For many years I have collected old indigo pieces of fabric from the late 1800's or early 1900's. My favorites being the stars and especially moons. Many times over the last 15-20 years I have dreamed of having new fabrics made from them. In March 2010 I sent antique swatches to Blue Hill asking if these could be made into new fabric as I have
wanted repros of them for years to buy. That April I got a call from Blue Hill Fabrics saying they were using some of my swatches and they would be in a small line called the Moon and Stars Collection. How fun! The line came out early in 2011 and I have been buying up the ones I liked in the navy, burgundy and browns and have used some in my projects. They didn't use every swatch I sent in but did use my favorite ones. There are some striped ones in the line I did not send in and also a cheater piece they combined the pieces in. The line is credited to their house designer, Sara Morgan, who is an imagined name used by the Blue Hill
people. They did send me the ordering flyer to see the samples from.
Would it not have been nice to get some free fabric????? Yes! I didn't get any free fabric but am happy to see it in print and able to buy what I have lusted for these many years. I think my quilt friends will get very tired of seeing moons and stars in my future projects. So fun!
While I was so happy to see my antique swatches made into new fabrics, I was disappointed that Blue Hill never contacted me when they were due to be in stores. Bummer, I had
to find out on my own.
When I told hometown quilt friends and mentioned it to the online Yahoo group I am on, so many quilters asked if I received any complimentary fabrics from Blue Hill from the swatches of mine they used. Hhhhmmmm, no I did not receive any complimentary fabrics. It was suggested to me a number of times that I write to Blue Hill and request the mentioned complimentary fabric so I did. It kind of felt like begging to me for something that would have been a nice guesture on their part. Then I did write to RR, the man who put the production of my swatches into gear and I never heard anything back from him.
So while I was happy at the fabric being printed, my experience with the process was
not that great. Seems once my swatches were used, I was left hanging to be a consumer (which I was happy to be) and only left with a copy of the swatch ordering leaflet.
Quilters, I would be interested in your opinions on this matter..................
