UPDATE: PLEASE READ THE UPDATE. FREE SPIRIT HAS BEEN ACQUIRED.

Free Spirit/Westminster Fabrics announced yesterday to their designers that they will no longer be distributing fabric.

This includes some big name designers:  Tula Pink, Kaffe Fassett, Amy Butler, Anna Maria Horner and Denyse Schmidt.

What does this mean for us, as consumers?

Well if you are fans of these designers, their future products are currently up in the air. Free Spirit says they will take orders from quilt shops through May 31, so likely this is everything shown to shop owners at Quilt Market this past fall. This just goes to show how far in advance the pipeline is for fabrics. Products that stores are ordering right now are already in the works overseas…commitments have been made, which means $$$ have been exchanged, and at the end of the day, the products need to be sold to you…preferably at a profit.

Tula Pink is going live today at 2 pm Central time on Facebook and Instagram (Feb. 13) to talk about the future of her fabrics.  We’ll all learn a bit about it then.

Update on Tula Pink fabric:

Her solids are already in the stores. Whatever is there is what’s there. All Stars will ship to stores.  De La Luna may or may not ship, but may transfer to whoever she partners with next.  She is planning to continue designing fabric and is weighing options with new distributors. (She has a great attitude, if you have a chance to see her response, be sure to look it up.)

As for the other designers, I’m sure they will each make decisions based on their own opportunities and interests.

Stay tuned!

You can read about the details of the shutdown here.