black and white toile shown right.

The new Fall fabrics also include a fantastic selection of batiks. I love to use these cottons for their deliciously organic colors and patterns. Several have a lot of stylish humour, with large-scale dragonflies, bubble-blowing fish (shown left) and even swimming turtles as part of their patterns.

I've included a key on the Fabric Choices page to help you understand the type of fabric shown in each swatch. And, as always, if you have questions about the Fabric Choices please email me.

Fabric galore!

I'm just back from a whirlwind two-day trip to Portland, Oregon, which is not only one of my favorite places to visit but a magnet for fabric junkies who need to stock up.

My mission was to gather a great selection of embellishment fabrics (the pretty ones I put on the outside of the bags) for fall, and to stock up on lining fabrics, interfacing and some notions.

There is a large wholesale warehouse in Portland which this weekend is holding one of its twice yearly events for customers, with lots of extra offerings and special deals to tempt buyers like me.

Then there is the ultimate in fabric retail stores: Fabric Depot. This huge store has an amazing selection of materials by the yard. It also has a wholesale program and a treasure trove: a section of last-chance fabrics at rock bottom prices.

I already had a few ideas of some yardage I wanted and plans to check out the sale section, which is always fun and mostly responsible for my personal stash of fabrics for which, of course, I have big plans! And as I drove up I saw the sign: 40 percent off all fabric this weekend.

The place was a zoo, but also buzzing with the excitement of happy sewers snapping up bargains. It was fun to be fabric shopping among so many other enthusiasts and the staff kept the lines at the cutting tables moving along smartly.

So the fabric shopping resulted in mission accomplished, and I had time to hang out in Portland enjoying the glorious sunshine. Since when was work such fun?

I'll be updating the Fabric Choices page on my website in the next couple of weeks.

We have a winner

Today the winner of the first Red Delicious gift certificate prize draw was selected (with the aid of a nice little random number generator I found online).

The draw was open to everyone who was subscribed to the Red Delicious Newsletter by Labor Day weekend. It was a great success in encouraging lots of people to sign up for our informative email publication.

I've let the winner know and will be announcing her success in the next Newsletter to be sent out next week.

In the meantime, if you are thinking 'darn it, missed that' all is not lost. The next Newsletter will include a great special offer for subscribers and lots of sneak peeks and exciting updates. It's easy to subscribe, just put your name and email address into the form on this page on the Red Delicious website.

And as this gift certificate prize draw was so popular I expect to run a similar event in the not too distant future.