Introducing my new fabric collection, Tea with Bea!
It’s the Riley Blake Designs Virtual Quilt Market this week and I’m so excited to introduce you to my newest fabric collection, Tea with Bea! Arriving in April of 2021, Tea with Bea is a collection of 24 prints and is available for pre-order now. Over on the Riley Blake Designs blog today you’ll find a post about this new collection but I thought I’d share some photos here too.
My china hutch holds a small assortment of teacups of varying sizes and colors, some with intricate floral designs and some with simple patterns. Each teacup is a little memorial to a special person. I inherited these teacups from my two grandmothers and my husband’s grandmother (a devoted quilter, incidentally) after they passed away and they hold special memories of each woman. My Grandma Bea, the namesake of this collection, was always as busy as her name implied. She loved to have people over for a visit and you never left her house hungry. This collection is a tribute to generous hospitality and genuine sweetness, because those are gifts that remain long after we’ve gone.
My Grandma Bea
The Tea with Bea collection brings together those decorative tea cups, along with prairie wildflowers and floral prints. There’s also a subtle nod to bees and honeycomb in the coordinates. The color palette is a sophisticated mix of soft muted colors offset by bold charcoal. I really can’t wait to see what you create with it. Shops can preorder now by contacting their Riley Blake Designs sales rep or setting up a wholesale account.
While I’ve been sewing for over 20 years, I’m a bit rusty. And I’ve never been a true quilter. But these new fabrics with Riley Blake Designs have gotten me back into sewing and I was delighted to try some projects with this new collection. I kept it very simple! I turned to some fellow RBD designers for inspiration. Above you’ll see a very beginner friendly quilt, the Easy Bricks Quilt by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter. I tried free-motion quilting for the first time EVER on this quilt and it was quite the adventure. I also made an adorable quilted zipper pouch because I love zipper pouches to a ridiculous amount. This is the Full Access Zipper Pouch by Jedi Craft Girl, Amanda Niederhauser. Finally, a very quick project, an Embellished Dish Towel by Melissa Mortenson of Polka Dot Chair. I hope you discover some wonderful things to make with Tea with Bea. See you in the spring!