Robert Kaufman Essex Cotton&Flax
 

Has anyone worked with any of the fabric from Robert Kaufman Essex designed by Cotton & Flax? I just received an order of fabric which was described as 100% Cotton premium quality Quilting fabric. It feels like it is a linen blend, on the stiff and shiny side and woven? Wondering what the care instructions must be and how it’s going to be to work with. It does not say on the selvedge that it is 100% cotton https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...s/confused.png . I’m looking to make a King sized quilt with this and 100% cotton fabric and wondering how they are going to play together...

You had me intrigued, so I surfed a bit.
Found many references to Kaufman-Essex.
All showed the fibre content as 55% linen, 45% cotton.
There is a metallic line that is 50% Linen/40% Cotton/10% Lurex Y/D Cloth.

Didn't find anything referencing Cotton & Flax as the designer.
However, linen is made from flax, so I am wondering if that is where the mix up is?

Some of the links I found .... starting with Robert Kaufman themselves ....
https://www.robertkaufman.com/fabrics/essex/#more_info
https://www.fabric.com/buy/fh-751/ka...-blend-natural
https://www.hancocks-paducah.com/SHO...ssex-Yarn-Dyed
https://www.missouriquiltco.com/shop...oyster-yardage

The metallic line is really calling to me ... just gotta see it IRL!!! :)

https://www.robertkaufman.com/quilti...adowland_2900/

this is the fabric Line I bought But it doesn’t say what it’s made of 🙄

These are a cotton and linen blend and make for a very luxurious quilt! I made a queen size quilt with this cotton/linen blend for my stepson and I loved working with it! It quilted up very nicely on my longarm and I had no issues at all!

I just heard back from the vendor who apologized for the incorrect description and confirmed it is a cotton/linen blend (no %’s mentioned). She assured me it makes nice quilts and to care for it the same as cotton and that while a little heavier than cotton, it still works well when it is mixed with cottons in the same quilt. I love the colours. It’s for a wedding gift for our son and future DIL. Hopefully they’ll like it too.. I’ll be prewashing it and drying it in the dryer, so I hope that goes well.

I think maybe you're thinking of Cotton and Steel, because the designer who wrote the Meadowland pattern made a quilt with Cotton and Steel fabrics. https://thencamejune.com/blogs/blog/...tton-steel-one

I ordered some but it hasn't arrived yet. The swatch card did, however. If you're interested in getting better descriptions and true colors and are planning to use this line for various projects, I highly suggest investing in one. It's awesome. I wish I had the card before I ordered and think I also ordered some of the metallics and some without. I like it a lot more than the Kona I had been using for solids, for sure.

True ... I was going to suggest you contact the source, and yes, you did!
Did she offer to take it back, being that you had been misled?

One concern I would have ...... I always think of linen as being very likely to shrink and to go wrinkly when worn as clothing. Give it a good test run before you go to the work of your major project. Good Luck!

No, it’s definitely Cotton & Flax as it is right on the selvedge on the fabric I have. If you follow this link https://www.robertkaufman.com/quilti...adowland_2900/ you will see a meadowland quilt by then came June and the fabric shown is what I purchased. And this link is also from RK's site featuring the Meadowland quilt from then came June https://www.robertkaufman.com/assets...Meadowland.pdf featuring the fabric line Balboa, I purchased. Erin Dollar is the fabric designer of this line. I would show you a picture of the selvedge, but I can’t post pictures from my iPad on this forum. For whatever reason, it doesn’t work.

No she did not offer to take it back, but did apologize and I picked it up on a good sale so I’m going to give it a go. I’ve been wanting to try it, but would have preferred it to be on a smaller scale and for one I'm not gifting. I love the colours in it am just hoping I have enough of it or can get a good coordinating fabric for the background or whatever I might be lacking. It so hard when you can’t just walk into a quilt shop to try and match something you already have :(.

I made some blocks using the Essex fabric it was great to work with, I had no issues. I purchased it quite a while ago after seeing Jenny Doan use it in a quilt she made that I fell in love with. I don't recall the name of the tutorial.

Right on. That’s encouraging :). Thanks!

I have used linen and other textured blends before with very good results. I'm a prewasher anyway, but I would use hot water and a hot dry just to make sure everything was stable.

Late last year I got a big bag of hand dyed fabric at the thrift store. It turned out that the dyes were never set and I got out my old tie-dye huge pyrex bowl (can easily fit 2+ yards fabric) and started cooking the fabric (make sure the fabric is fully saturated first, then cover with water, squish out the air bubbles and cover bowl with plastic wrap) in the microwave on high for 20 minutes. Haven't used it for shrinkage yet, but I wouldn't have any fears about it after that treatment!

So a few of the Essex fabrics have arrived, still waiting on the second half. I have WOF cuts without a labeled selvage. It's solid with loose fringed strings at the very edge. Is this different than other versions? i believe someone was saying they had info on theirs. I found the fabric thanks to Aneela Hoey's blog and her book Stitched Sewing Organizers.

cool! Did you use starch at all to control bias edges? My pattern has a lot of trapezoids and triangles.

Did you use any starch to help control bias edges...my quilt has a lot of trapezoids and triangles in it?

I recently ordered and have used RK Essex yarn dyed fabric and really like it. I have used it in a jelly roll rug with good luck. Your fabric line got me curious. I Googled it, cool prints. Have fun with them.
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I am a avid starcher and heavy starcher, IMHO it really does help control the bias, and yes even with the Essex Lines.

Thank you for replying! I agree with you, that it definitely helps and have gone ahead and starched the fabric.