The Inspiration Behind Our Quilt Kits

Learn more about the exclusive quilt kits created by Artistic Artifacts.

Guest post by Christine Vinh

We often get asked as to how we decide what fabric collections we will use in making our quilt kits. I enjoy making quilt samples for the shop and I recently talked about this in a recent Facebook Live presentation: you can watch the archived presentation on our YouTube channel.

With Judy’s background in mixed media, and in making art quilts without patterns and using found fabrics and ephemera, packaging quilt kits wasn’t something we considered a few years ago. Our shop samples were often designed as inspiration, rather than for kits. But based on many of our customers asking ‘how did you make this?’ and seeking options not available at other fabric shops, we ventured into putting together kits.

Decisions on what to kit and which pattern(s) we will use now comes about in a variety of ways. We regularly have in-person meeting with sales reps from commercial fabric companies who visit to show upcoming fabric collections. During these, we review hundreds of options through fabric swatch collection cards — above, mixed media artist and product designer Seth Apter is holding the On Your Mark brochure for his third fabric collection during his recent visit to Artistic Artifacts to teach. He was joined by (from left) FreeSpirit Creative Director Debbie Stark and Design and Graphics Manager Jenna Bost. We created two popular quilt kits, Stonehenge and Elena (visible behind Jenna) using Seth’s gorgeous fabrics!

We’re also able to see ideas on how the collection will look in a variety of projects — quilts, garments and bags/accessories — with reference to the pattern used. In some cases our buying decisions are based on those samples, where the manufacturer will indicate how many bolts of each design will be needed for kits. Examples of those kits include the Plaid Quilt Kit with Billy Reue’s Kaleidoscope Collection, which comes with the link to a free pattern on the FreeSpirit Fabrics website. We also recently added three different patterns with color options of Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics — pictured above is one of the Board and Batten quilt kits. We were able to see pictures of these quilts made up, along with the number of precut fabric bundles and bolts we need to assemble the kit package.

Another source of inspiration for kits is on the fabric or pattern designers social media pages. One new kit, Pippa Quilt Kit with Industrial Imprints, (pictured above) is an example of this. We saw that Gundrun Erla of GEDesigns will be doing a full video class this fall on making the Pippa quilt with those fabrics, We have eyed the pattern in the Stripology Quickies book for some time and this seemed like a great opportunity for folks to get the fabrics to sew along with her.

For the Findings collection by Valori Wells, we had already planned on assembling kits using the Finnelopy pattern that Valori had designed (pictured above left; we even pre-cut the perfect backing fabric for you to pair with the kit). Chris decided she would make another quilt and used a half-yard bundle of the 10 fabrics with the Diana Quilt, also from the Stripology Quickies book (above right). The result? Two kits with completely different patterns to show off this beautiful collection of fabric printed with Valori’s hand carved stamps.

When we receive precut manufacturers’ bundles, we will look at the number of fabrics in the bundle to see how we might use the bundle for a shop sample and kit. The Amalie Beachcomber, Elvira Quilt Kit with Flutter (pictured above — it’s easy to see how beautiful your finished quilt will be), and Fourteen On Point Springtime (pictured at top) kits are examples of matching the bundle to a pattern.

And then sometimes, Chris will decide to make a quilt using a collection she really likes. Once the quilt is finished, we often decide to kit it based on the response our staff and customers have. An example is our Vertex by Slightly Biased Atlantis Quilt Kit. Chris wanted to try the pattern, which uses 14 fat quarters and a background fabric. Chris chose the Atlantis blenders by fabric designer Sally Kelly for her version and, once we saw the quilt, we thought it would make a great beginner friendly kit.

Our heads are already full of ideas for upcoming projects and kits based on fabrics to be released in the coming months, so watch our weekly newsletter and social media pages to see what we have in store for you!