Have you ever heard of the African proverb,  “It takes a village to raise a child?”  Well, the same theory applies to Ink & Arrow Fabrics.   It’s not a child, per say, but we feel like it’s our baby and want it to grow up healthy, strong and shine bright!

We work with so many talented people in the industry who support our fabrics and help us create and share great projects and ideas!  So, the more the merrier!!!

It’s always amazing to me how we all have different takes on the same thing.  Our blog, a couple weeks ago, about the “Whip it Up Challenge” highlighted that very nicely.  Six bloggers… one collection… so many different approaches and projects.   That is kind of what we do here, right?  We supply the fun fabric and let the magic happen!  🙂

Here, we’d like to highlight a few different industry friends who make us stronger and help inspire more people than if we were to do it all by ourselves!!!

First up, our friends at Plum Easy Patterns!  We were introduced to Bethany and Deborah from Houston’s quilt market as they won our blog shout out!  It was great fun interviewing them and learning about their business.  We adore their patterns and thought it would be great to collaborate for this Spring Market and VOILA!  One of our favorite quilts came about.  The pixies were featured in their “All Ways Arrows” quilt, and I must say, it is totes adorbs… as are Bethany (daughter on the left) and Deborah (mom on the right) We love this geometric arrow quilt!

TUFFETS!!!!!!  That’s how we say it in our office…. we have to YELL it out because they are so darn cute!!!   These two pixie dot tuffets were made for us by Sharyn Cole of Tuffet Source.  Yeah, I know… they are so fabulous!   We were so fortunate to make a connection with Sharyn last year around this time and it’s been such a fun adventure since!  If you were able to walk Quilt Market this year you probably saw dozens of tuffets throughout the show – they are quite popular…  Sharyn’s are our favorite though 😉

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How cute is this quilt?  It’s our Naughty or Nice collection in a not-so-typical holiday color scheme 🙂  This was created for us by our friend Cheryl Phillips of Phillips Fiber Arts using her Attic Window pattern.  Click on the image above to head over to her website 🙂

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Happy Quilting sewing blogger, Melissa Corry created this pretty quilt using our pixie dots!  The tutorial to make this quilt is on her blog – click on the photo above!

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These circle skirts will be featured in an episode of “It’s Sew Easy” on PBS!  July 21st Episode 1105 – The Stylish Girl will have instructions on how to create this fashionable skirt with Deb as your teacher!  So cool!!!  We are thrilled to be a sponsor of this series and we think the City Life and Cat’s Meow collections work just purr-fectly!

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We just loved Sassafrass Lane Designs‘ booth at Houston (still remember that orange sofa) and so when we approached them with our fabrics and to see if they were interested in making some fun projects, they were on board!  On the top left – the Park Place quilt using assorted Cat’s Meow fabrics is just so retro chic!  The red/white/black/turquoise color combination with the placement of patterns and strips are just perfection!   Then, we have the Shelby Satchel bag (hanging on the mannequin) which used our Talk to Me collection.  Love this messenger style bag with it’s mix & match vibe!  And… on the right side we have the Canyon Boulevard quilt using Talk to Me, City Life and The Cat’s Meow, and, of course, the Pixie dots!  So fantastic how they mix and mingled the different I&A lines together…

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Another friend we’ve made along the way (it’s kind of corny but this year really has been a year of making great friends!!!)  is Jessica Stewart of Izzy & Ivy Designs.  The dresses Izzy & Ivy make are the stuff that little girls dream of…  twirling is a major side effect of wearing these skirts and dresses – I’m so jealous, I want to be 6 again!  🙂

The above skirt is featured on their blog, here.   So in love with this!!!   Another dress that we showed at market and on our blog is this Emory Dress with Cat’s Meow fabric.

We also sent Izzy & Ivy some of our C’est La Vie fabric… We will save that for a future post… it’s so darn cute!  We were thrilled to have a hat and skirt made from that fabric!

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The above skirt was a pattern we saw from Serendipity Studio and when we asked for the pattern, she was so gracious to share it with us!!!  Zip Zip and we had this gorgeous skirt…

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When I was browsing through the different blogs I love, I came across this fantastic “Hashtag” quilt block made by Sew Can She.   I fell in love and emailed Caroline to see if she would mind making us a Talk to Me Hashtag pillow for our booth.  Talk about excited…

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Another talented pattern maker, Jaybird Quilts, has helped us out along the way.  The gorgeous quilt below, made by Anne Cowan, uses Jaybird’s Stereo pattern.  Made of all pixie dots, this quilt has so much movement and flair.  The circular motif quilting on top of the very triangular quilt pieces is such a great contrast!

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Theresa McDermott is a talented seamstress that we have worked with for many years.  She created the bunting that we had on the back of our booth – so festive!

Also, she developed two patterns for us out of our Happy Hour fabrics.   A Beach tote 😀  and a Wine Tote.  Both will be coming soon as a free pattern on our website – so exciting!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And… because who doesn’t want to look like a fashionista while toting your beach bag and wine bag…. Theresa made us this fabulous skirt and tank top!  So chic!

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Last… but not least… are our friends Wives of Whitewood.  These gals are just great!  We love their fun and care-free patterns.  Here are some of the items they made for us…

The above pattern is brand new!  Using our Talk to Me Fabrics, Wives of Whitewood created this perfect little bag to keep your charging cord/plug accessories in order – so adorable!

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As you can tell, we “get by with a little help from our friends”  and we are so thankful for all the collaborative efforts as it made for a FUN and successful Quilt Market!   We will share more of these projects on our social media and we are excited to do more and more in the future!   Feel free to email us at info@inkandarrowfabrics.com if you are interested in working with us and our fabrics… you can never have too many FRIENDS!