Marine by Dan Stiles { Fat Quarter Shop Fridays Sponsored Post } WITH GIVEAWAY!!

On this weeks edition of Fat Quarter Shop Fridays, I'm bringing you the best of my 2 current favorite posts: Quilt Market recaps and upcoming fabric lines! I had the chance to visit the Birch Organic Fabric booth while in Houston and chatted with the lovely Cynthia Mann. She is the driving force behind Birch Organic Fabric and has brought several great collections to fruition by designers like Monaluna and Jay-Cyn Designs.

Just look at her gorgeous booth! She presented everything in a very streamlined, straightforward style (and in some of my favorite color combinations I might add!).



Spread throughout her booth were some fine examples of clothing and quilts made using her companys fabrics. They are all produced using 100% organic cotton and low impact dyes.



Releasing around the beginning of January 2011 from Birch is a debut fabric line by poster artist Dan Stiles. Based in Portland, Oregon, Dan has been designing for over 15 years for the music industry and major corporations. His collection Marine is a fun, modern take on all things nautical.





Here's what Dan had to say recently about Marine:

RWQ: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What is your design background?

I'm professionally trained and have designed pretty much everything at one point or another but originally I come from the self-taught underground world of DIY screen printing and rock posters. What started as a hobby turned into my profession.

RWQ: Where do you draw your inspiration from when designing in general?

Simplicity, purity of form, and strong concept are important to me. For that reason I often wind up walking the same path as the modernists, who were concerned with similar notions. I'm very inspired by shapes and repeats. Often I'll simply cut some shapes from paper and see what I can make from them. It's a fun exercise and it inverts the usual notion of starting with a concept or vision and executing it.

RWQ: Is this your first design to be licensed on fabric? What other mediums do you design on?

This is my first fabric line. Pattern and repeats have been a large part of my work for the last several years, so this felt like a natural extension of what I've been doing. I do a ton of illustrative design for print and worked for many years as a screen printer. For me the printing process is really part of the design process. I don't think of them separately. The whole time I'm designing I'm thinking about how the design will print. In other words, printing is my medium. Even if I do something in another medium, it still looks printed.

RWQ: Is there anything you want to tell my readers about your inspiration for Marine? Do you have a favorite print in the collection?

Birch Fabrics approached me looking for something with whales in it. From there the project grew into a full line based on the marine environment. It's tough to pick favorite. I might have to go with Birds. It looks so soft and friendly. It makes me wish I was 2 and had a blanket sewn out of it.

RWQ: How can my readers find more information about your company?

The internet is a good place to start. You can see most of my stuff on my site www.danstiles.com

Thanks for your time Dan! We look forward to many more design collaborations from you with Birch Fabrics. Marine is a great start and sure to be very popular.

Also shown in Cynthia's booth was a wonderful Marine quilt made by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson!





Head on over to the Fat Quarter Shop, sponsor of this post, and sign up to be notified when Marine becomes available for purchase.


!!GIVEAWAY!!

As a special treat for all my readers during this month when I recap my Quilt Market excursion in any post, I'm giving away free stuff donated by some wonderful quilt shop owners and designers!

Cynthia has graciously offered up a collection of Quilt Market Sample fabric scraps from the Marine collection! That's a total of about 1.5 yards of unreleased fabric!!

Please leave a comment on this post for your entry. Only one entry per person, please. All duplicate entries will be deleted. I will draw a winner using the Random Number Generator on Thursday, November 18, 2010!

Don't forget my other giveaway from the previous Market recap post. You can enter to win a FQ bundle of Echino fabric HERE. Drawing a winner for that one on Sunday, November 14, 2010.

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Good luck,