Anthology Fabrics

One of the benefits of living in Los Angeles is that it is the home to some wonderful businesses....including some incredible fabric manufacturing companies. New on the scene in the last couple of years is Anthology Fabrics. And please don't equate new with a small line of fabrics... anything but can be seen in the showrooms, and website pages of this fabric-maker. Since they first came on the scene I was attracted to the strong colors and intriguing designs, and yesterday I was able to lucky enough to walk through their facilities.

The showroom was amazing. Kind of a room of opposites for besides all the fabrics lined up -- ready to run your hands over and definitely a treat for the eyes, the room was adorned with modern furnishings and spiced up with an old treadle sewing machine and framed batik stamps.

But, I loved walking through the warehouse. Stacks, and stacks of colorful fabric awaiting shipment. So much creative opportunity in one BIG space.

I hope you get a bit of the feel of the place and a little inspiration rubs off from these pictures.

Day Trippin - Part II

It has been a week since my DG's day trip and it has been one filled with lots of drawing and design work on my part... very little exploring, so it is a good thing that I have pictures & memories of the fun and inspiring day at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Last week I shared the Sister Corita inspired exhibit, but really my favorite part of exhibit was the fashion. OK, I admit I am a fabric junkie and when you see what these artist did with 'the stuff' well... enjoy!


These feathered beauties escaping their cage were each wonderful handbags.
I'm going to post a few more pictures from the fashion part of the exhibit out on my FaceBook FP... stop by for some embellishment fun!

Happy Friday....

Shopping For Fabric

As the shopping season is upon us, I find myself in the middle of getting a couple of projects completed for early exhibits in 2009. Hard to believe we are soooo close to the start of new year. On Wed. I found myself in need of some 'color'. Colors in order to make my projects work, so I called a friend and made a plan to do a fast run up to the fabric district in Downtown LA.

For a number of years I have shared my shopping haunts in this area of Los Angeles through a map on my website, http://www.rosehughes.com/ ; but, this time I thought it would be fun to take some photos. The first photo is of the street signs on the corner of Maple & 9th, for most of my favorite stores are there between 8th & 9th.

It's a wonderful, wild street filled with lots and lots of stores full of fabric, so you can spend a lot of time wandering. As the picture shows your centrally located to several markets as well. I thought it fun that I capture the walk & green light. A good indicator. GO, GO, GO.

LA seems to have put in a new parking system. Most of the meters that let you come in for a quick hour rather inexpensively have been changed to a pay system that now costs $3 per hour. (guess they have to get their money somehow). There's plenty of lot choices as well, but if you are planning to go to Michael Levines they validate for an hour with a $20 purchase. They are also right there in the are of Maple & 9th.

My mission was several colors of dupioni silks and for that I headed straight for Fabrics & Fabrics at 403 E. 9th Street.

Even though the whole week had been wet and cold, the sun came out on this morning and everything was bright and fairly warm. A perfect day for wandering about. The guys at Fabrics & Fabrics are all very nice and are there to help you pull out all the rolls of color from the huge collections on the wall. They were even nice enough to let me take a couple of photos inside.

Hope you all get a chance to check it out sometime! ~Rose