At the Festival of Quilts this year I met Ruth who owns The Fair Trade Fabric Company based in Southall, Nottinghamshire. She is passionate about her huge range of Fairtrade fabrics which are grown to organic standards and mostly produced in Gujarat, India. The Fairtrade label enable the weavers, dyers and growers to earn a fair wage, ensuring their health and family welfare. Aside from all this, the fabrics are fabulous, soft and with a homespun quality which is so attractive. There is a rainbow of colour available with her fabrics and you can visit her on line shop here at the Fairtrade Fabric Company
This is the first quilt. a cot size 114 x 84 cm:
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
I love this quilt and daughter who lived in Norway for a while was very taken with it. The fabric is from a pack sold by Ruth called Highlands with one extra fat quarter added in royal blue plus 1 metre for the backing. The binding is pieced from all the tiny scraps, I used just about every inch of the fabric from the pack.
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
The backing fabric is a handloom woven 100% cotton, vegeble dyed fabric also from Ruth. This fabric has a slight variation in colour within the stripes due to the hand woven element. The mountains bit is a printed fabric which I have quilted around. I love the tiny Nessy monster who swims in the lake.....
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
and the eagles and the hunting lodge, the boats as well as the mountains...
The wadding is 100% cotton, unbleached and made without chemicals for the Simply Cotton Company. I have tried to make this quilt as kind to the world as I possibly can. The fabrics are bought from a Fairtrade company and the wadding is unbleached cotton. I haven't found an organic cotton wadding yet. I thought about bamboo wadding which is organic but would make the quilt very expensive. I will continue to think about that but if you have any ideas, please let me know.
Here is the second quilt:
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
This cot quilt measures 90 x 102 cm 35.5 x 40 inches and uses the Living in a Box pack from Ruth plus a metre of fabric for the back and sashing.
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
I love the bright vibrant colours of this quilt plus the sweet song birds in pink and green. I don't normally show the back of the quilt but this fabric shows up the quilting so well....
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
And the last photo.... oh, these colours make me feel so happy....
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| Fairtrade fabrics quilt by Green Star Quilts |
Please consider making a Fairtrade fabric quilt, the drape and softness of the fabrics are lovely, they have been very easy to use and we all need a fairer world don't we?
Happy quilting this week, do let me know if you have found an organic cotton wadding,
Kind regards,
Sue
8 comments:
These are beautiful quilts. I've made several with organic cottons but haven't come across fair trade fabric yet anywhere that I've gone. I'm also concerned with the effect my quilting has on the world. Cotton is such a big polluter.
Both quilts are just beautiful, Sue! Do you know if these fabrics are distributed in the US? The hand died fabrics you used on the backs of these quilts looks absolutely yummy!! :)
These both look great!
Thank you Lisa, I hadn't used Fair Trade fabrics before and found them really interesting, I love the irregularities in the weave and colour and the soft vegetable dye colours.
Sue
Thanks Judy, I don't know if you can but them in the USA but maybe Ruth would post an order if you e mail her via the website,
Sue
The fabrics made the design of the quilts really easy and I love the tiny orange Loch Ness monsters,
Sue
Thanks for the link to Fairtrade fabrics, I had not heard of them before
Hi Sue - just popping over from Crazy Mom Quilts. I am really happy to have read this post - not only are your quilts lovely to look at it has been really interesting reading about Fair Trade Fabric. I have just been to their website and they have some lovely fabric available. I have bookmarked the page so I can revisit next time I need some fabric. Thank you!
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