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STASH Report by EQ the Mouse - November 2009EQ the Mouse takes you behind the scenes to hear from the EQ STASH crew who get to see the fabric before you do. |
Preview
SARA WOODWARD: STASH season is always a highlight of my year. I love getting to see what's going to be coming to my local quilt shop shortly (and I get a head start on planning my next quilts!). So many beautiful fabrics, so little time… : )
With this latest edition, I'm seeing a wonderful variety in the scale of prints in each line. There's a nice mix of small, medium and large prints that coordinate beautifully with the focal fabrics. Dots of all sizes are popular, as are 2-color prints. There seem to be fewer tone-on-tone prints than previous seasons, with more strong graphic prints, which should be lots of fun to work with!
PENNY McMORRIS: I didn't work on STASH, but in reviewing it I'm noticing lots of dots, “camping” prints, paisley designs, and reproduction prints. There are two interesting collections based on sewing images: “The Sew-it Book Collection” by Amy Barickman for Red Rooster, and “Tidings of Great Joy” by Janet Wecker Frisch for Quilting Treasures. I love the “Authentic” line by Sweetwater from Moda, full of black and white text, and the manly “Be a Man” group from FreeSpirit by Douglas Day featuring a he-man, wrenches, hammers, gears, screws and cocktails.
EQ the Mouse: STASH season is my favorite too. Lots of cozy fabric-filled boxes to nap in. But I digress. On with my interview!
Interview with Jenny Novinsky
Q: You work on STASH for about 6 months, right? So take me through what happens as you begin working. What happens first?
JENNY NOVINSKY: I set up the schedule for STASH by working backward from Market. [Editor's note: Quilt Market is the wholesale quilt industry trade show held twice yearly – in October and May. Fabric companies introduce their new fabrics to store owners at Market.]
My deadline for receiving fabric from the manufacturers is usually about 2 months before Market. This may sound like quite a bit of time. But there's lots to get done in that 2 months!
About 6 months before this deadline I contact all the fabric manufacturers and let them know the fabric deadline. I also send out reminders several times leading up to the deadline. I have a list of about 40 manufacturers that I contact, although not all of them are able to participate in each edition for various reasons.
Since EQ6 was released in 2006 we decided to scan all the fabric ourselves to ensure that the fabric looks the best it possibly can in our software. Many fabric manufacturers post their fabrics on their websites, but have scaled them down to show more of the fabric design. We scan all the fabrics at 100% so that they represent accurately in EQ6. It creates more work for us, but it's important to us that the fabrics look the very best that they can!
Q: When does the fabric start to come in, and what do you do with it as it piles up around your desk?
JN: Some manufacturers send me fabric year-round, whenever a new line becomes available. I love that because I can get a jumpstart on scanning the fabric. But for the most part, fabric starts arriving a week or two before the deadline. The best part of my job happens when the box arrives and I get to open it up and see what all the new fabrics look like. I check out all the lines to make sure that they haven't appeared in STASH before, then move it to the “To Be Scanned” area. From there, any one of our graphics employees can grab a box and start scanning.
Q: How does the scanning process work? I see that ironing board near your desk. What are the steps you go through and how many people are working on this?
JN: The scanning process almost always starts at the ironing board. After being packed in boxes and shipped across the country, the fabric usually needs a good ironing before we lay it on the scanner. One of my tips for getting a good fabric scan is to lay something heavy (like a book) on top of the fabric on the scanner bed. Even if you've ironed a fabric, it helps to flatten out any ripples or waves the fabric may have, which causes darker spots on a scan.
Once a fabric is scanned, we straighten the fabric and crop to the repeat, if possible. We also clean up any lint or threads that may have snuck onto the fabric while we weren't looking (it happens!). The fabric scan is saved using the manufacturer's SKU number as the name. For this edition of STASH there were 5 of us that spent at least a little bit of time at the scanner. And we replaced one scanner this season. Scanners don't last long here at EQ – apparently they weren't made to scan thousands of fabrics in a two week period!
Q: Can you estimate how many woman-hours there are just in the scanning alone, for all 4000 - 5000+ fabrics?
JN: Oh goodness, I don't like to think about how much time we put in at the scanners… I'm guessing 160+ scanning hours. Most of the hours were put in by our student worker, Samantha, who has done a fantastic job. Then there's also all the hours we spend after scanning to build the software.
Q: Once you have all the scans, what do you do with them, and how do you keep them all straight?
JN: Organization is very important with STASH. Each manufacturer has a folder, and in that folder there is a folder for each of the fabric lines. The fabric-line folder holds each of the individual fabric scan files. Clear as mud, right?
Once we have all the fabric scans, we run them through a “batch” in Photoshop to change them into the bitmap format needed for the Stash software. Next, in the Stash software, we build libraries for each of the fabric manufacturers. At this time we also write the notecard that accompanies each fabric. The notecard has the line name, designer, and copyright information for the fabric. This makes it easy for the user to find the fabric at their local quilt shop. The notecard can have other info like “flannel” or “cotton sateen” too (things that you can't tell from seeing the fabric on the computer screen).
Q: What happens to get them from your computer onto a CD and into someone else's computer?
JN: Sara Woodward takes care of all the installation “stuff” for STASH. She's the one who makes it go from the CD to your computer, if you want more technical details you'll have to ask her. : )
Somewhere in the mix we also get to design the packaging for the STASH CD, which I think is one of the best parts too - you get to go through all the fabrics and pick your favorites to feature on the packaging. This season Heidi had the honor of designing the package although that's something I usually like to save for myself.
EQ the Mouse: Well then I think you should next time, my dear. STASH: package design by Jenny. Leave a warm, cozy spot on your desk for me this winter when fabrics begin arriving.
New Edition of Stash:
Stash Fall 2009
