Alice Steele on Designer Fabric

Last fall, I won a beautiful Dresden Plate holiday block made by Alice Steele. I asked her about the fabrics she used, and she shared some of her thoughts about designer fabric lines. Here is what she wrote:

The fabric line (in the Dresden Plate) is “Holiday Flourish 6” by Peggy Toole for Robert Kauffman Fabrics. I had some leftover scraps from another Christmas project. I bought the yardage in Lancaster 4 years ago.

Peggy Toole has a red and silver line out now that is just beyond gorgeous! You can find her fabric on Etsy.

When I find a fabric that I find appealing, I research the designer. I get a lot of information from Instagram. I follow several fabric designers. For instance, I found a “quilt along” from the Fat Quarter shop and the fabric line that they used is just delish! It’s called “Strawberry Fields Revisited” by Fig Tree & Co by Moda.
This is a picture of my finished Crossroads Quilt Along. I hope to have someone from the guild quilt it for me.

I started looking at the other lines by Fig Tree designer Joanna Figueroa and they all coordinate beautifully! She has a new line out called Farm House and it has black backgrounds and is so, so gorgeous.
I’m currently working on a “churn dash & stars” quilt using several of her lines. I do things kind of unconventional. I find fabric first, and then try and find a pattern. Sherry Burkins says she’s just the opposite. Ha!

I’m also working on a Pat Sloan “quilt along” and she’s been releasing two 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 quilt blocks a week for a year using a variety of quilting techniques (some are so hard that I have to leave them out, lol). I’m using several Bonnie and Camille lines for this project. I spend a lot of time online looking at fabric lines from designers that I love and then hunt for them on Etsy and eBay. — Alice Steele