Tula Treasure Chest

Like most people who cheer for Team Tula, I love Tula Pink fabrics. I've mentioned it many times. I think she's unique in the world of fabric design. I know not everyone agrees (that's the great thing about quilting - there's room for every taste; different strokes for different folks!) but for those who love Tula's stuff, it can border on obsessive.

I emailed her once because I saw two Neptune charm packs go for $70 on ebay(!).  She said that Neptune mania is still pretty mind blowing even to her!

You can see the care that she draws into each design (if you click on the link to the names of her fabric lines you can see the images on the fabric more clearly than I've displayed them here). She still draws each motif out by hand, the old fashioned way. And I think that attention to detail shows. It's hard to cut up these prints when you really want to showcase each little element. Some people have even asked for her permission to take her work and have it tattooed on them! (See here, here, here - you'll see some of the fabric inspirations below). I haven't gone that far yet, but I'm not ruling it out! I think Tula worked at a tattoo parlor once, in a former life, and she also worked at a record label in LA before becoming a fabric designer - yeah, she's cool like that! I think you can see a lot of that tattoo/LA rocker chick in her work, even though she lives in a farmhouse in Missouri now :)

Once upon a time, I had four charm packs and two honeybuns of Neptune. I used the charm packs on the ever popular pattern using the Lil Twister tool:

Neptune with Kona Slate

I'm happy with it and once it is quilted, it will be wallhanging for wherever I eventually hang my hat.  But the honeybuns... Oh the honeybuns.  They became this quilt, which I call the Faraway quilt, which had to be re-worked a TON and with which I am not super-duper happy.  (But I'm not givin' it away either!)

Neptune with Kona Tarragon

And so it began...  Next, I got some Parisville and made this quilt:

I used some birthday money and a fortuitous blog giveaway win last year to amass a Prince Charming stash. (And I added some yardage to it with some fabric store finds)

I used some to make this fun and easy quilt:

I parted with a few precious froggies for a friend's baby, who arrived in February.

But I don't give away Tula, lightly :) Only to someone who can really appreciate it (no one appreciates frogs more than babies :))!

Like most Tula enthusiasts, I love the hidden details and the animals! (Do you see the yellow mice in there?)

I love all of the beautifully rendered animals. Or the crazy Marie Antoinette inspired hairdos:

Neptune was my first Tula fabric and it was before I understood the craze (and I do mean CRAZE) for those fabrics. They are out of print, of course, having come out in 2008. Every once in a while someone will mention that they've seen a bolt here or there sitting in a dusty corner of a quilt shop. But it's mostly rumors or whispers on the internet.  It's legen-(wait for it)-dary!

So, I have started swap, swap, swapping my way to a new Neptune stash.

 

I received a couple more in the mail and I have one more on the way! The strips are from the orphaned Faraway Quilt blocks that I reclaimed (i.e., seam-ripped and ironed).

Along the way, I've gotten swept up in the Tula fervor for her older lines. I'm the proud owner of several of her first line for Moda, Full Moon Forest, spring 2007.  I tell you, those owls and those squirrels kill me! (You see the squirrels, right?!)

And Flutterby from fall 2007. I have 27 prints. Ladybugs, snails, dragonflies and bees, oh my!

And the 2009 Hushabye collection. Gorgeous pastel owls (some are upside down here) and some buttefly lace.

The lace is a recurring motif in her collections (not all of them, though). And she just released her first ever Halloween collection called Nightshade and she's brought back the lace in an awesome way - raven lace (do you see the birds?):

I just love this. I was thinking maybe I should get more of the purple (eveningshade) to make another shirred sundress...

So, at the moment, I'm just in collection mode. Perhaps one day, I'll have a Tula Pink animal quilt. Or maybe I'll have a bunch of little quilts. I'm not sure. I'm just getting them together, admiring them, enjoying them and then squirreling them away!