Quite Contrary

Goodbye.............................

2010-02-22T17:26:00.000-08:00

For all or you that gave us continued support during the few years QC was running we thank you.
A sad goodbye but an unfortunate sign of the times we are living in.
We may be back one day... watch this space!

QC SALE...

2009-07-21T13:27:00.000-07:00

not a lot of people are aware that we offer our beautiful clothing on line too, and we are having a fantastic sale just before the fall season begins.
Please feel free to spread the word and of course the link... store.quitecontraryclothing.com

Trade shows and other stuff

2009-04-29T13:52:00.000-07:00

I always want to write about something funny like my kids or someone I have just met or something I have just seen, in fact I have just heard the funniest story that had me laughing so hard! ahhhh it hurt. It's far to long winded to put here but email me and I'll FWD you the story!

Laughing aside it's hard having to always write and tie it to the fashion industry, I guess everyday things we do, see and hear can"inspire" us so I can write about what I want really!?? right??

Well these past few weeks we have been very busy prototypes for summer 2010 (really 2010!!!) Plus trying to still get the line out there.

But I took some time and some good friends (Krissi & Tiffany) and we decorated a dear friends wedding as well as help decorate the cake! which was tons of fun and incredibly yummy (good job Tiffany on the cake) so enjoy the "inspirational" photos :-)

Who knows what he's looking for! but how cute is this??

I do feel like I need to write about the trade show we attended though! It was very quite most of the vendors attending were keeping up beat and "surviving" as a lot of them said, I think a definite reflection of the times we are living in... lets hope things pick up VERY soon! On a positive note we meet some lovely new people and some great new stores that will be opening soon, some of whom will be carrying the lovely fall line this winter.

Fabric?!

2009-03-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

A friend recently asked me what was the difference between woven and printed fabric?
Hmmm easy I thought one has a pattern woven through it and the other has the pattern printed on the face side of the fabric! but I hesitated to answer, I wasn't sure to be honest if I would answer correctly so I thought oooooh good subject for the blog, I'll research it and post the answer here!

Woven fabric uses every thread to produce the pattern such as plaids and stripes.

however you can sometime work a little detail into the pattern such as this cute little Pineapple fabric.

Another option to woven textured fabrics is adding embroidery to it, this adds an exciting twist the run of the mill silk dupioni or a cotton, wool etc... such as pictured.

Ooooooh and of course there is "Crewl work"
Which can be done on a machine

...or by hand.

But be careful, one time I was working with this fabric and a shipment had come in from India, as soon as we opened the roll's of fabric nasty little fly eggs hatched and flew all around our workroom... GROSS normally this type of thing is checked for, who knows what happened!? Oh and I might add this happened before we started designing children's clothes so you don't have to worry about your lovely clothes hatching any eggs!

A printed fabric is normally just that! A print applied to the surface of the fabric, cotton, silk etc... this is a much more cost effective and less time consuming alternative to the woven fabric process. It also allows you to have brighter fun colours.

There are SOOOOOOO many yummy fabrics out there that you just want to bath in :-)
I could go on and on but you have probably nodded of at this point?! I'll post something really exciting soon I promise

"Friends... Mother's... Sister's..."

2009-03-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

This fall season we have added a "pink Ribbon" T-shirt to the collection.

We really want to make people aware of how widespread Breast Cancer is and how much we want to show our support to those who are battling the disease or who have battled and have sadly lost. According to the American Cancer Society, approximately 40,000 women die from breast cancer annually, these are our mothers, daughters, sister's and friends!

One such person was our dear friend Robin who sadly lost the battle against this horrible disease November 2008. Robin did all she could to fight this terrible disease for a year and a half, and battle she did too!

She was not only beautiful on the outside but stunning on the inside too, people were just draw to her as she always made you feel like you were the only person alive, she was so kind and loving even to people she didn't really know... She made an effort with everyone! She took fantastic care of her home which is decorated with impeccable taste but she also loved and cared for her family and raised two outstanding & lovely children (Amber & Blake), along with her dear husband Mitch with whom she was married to for 33 years. Robin was a very special person who will be missed with all our hearts.

Her daughter Amber is showing her support by doing the Avon Breast Cancer Walk please show your support by helping Amber reach her goal, her mom was her best friend and I know it would mean a lot to her. Thank you!

Quite Contrary will be donating proceeds from the sale of the "Pink Ribbon" T-shirt to the Susan G Komen fund

We do design clothes...honeslty!

2009-03-15T10:23:00.000-07:00

So I thought it would be fun to put this on the blog, plus sheila told to me to also ;-)
I was asked to do a cake for a dear friend of mine's shower this past weekend.
It morphed into a "Pop flowers" look, it was going to be an elegant duck egg blue with pink blossom flowers, but how could I resist when the weather has been so sunny here.

And of course I couldn't have done it with out Krissi's help... Thank you

I did make an apron too, so she could have a piece of the big girl Quite Contrary hehe

How adorable are these buttons? and you never know we may add it to the line... or not?

More stores...

2009-03-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

So we are constantly adding new stores who want to carry QC which is great especially when the economy is as unstable as it is.

We wish ALL new stores a HUGE success, or at least a huge HANG ON IN THERE!

Well another store I haven't had the pleasure of visiting is Tea Pot Parties & Children's Boutiquebut I got to meet Ashley and Kayse

At one of the trade shows, and what beautiful fun girls... I hate it when girls are STUNNING straight after they have had babies... it's been 3 years since my last and well Grrrrrr!!!! Anyway back on track... these girls fun and full of life, which would of course I bet reflect in their store!!!

Check out the pics and not just stunning clothes either they have a tea party room for little girlies to have fun parties in! what fun to dress and not stress about behaving in a store!

Also... as if beautiful children's clothing is not enough, they are bringing in Ladies clothes too, what a great idea!

They have some fab designers many of my favs, one of whom is Paper Wings Anyway if you are in San Francisco bay area (Santa Rosa) you have to check this store out, I will be soon and I know I won't be disappointed!

Shipping and ready to be worn!

2009-03-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

We are excited to be getting the Spring/Summer collection shipped this week and will be shipping to some new stores (website is being updated as we speak)
I thought I would feature the new stores one at a time, well almost one at a time! I have already mentioned in a previous post Little Luna Blue , and they will be carrying the new spring collection.

But... Today I wanted to feature Baby Shoppe Santa Cruz They actually are not really a new store, but I hadn't featured them yet and felt they deserved a mention.
If you ahve had the pleasure of going to Santa Cruz you will know what a fun hip little beach town it is, not only is it always sunny there (almost hehe) the people are very friendly and eclectic! This store definitely is one of the best features on Pacific Avenue...
Be sure to check them out when you are there!

The new season is here (almost)

2009-02-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun shoot the other day, I can't wait for the website to be updated so you can all see how beautiful the little girls looked!
We decided to let them wear make-up and try to make them look like little dolls, we'll see how the pictures turn out and if they really did? But here are a few of them getting ready.

And our beautiful friend Mila with sweet Audrey

Aprons, Aprons and more Aprons...

2009-02-19T10:55:00.000-08:00

I am sure everyone thinks the fashion industry is very glamorous and for about 1/4 of the time it is, but the rest of the time it's hard work... almost!
We are getting the production ready to go out for spring, so my studio is piled high with clothes, right now aprons... how cute do they look.
I'll try and get more pics posted soon. You've just gotta love the colors together!

A boys preview

2009-02-09T17:18:00.001-08:00

Well we had a fantastic photo shoot the other day with Penny Sylvia unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the "getting ready" part which was so adorable, all these lovely little girl's lined up to get hair and make-up done, it was so cute! Our good friend Mila did such a fab job with them, I can't wait to share
I can't wait to see how it turned out.
Until then I thought I'd give you a little preview of the boys and how CUTE the cufflinks are :-)

Jumping in "MUD PUDDLES"

2009-01-30T07:18:00.001-08:00

So this is another lovely little store that carries our clothes. The owner and her mother are very sweet and as soon as I get a chance to go check out the store myself I will post more picture's so until then you will just have to make do with these.

They are located in Calistoga, so whilst your there why not check into a spa and then hit the store up for some retail therapy?

new season

2009-01-18T19:10:00.001-08:00

We almost have the new Fall 09 season done and will be taking pictures VERY soon I promise!
We have some delicious fabrics and some fab new designs that we just can't wait to show you all, so keep coming back, I promise I will be posting more now!

That time of year again

2008-12-18T09:54:00.000-08:00

So just a brief entry today, I know I have been lazy about writing here for the past month... long story.
Anyway Sheila and I are at that time of year where we are very busy cutting and figuring out the samples for the next season... I will snap a few pics later and show you how glamorous it is =D

Q.C online

2008-11-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

We get asked all the time where can people buy Q.C online... well Pretty please has a few pieces left and they have such a cute website too.Check it out

Pretty Please

Sew... Cute! Bearpaws & Hollyhocks

2008-11-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

When Sheila and I to have to make prototypes for the new season it is silly to buy a whole bolt of fabric to make one or two things that may get scrapped anyway! so we go to our favorite local fabric stores to gather lovely fabrics and sometimes some inspiration too. I have been here a lot lately, it just seems to help get thoughts and designs in gear!!

So when I first walked into Bearpaws & Hollyhocks I found it hard to contain my excitement... I moved over from England about 8 years ago now and when I did there was nothing in Sac town that was out of the ordinary... that was hard because if you could have seen the fabric shop where I worked, you would have asked yourself why is she here?? but then again you haven't seen my American husband either (another story) anyway upon moving back from Scotts Valley where my partner lives currently I stumbled upon this delightful place.

Bearpaws & Hollyhocks have been around for about 5 years now (I think) and were so helpful when I walked in, despite not even being there for quilting purposes and they didn't balk at the kids... hugely appreciated especially as they can be hmmmm VERY rambunctious (my kids that is) Anyway their wealth of knowledge is outstanding as well as the fabric choice too... and if you see something they don't have (unlikely) they are very accommodating and will often try to fit it onto an order of theirs! Thank you Lindy =D

Anyway here are a few snap's of the lovely things they have to offer... Well actually a TON of pictures. they have so many interesting things I couldn't decide what to leave in and what to leave out!

You must visit them if you live in or around sunny Sacramento, you won't be disappointed. Or you can visit their website just click the link below

Bearpaws & Hollyhocks

Another Fav... Koukla

2008-11-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Koukla... I recently looked up what this meant exaclty and this is what I found:

Koukla (κούκλα) Greek for Doll and/or beautiful woman (or more appropriately a gorgeous woman)

geia sou (γεια σου) is also greek for hello or hi .

ti kaneis (τι κάνεις) means how are you?

So you could come up with your own sentance "gia sou koukla, ti kaneis?" and it would mean : Hi gorgeous, how are you?

I find myself saying that all the time to my own lovely children... Hi gorgeous how are you today. How cool is that. A store named after doll's and gorgeous women (& kids)

Well Toria was there today sadly she wouldn't let me take any pictures of her, shame because her & Kathyrn both own this lovely boutique and could both be described as "Koukla" women! So here a a few pics of this lovely store without the girls. It is also right next to starbucks... Perfect, coffee and shopping!

He-he I caught one of Toria's back!

And of course they carry Q.C too

I had decided to feature some of my favorite places... this is proving to be harder than I thought, I have so many it's hard to narrow them done. So sorry you haven't been mentioned yet I am sure you will be!

I'm ready for spring

2008-11-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

Well we are going back over some final details from our spring collection and looking at them makes me feel like I am so not ready for winter and really really want to have a few last sunny days before the rain set's in.
These pictures made me feel hmmm... sunny !
How cute is this little girl and don't polka dots just make you want to smile?

And these two, well!! what can we say

and finally a few more things that made me feel sunny and in a much better mood!

Fashion is a passion

2008-10-30T20:25:00.000-07:00

Fashion is a huge part of my life, maybe growing up in a family of 4 girls and always having hand me downs has something to do with that, or it could be because my mother was always surrounded by stunning fabrics thus developed my love for the industry??

Anyway I have decided to feature some fab stores that either carry us or not, they just deserve a mention!

First is Little Luna Blue, who always hooks me in with either her charm or excellent array of designers such as the paperwings outfit you see pictured on my sweet Ella... Anna Cheers!

Little Luna Blue

L.A L.A and more L.A

2008-10-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

So every six months or so my partners tootle of to the L.A textile show to see what we can find for next year, and did we find some treasures! Oh and the view from my plane not very exciting but I am trying to get you in the mood.

This fabric is one of my all time new fav's unfortunately we had to give up our first born to purchase this and neither one of us was willing, but here look and see how stunning this french fabrics was!

Off to market again

2008-10-16T18:07:00.000-07:00

Well this will be our last market of the season, for us girls anyway!
It is in San Mateo October 24th-28th
What fun! we can't wait to see what come out of it.

San Mateo

A few pictures of the booth...

New Reps

2008-09-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

So we are very excited to have picked up some faboulous new reps on the east & west coast area.
First is Julie Anne from JAG in Dallas.
JAG
Then Terra from Thread Showroom in NY.
Thread Showroom

Thanks ladies we look forward to working with you :)

Wahooo fall is shipping

2008-08-27T11:06:00.001-07:00

We got the fall shipment in and it's looking fab!, I'll post some pics soon from the studio to show the mess, I mean mass of clothes ;-)

San Francisco Early Spring Market

2008-08-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

Sharing a few pictures of the fashion market in San Francisco... we got to be in a showroom this time, very nice.

Forever blowing... BUBBBLE(S)

2008-08-07T08:17:00.000-07:00

Well I just got back from a fab trip to NY city, there I did the trade show Bubble, and WOW what a cool show it is, so many talented people and great new things, including ours of course LOL
The show is in the terminal buildings and runs about the length of 2? city blocks, so it is huge! well long and skinny!
We had a great show and met lots of great new people.
Sorry about the quality of the pictures but I forgot my camera and to use my iPhone... silly me!

Getting the booth ready...

A few blurry ones of the setup...

And then my Lovely husband displaying a tie for QC

A summer preview

2008-07-09T08:20:00.000-07:00

So here is a small preview of the Spring/summer collection.

And a few pictures from getting ready...

The day of

2008-07-09T08:17:00.001-07:00

We had such a great day this past Saturday with the Spring/Summer 09 photo shoot.
Penny sylvia did a FANTASTIC job with the kids, the photos turned out really cool as Rebecca from Stems (located at 3269 Folsom Blvd, Sacramento, CA) let us use her adorable flower shop for the location! It is stunning flower/gift store with the most unusual little things in there, plus her Mom Mary is an artist and had a few canvases laying around which added such a great feel to the whole thing! beautiful... Thank you ladies.

Quite Contrary is very fortunate to be surrounded by such talented, beautiful, fun women... Ladies we applaud you!

Penny...

Stems...

The Night before...

2008-07-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

So this is all of us girls the night before the shoot frantically trying to get ready.

My Studio seemed so much bigger with just one person in there.

Sheila's baby (Sheila is in the background with the green shirt) wasn't very happy when I started sewing with her on my lap! I won't be trying that one again!

Sandra's oldest girl is in the shot too, She looks darling in some of the Q.C clothes, to follow...

2008-06-24T21:51:00.001-07:00

Well I have just made my travel arrangements to attend Bubble in NY, how excited am I to be going??

Anyone who knows about Bubble knows this is a git of a big deal for new designers! its one of the best trade shows to be in like I said for new designers... I hope Q.C takes it by storm!

My Partners will be going to San Mateo at the same time... sniff wish I was going too, oh well I am sure I will suffer through NY some how ;-)

The show dates for both are August 3rd 4th & 5th and here are a couple of links to both site's Look out for Quite Contrary on Bubble Exhibitor list!

Bubble
San Mateo

2008-06-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

Finally, a site where we can thank everyone that has and is helping Quite Contrary succeed.

We will be adding photos and more soon.

Thanks for checking us out.

Q.C.