The Name Game: Marmalade Fabrics/A Content Life

After no Name Game post last Monday, I have a really special one this week. Tammy from Marmalade Fabrics is here! She also happens to be the premier sponsor here at LACF. But before that happened, I had already discovered Marmalade Fabrics and what excellent customer service Tammy provides.

I'm so happy to have her tell us how she chose the name for her shop.

Making Marmalade

Think toast with butter and jam, then think marmalade, a sweet topping for toast. Traditional marmalade is made with orange peel and lots of sugar. Times have changed and modern marmalade recipes are much more creative and diverse. Today you can use the peel from all sorts of fruits - tangerines, lemons, limes, grapefruits, mandarins and kumquats. Modern marmalade can be made from apples, pineapples, bananas, rhubarb, hot peppers, sweet peppers and even onions! And talk about color! Marmalade can be bright orange to red, yellow, purple, green and every shade in between.

Now think Marmalade Fabrics, and you’ve got a picture of a fabric-lover’s taste for the pure joy of prints and color.

It wasn’t quite that easy to think up a name for my online business though. In fact, I spent a couple days tossing around ideas. I knew I wanted to provide a variety of modern fabric to quilters and artists, but “Modern Fabric Shoppe” was just plain boring! After exhausting any possible names related to sewing and stitching, I began to think of pairs. Stuff like coffee and cream, ham and eggs, and pie and ice cream. I must have been hungry at the time!

I was probably making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my boys when I took off on another pairing tangent: Needle and thread? Jam and bread? Fabric and jelly? Fabric and jam? Fabric and marmalade! Who knows for sure, but once I came up with it, thinking of sweet orange marmalade and orange being my favorite color, I knew it was right. Marmalade Fabrics was the name that stuck!

Now orange you glad you asked?!

Were there other names you considered, and can you share any of them with us?

In the first few months of business, I admit that I second-guessed my choice of names. After all I’m a down home Kansas girl with traditional quilt making roots, and there was a time when I enjoyed using traditional fabrics. But when modern prints started emerging, I fell for them. My greatest influences were Jacquie Gering and Alissa Haight Carlton, whose use of modern prints in an improvisational design style injected fresh life into my own ideas about what a quilt was supposed to look like. I was rejuvenated! Now I know that sounds dramatic, but modern quilting and modern fabrics have changed my life, literally and Marmalade Fabrics is proof of it. The more time I spend with these fabrics, the more I love them.

Now that you are recognized by Marmalade Fabrics, are you happy with it, or do you wish you could change it to something else? 

There’s no second-guessing now. The name Marmalade fits! Whether I’m mixing fabrics of all colors and patterns to create new and interesting bundles or stacking solids into rainbows of color, I’m so excited to share my love of fabric with others and help promote traditional and modern quilting to both young and not-so-young alike.

Currently, I love to experiment with “improv piecing.” It’s cutting fabrics without using a ruler, and sewing without worrying about a scant quarter-inch seam. It’s very freeing, and an especially fun way to sew log cabin blocks.

More time with my Bernina sewing machine would be welcome, so I'd have more quilts to show you, but, here's my favorite quilt Pocket Change made from Daisy Janie’s Geo Grand organic fabric and various solid cotton fabrics.

My Content Life

I started my blog A Content Life in February 2009. My blog name describes me or at least how I strive to live. If I thought of any other names for my blog, they’re insignificant since A Content Life is based on my favorite Bible passage is Philippians 4:4-13. Specifically, verses 11-12 are about being content:

 ... for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  New International Version

When I started Marmalade Fabrics, I considered re-naming my blog. I’m so glad I didn’t. Marmalade Fabrics has added so much to my content life. They’re a pair now, just like pie and ice cream.

On September 29, Marmalade Fabrics will have been in business for a year. I’ve been on a whirlwind, growing from 30 bolts to more than 600 bolts. What will the next year bring? Another addition to my house, perhaps!

I hope you will head over to both Marmalade Fabrics and A Content Life. If you are looking for Kona cottons, Marmalade Fabrics is definitely the place to check out. But guess what else? Tammy has generously offered to host a giveaway. She will give away this stack of six fat quarters. I keep thinking I have found the perfect combination of colors with gray: aqua, orange, yellow. Gray is an amazing color. Citron is now my new love.

Want a chance to win? Just leave a comment telling us what your favorite color is to pair with gray. Random Number Generator will choose a winner on Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT.

Looking for the Accuquilt Go!Baby giveaway. It's not too late--you have until tomorrow!