Sparkling Sue: Artist & entrepreneur, Sue Penn’s passion for fabric led her to start her own business, Fine Lines Fabric Co.

By:  Cynthia Van Hazinga

Sue Penn is a great example of an American woman entrepreneur. Hard working and energetic, she has a special shine and a sure point of view. She’s always looking for a way to express herself artistically, and then often turns it into a business. All while raising four kids in the charming college town of Mount Vernon, Iowa, where she’s lived ever since she came to study at Cornell College.

Sue’s husband Bob is a native of the town, and four years ago, they bought land adjoining their family’s house, an old orchard that had been in the family for generations. Now they tend 10 antique trees and 100 new trees of heirloom species. (Can we predict an apple orchard line of fabric?)

Bright and Bold

Foremost, Sue is an artist. She loves color and she loves pattern and has designed probably everything from embroidery patterns to stationery. When she has time, she paints in oils and acrylics. She started sewing with an old black Singer and took to it like ice cream.

No one was really surprised when, after designing quilt fabrics on her own for about 15 years, she started her own company, Fine Lines Fabric. Maybe it was Sue’s marketing director, Cheryl Jukich, who said it first: “You know, we should start our own fabric company.” It was clearly the thing to do. Launching twelve lines of fabric in the first year, Sue says, “I hope we’ll grow to 50 or 60 a year.”

Go for Color

Generally, Sue does the design of a new line, then sends it out for artwork. “I really like color,” Sue says, “I was one of the first fabric designers to do brights.” She’s not into neutrals or muddy “country” colors, but sometimes uses black.

Sue starts with a theme and a focal print: butterflies in one bright new Fine Lines collection, Butterfly Garden, and bold graphics in another, Ellie’s Emporium; both available in early 2010. Avery, a strong collection with lots of purple and yellow, was inspired by an antique French fabric she discovered, and joyful, floral Rue de Fleur was inspired by a 19th-century painting, probably originally used for wallpaper. Fine Lines’ first basic line, the versatile Watermark has become very popular, and the Rue Crackle collection, mostly solids, fits the moment when a quilter “needs a little something right there.”

Just What You Need

Once the focal print and concept for the line is secure, Sue devises patterns and color coordinates to support it. She’ll experiment with colorways until she gets just what she likes. “I send the art off to have it prepared for printing, and check and re-check the accuracy of pattern and color.” Sue is well known for being a perfectionist when it comes to color quality. In fact, that’s Fine Lines’ stated mission: to bring quality cotton quilting fabrics to retailers worldwide. Quilters, rejoice!

To find out more:

What a girl, what a whirl, what a life!

By:  Cynthia Van Hazinga

Energetic, enthusiastic and multi-talented, this creative quilter and designer has stitched together an inspiring life of work and fun. Catching her between trips, QUILT magazine talked to renowned quilt designer and communicator Kaye England, who lives on an eight-acre farm in Indianapolis, nurturing eight adoring llamas, three entertaining goats and nine chickens. “There’s nothing like a fresh egg,” she declares.

So you’re really a country girl?

I was raised on a working farm in Glasgow, Kentucky; this is a play farm for me. It’s off the road with a creek running at the back of the land. Really, I’m all South. We call ourselves hillbillies—not a derogatory term. I’m proud to be from the South.

Did your childhood start you on sewing?

Oh, yes. Both of my grandmothers were stitchers—by necessity and also as a creative outlet. Everything was done by hand. My mother, a busy farm wife, was a good seamstress, but it was my father’s mother who taught me to tat at the age of eight. I learned crocheting, crewelwork, and quilting, just as a hobby.

And then it became a profession?

My hobby turned out to have legs of its own. In the late 1970s and early 80s, I bought a shop in Indianapolis, and I was in retail for 40 years. I owned three quilt shops, and was a Bernina dealer for 20 years. I was lucky; it was the right time for it. At the same time as running the shops, I was traveling a lot, designing fabrics and writing books. (Now, Kaye heads her own publishing company, Kaye England Publications.)

To what do you attribute the current popularity of quilting?

In the 1980s, the rotary cutter was invented and machine work became very popular. Women’s skills flourished; they began to make time. Quilting is just so soothing and good for you. Everyone’s capable, you don’t need great skill, and the simplicity of patterns is attractive, too. For most people, it’s just a wonderful art form and creative outlet.

Do you still love quilting yourself?

I make 40 or 50 quilts a year. I love to piece. I could piece 14 hours a day, and I’m a hand-quilter, though I don’t do much of it. I’m fast; I can make almost any quilt in a day, but remember, I do it full time, like a job, working eight to ten hours a day. Most of the quilts I make are to help market my fabrics and designs.

And now you design fabrics for Wilmington Prints?

Yes, they’re a new division of MM Fabrics that sells directly to quilt shops. Things move fast now; there are more pretty fabrics coming out than ever, with shorter shelf lives. It’s like books—everyone wants something new.

Your fabric collections show you’re interested in history.

I’m a history buff; it would be my first love, but it’s not profitable. African history, Civil War, Bible stories—I love to research them all and mingle them back into my work. I have a couple hundred beautiful 19th-century quilts I treasure, and probably 400 to 500 quilts in all, carefully stored. I travel with some 40 or 50 of them at any time.

Whew! What a high energy level you have.

Yes, I have. I can work 15- to 18-hour days back to back. I travel a lot to conventions and workshops, though I’d rather stay home. I travel to meet the quilters, and I prefer to speak at quilt shops. It allows me to direct the sales of my books. I’m working on a couple of DVDs; it’s entertaining and much easier than writing a book. I’m also working on a new book—technique related—for next spring.

How would you characterize your own quilting and design philosophy?

I’m different from a lot of quilting professionals. I aim for clean, precise work, and quilters need the skills to do it well. I’m a conceptual teacher. I try to communicate the overall concepts of how things work to produce clean results, not perfect but as close as you can get. I teach how to get tools and machines to do what they can do, and it’s easiest and simplest when you do it in an organized way. I have a great time in the process, even when life gets in the way. I love what I do, and somewhere down the road, I hope someone else does, too.

To find out more:

An Art Gallery of Modern Designs Drawn from Old World Patterns

By:  Lisa Swenson Ruble

“I love the stories of my ancestors,” says Florida-based entrepreneur, Patricia Bravo. Her fabric designs draw from her childhood in Argentina and the rich family heritage of her forbears from Italy and Spain. She credits her passion for the past and its influence on her work, in part, to the stories of her grandmother, who loved to visit Alhambra, Grenada, sharing vivid tales of how the Arabs conquered that part of the world.

A self-proclaimed history buff, Patricia has read more than three hundred biographies of kings, queens and revolutionaries. “So many time periods attract me,” she says, “and I love translating them into a more modern look when I design fabric.” With a style she describes as “contemporary elegant,” this prolific designer weaves together her own culturally rich background, love of history, and creative instinct into fabric designs. “It’s my favorite form of self-expression,” she says.

Argentine Ruffles to American Quilts

As a young girl, Patricia’s mother encouraged her to be creative. At age nine, with her mother’s help, she began adding ruffles to her skirts and dresses. She fell in love with sewing machines and fabric at 13, and started sewing her own clothes with the help of two years of coursework. Her childhood love of ruffles came full circle when she added “yards and yards of them” to her wedding dress. “The tradition in my father’s family was to give a wedding dress from generation to generation. I used the lower part of my aunt’s wedding dress and constructed the top with lots of ruffles.”

Years later, when her husband Walter’s work brought them to the United States, she wandered into a Joann Fabrics looking for craft and fabric supplies. Compared to the stores in Argentina, “it was heaven—like being in a candy store.” Her “aha!” moment, and entry into the quilting world, arrived one day when she watched a woman rearranging a stack of fabric bolts, and asked what she was doing. The reply? “Auditioning fabrics for a quilt.” Patricia asked what a quilt was, and seeing samples hanging from the ceiling, was transfixed. “I started to see the magic of triangles and squares and was completely hooked!” she says.

After starting with traditional designs, she began to explore art quilting, especially landscape quilts. “In 1993 there weren’t fabrics available for rocks, foliage, and trees, and I was frustrated every time I went to the fabric store,” she remembers. Never one to back down from a challenge, she decided to paint her own fabrics, creating what she needed. “Every time I painted, I wanted to paint more. I’d use five different colors in a fat quarter and the combinations were amazing!”

Patricia shared these fabrics with her new quilting friends, who encouraged her to sell them at quilt shows. Her original painted fabrics, and newer designs, which included hand stamping, sold out quickly and constantly. “I started getting requests for larger pieces,” she says, “but it’s hard to paint yardage because the fabric needs to stretch out over plastic while it dries.” Painting classes helped her develop a sense of color and design and feedback from customers let her know what would sell. As more requests for yardage poured in, Patricia told Walter, “People are asking me to do this,” and they decided to go for it!

A Gallery of Beauty

Patricia’s son Alex suggested her company’s name. One day, back when she was still painting fabric, Alex saw the fat quarters lying on the ground, drying. “He said they could be in an art gallery because the colors were so beautiful,” Patricia says. When I started my company, I asked his opinion on a name. He said, ‘Mom, Art Gallery.’ And Art Gallery Fabrics was born.”

As the Bravos’ company has grown, Patricia has evolved as a designer. “When I design, I enter a state of catharsis. I talk less to my husband and son and become more introspective.” When she finishes a collection, “it’s like I explode and return to normal life. It’s a process that I enjoy each time.”

One of Patricia’s newest collections, Revive, draws inspiration from the textiles used in the spas of several older European hotels. She “fell in love” with the blues and purples and “warmed them up with browns, beiges, toffee and light aqua.” Even the quilt Patricia designed with this collection (Refreshing Spa Bubbles), embraces this luxurious theme. She describes the design as an interpretation of how a woman feels at a spa: a peaceful place full of welcoming curves. “I’m a very sensitive person and I work on emotion that I want to reflect in my work.”

To find out more:

Marie Osmond Does It Again: This devoted singer and quilter shares her new designs.

By:  Cynthia Van Hazinga

Iconic performer Marie Osmond recently talked with Quilt magazine about her love of quilting, her outlook on life, and her latest fabric collection for Quilting Treasures.

Who or what has been the biggest influence on your quilting?

My mother loved quilting, and when I was a girl we did some sewing together. Because my brothers and I toured hundreds of days a year, I concentrated on portable craft projects like knitting, crochet, and needlepoint.

In 2001, my mother had a stroke and was incapacitated until she passed away in 2004, though her mind and spirit were lively to the end. She couldn’t sew herself, but that didn’t stop her from dreaming up quilting ideas. In her final years, I set up a sewing machine next to her hospital bed and stitched quilts (with her nod of approval on design) while we talked for hours at a time. I wanted all the wisdom she could give me. It was because of this priceless time spent with my mother that I fell in love with quilting. It truly is like a love letter for the future generations. I’ll never stop quilting now! Quilting is more than an art form to me. It’s the history of family love in America.

Do you find quilting relaxing or stimulating?

As a single mom with eight kids and an entertainer who does a show with my brother Donny five nights a week in Vegas, I look forward to any quilting time that I can squeeze into my schedule. To sit at a sewing machine and create a quilt for an hour is really good therapy. It makes me so calm and focused. And, if I can quilt for two hours…it’s like a spa treatment! I feel totally refreshed. I believe…my skin even looks better.

Have you taught your children to sew?

My 19-year-old daughter, Rachael, has sewn since she was very young. She makes clothes, Halloween costumes, and fun bags for her friends. My 11-year-old, Brianna, and Abigail, who’s six, just got a starter sewing machine and are making baby quilts for their dolls, and my son Michael, who is 17, is learning the craft, as well. He has a great fashion eye and interest in design. Watch out, Calvin Klein!

What inspires your fabric design?

I am inspired by my surroundings and how I am feeling at the time we are developing the collections. For example, “Gypsy Breeze” was developed when I was touring the globe with my brothers last year, celebrating their 50th anniversary of singing together. “Blanc et Noir Fashion” has a sophisticated downtown flair, combining black, white and fuchsia; it’s perfect for contemporary quilts.

What do you like to do to really relax?

To relax fully and feel peaceful, I read my scriptures every night. They always remind me of what’s important: faith and family.

You have such a tremendous appetite for life—what would you advise the rest of us to do to tap into life’s spirit?

Ask yourself: What is it that I love to do? So often our time is filled with what we are good at doing: work, caretaking, community service, etc. But to replenish your own spirit you should do something that you would love to do—for yourself. Even if it’s something you’ve never tried before. Try that thing you’ve always wanted to do. It will fire up your imagination and recharge your spirit.

Anything else you’d like to tell QUILT‘s readers?

If we do not pass our skills to the younger generation, they may be lost. I have incredible heirlooms made by the hands of my grandmother and mother. To look at them and hold them gives me comfort every day. I’m so grateful my mother took the time to teach me to sew.

To find out more:

Creating Simple But Showy Patterns for Busy Quilters

By: Cynthia Van Hazinga

Two facts spark Amy Walsh’s creativity in designing quilts for Blue Underground Studios. “First of all,” she says, “I really love fabric, just love it. I design to let it speak out.” Secondly, she’s alert to an element of haste. “There’s new fabric all the time. It’s like fashion; some patterns and styles stay and some go out. So you have to get your favorites and make something to get it out of your system!”

Amy is the oldest of six sisters, all taught to knit and sew by their mother and grandmother. She’s a dynamo with a new baby, a stagehand husband, and a degree in education, which helps when she speaks to quilt guilds. She’s interested in quilt history, too, and is currently researching for a lecture about it. She loves many vintage or reproduction patterns, and says, “Though I’m not a yard saler, I’m always on the lookout.”

Going into Business

While a junior high history teacher, Amy spent many evenings, weekends, and summers sewing quilts. Quilting professionally seemed like the natural next step when she left teaching, and she took classes to learn long-arm quilting. It was there she met Janine Burke, also a long-arm quilter. “One day,” Amy recalls, “Janine and I were talking, and we agreed: We could design patterns. The next thing I knew, she was calling from the lawyer’s office, asking me, ‘Do you want to be president or treasurer of our company?’”

Blue Underground Studios, Inc., was born. People always ask the significance of the name. “We wanted a name that would make people ask that question,” Amy explains, “and we both have our studios in the basement. Some day we’ll make it above ground.”

Four Years Later

That was in 2005. Today, Blue Underground, with its creative headquarters in Chicago, has more than 30 patterns in print. “They’re all easy to follow and different from most patterns on the market,” Amy says. She and Janine like modern fabrics, but their designs don’t demand them. “We’ve seen some of our quilts made in vintage and reproduction fabrics that are very successful.”

Blue Underground’s goal is to publish quilt patterns that are clear and innovative—allowing quilters of any skill level to make fantastic-looking quilts. All their patterns include artist’s statements, finishing tips, and step-by-step instructions tested for clarity and accuracy by local quilters. “We produce the people’s patterns,” Amy says. Their patterns give quilters a chance to play with color and have fun. “Even weekend quilters can get them done,” she adds. “There are no tiny triangles, just straightforward pieces. Life today is busy, busy, busy, and we know it, but today’s woman still has an urge to create, and we want to help her satisfy that urge. A creative outlet is very important for a well-rounded life,” Amy philosophizes, “and we are doing our part.”

Cowboy Quilter in Tune with the World

By:  Cynthia Van Hazinga

If we had to choose one word to sum up Ricky Tims, it would be creative. The man has boundless energy, an astonishing range of interests, and creativity to beat the band. When I first started learning about him, I was amazed, for his skills and accomplishments go on and on.

“It was born inside of me,” Ricky says, meaning his music, his quilting, and all his artistic imagination. He definitely comes from a musical family: “My mother’s side of the family are all musicians,” he says, “whether it’s the piano, fiddle, mandolin, accordion or guitar. All very grass roots, and we loved to play together.” Ricky tuned in very early, according to a treasured family video of him at 21 months, poaching his cousin Carolyn’s toy piano from under the Christmas tree, and leaving her his new rocking horse.

Thinks like an Artist

Ricky clearly loves music, and listens to a lot of classical music. He specially loves cinema music; when he goes to a movie, he gets into the soundtrack as deeply as the moving images, and “my creative brain dissects a movie,” understanding it on many planes, “like crazy.” He’s analytical, can play by ear, was “reading music before I knew the alphabet,” and he’s loved to conduct since the age of 10.

“Sacred Age,” Ricky’s newest recording, featuring solo piano infused with Native American instruments, string orchestra and vocal orchestrations, was created to suggest the beauty and majesty of the Spanish Peaks region of Southern Colorado.

Ricky’s famous for his impeccable, artistic quilts, but he’s always reaching onward. After a recent trip to Japan, where he took lots of photographs, he has “a desire to incorporate my photographic skills with quilting. It’s a new creative path for me.” On his most recent teaching trip, a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Amazon, Macchu Pichu in Peru, and the Galapagos Islands, with 30 people, he took more than 7,000 pictures, and is itching to work on photomontage and printing on fabric for new effects. “I’m more and more interested in digital quilts,” he says.

Teachers and Students

Quilters are generous people, and most are eager to pass along what they know. Tims was strongly influenced by Caryl Bryer Fallert, and adores her hand-dyed fabrics. He’s been dyeing and selling fabrics since 1995. For him, it’s “creating color.” He likes to get involved in every step of the process, though, “I’m not going to grow cotton,” he jokes. (He also designs fabrics for Red Rooster.)

The atmosphere and imagery of the American Southwest has “totally captivated” Tims’s spirit. “I love the old spirits,” he says, “and the art of aborigines, Native Americans, Alaskans.” He also admires the symbolic, mystical paintings of Santa Fe artist Frank Howell.

And then there’s teaching, passing it on. “I truly believe that I have been gifted by God,” he says, “and I feel a great responsibility to share my gifts.” Annually, he holds about 12, five-day La Veta Quilt Retreats and three Ricky Tims Super Quilt Seminars for 500-700 enthusiastic quilters.

“Teaching,” he says “is a way to inspire people, to get their spirits to sing. Quilting is a journey, a diary of life. You learn what you never dreamed you could do, and have a project that expresses who you are and what your life was. It’s very powerful.”

A Quilting Gene?

In another incredible expression of family heritage—apparently it works both ways—Ricky’s dad, now 81, became a quilter in the same week Ricky did, in 1991. “My dad’s a hard-working man, and he always loved to put things together. I called him to tell him I was making a quilt on Granny’s old Kenmore, and he surprised me by telling me that was just what he was doing!” Neither knew what the other was up to. “For the last 18 months, he has been quilting away,” Ricky marvels, “he’s determined to make a quilt for every one of his grandkids and great-grandkids.”

Another growing part of Ricky’s life is his web-based TV show (The Quilt Show) with co-host Alex Anderson at www.thequiltshow.com. (He also has a jazzy website: rickytims.com) “It’s a creative way to build a global online quilt guild,” he explains. For the three-day Super Seminars, Alex Anderson and Libby Lehman help him out. Both are funny and add live production videos, comedy and music. It’s more fun than you could imagine, and some participants say as useful as 20 years of quilting alone.

A Real Right-Brainer

I was beginning to think that Ricky Tims might be a saint, so I asked him if he has any problems or weaknesses. Sure enough, like the rest of us right-brainers, Ricky has trouble with organization, and depends on his staff to light fires under him. “Follow-through is difficult for me,” he admits, “I’m so engaged in creativity, I tend to put off mundane things. I can’t meet a deadline, ‘cause my brain never shuts down. I know what I should be doing, and have every intention of going through the piles on my desk, but…it’s not all glamour to be creative. Fortunately, I can delegate and stay focused on the things I do best.”

In essence, Tims explains, “I love to work improvisationally, fly by the seat of my pants, but at the end, I want it precise and refined. I like to work fast and not worry about future decisions until they have to be made. When I start to design a quilt, I don’t know what color it will be, or design, or what will be appliquéd.”

Now that’s a creative brain. And it sounds like his workers and neighbors in the tiny Colorado mountain town of La Veta, pop. 934, are just as willing as the rest of us fans to cut him all the slack he needs. La Veta is his dream community, he says, but he’s planning a bigger house, with room for quilting guests, on a gorgeous piece of property in the mountains near La Veta. Somehow, we’re sure this dream, too, will come true.

Though not her signature style, Ro enjoyed her experience developing these heart prints with teens and young girls in mind. “It was a lot of fun; I love to work with the different bold prints and pleasing pastels,” she says. Noting a trend toward brighter and younger-styled fabrics in fabric shops, Ro feels that Hip Hop Hearts fits right in. “It makes a statement. New quilters are looking for that retro, flower power-type feeling, and this line has a bit of that feeling,” Ro says. She envisions the designs being used for backpacks and cell phone covers in addition to quilts and pillows.

A Background of Roses

A fabric designer for more than two decades (she’s been designing for Northcott Fabric since 2000), Ro has literally designed thousands of patterns, most of them traditional. “I design with the home in mind. My fabrics have a romantic cottage, shabby chic look—a feeling of leaving a legacy,” she says. This concept of legacy makes sense: Many of her ideas come from antique china patterns and vintage floral fabrics she collects. These include heirlooms handed down from her grandma and great aunt, who were both quilters.

As a rose lover, her inspiration also stems from the realism of actual flowers. “I’ve always been inspired by nature. I grew up around my grandfather and great uncle’s rose gardens,” she explains. While beautiful roses will always remain a large part of Ro’s fabric world, she’s also committed to creating lines that will continue to inspire the next generation of quilters. Watch for another collection of brighter colors and bolder motifs with her name on it!

An Unconventional Quilter’s Spiral Technique

RaNae Merrill doesn’t fit into the traditional stereotype of a quilter or designer. First, there’s her entry into quilting: She inherited a half-finished quilt when her grandmother passed away in 1976. Thirteen years later, RaNae assembled the king-sized quilt and hand quilted it. Hooked, she found her grandmother’s quilting supplies in a trunk in her mother’s garage and began incorporating Nine-Patch blocks from her grandmother’s unfinished quilt tops into quilts for family members.

Second, there’s RaNae’s design work. “Until a few years ago I didn’t realize there were quilt patterns,” she says. “I just designed my own stuff.” Not your typical Snowball or Log Cabin blocks, RaNae’s contemporary designs include her signature spiral quilts, made with a variation of paper piecing.

Third, there are RaNae’s fabric designs, inspired by her urban surroundings. “Living in New York City, there’s wonderful architectural inspiration all around me,” she explains. In fact, photos of architectural details, coupled with self-taught lessons in photo-editing software, opened the door to fabric design. RaNae played with motifs made from her photos and showed them to the new senior designer at Blank Quilting, looking for input. She received more than just input; the fabric company bought a line. RaNae’s two most popular fabric lines, Radiant and Radiant II, were created with her spiral quilts in mind, and are the perfect medium for her style of quilting.

Sharing a Piece of Herself

“I think you find yourself designing for your environment. In New York, I live in a linear, manmade environment, which translates into more abstract designs.” She identifies the inspiration surrounding her on a daily basis: a 10-minute bus ride to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, full of masterpieces, the architecture of the Chrysler Building and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and the highbrow fashion styles from names like Gucci and Versace. “I try to design with that sense of elegance and sophistication,” she says. In surroundings ripe with this kind of visual stimulation, it’s no wonder that RaNae’s work is boldly unique.

Designs like these are meant to be shared, and RaNae is actively involved in teaching her techniques. “That’s one of the things about teaching; you always want to make people aware that there’s something bigger, some new idea they could try,” she says. She’s taught her spiral quilting techniques to friends (who became known as the Spiromaniacs) over a blog on the Internet, and recently finished a book called Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts (Krause Publications), coming out this fall. Each student surprises her. “It’s thrilling to see all the ways that people take the seed of an idea and do their own thing with it. To see someone’s perspective change is a great reward.”

For someone who says she “stumbled” into quilting, RaNae has made a name for herself simply by remaining true to her own style.

To find out more:

A true quilting whirlwind, Eleanor Burns’ 30 years of boundless energy transformed her first Log Cabin quilt class into a successful quilting company, Quilt in a Day. The company’s name comes from her timesaving techniques, from rotary cutting tricks to assembly-line piecing. Eleanor’s passion for teaching blossomed into more than 70 quilting books, her Quilt in a Day television series, and numerous instructors sharing her techniques, making her one of the most recognized faces in quilting. She recently reflected on her ongoing love for the art of quilting.

You’re most well known as an educator. What is the most fulfilling part about teaching?

Absolutely it’s being with the students. I love listening to what they’re saying to each other. I love it when a beginner’s eyes open up and she gets excited. I learn so much from all ages of people—students in their 80s and the young ones, too. I just taught my youngest student—my great niece Olivia, who is 4-1/2 years old. She wrapped a stuffed animal in the little quilt we made, and my nephew says it’s something she’ll remember the rest of her life.

Your sense of humor shows in everything you do, whether it’s wearing purple feather boas at quilt shows or naming one of your books Still Stripping After 25 Years.

I think it’s important to not be shy. I don’t know where I get the boldness from; maybe it’s from the following of people I have and the dedication they give me. I’m not a fuddy duddy. The costumes are good. They make people laugh, which is one of my goals too. It’s a gift that I have, honestly. Give me a littletime and I’ll think of an idea.

You recently designed Victory Garden, a new fabric collection for Benartex. What’s important to you when designing fabric?

I start with a large-scale floral print. From that one piece, I consider different scales and textures. I’m also known for floral stripes, which actually come from that original floral as well.

What is your greatest accomplishment?

It’s really raising my children (Grant and Orion) through all this quilting business. To see them become successful, Grant at manufacturing his own skateboards, and Orion as the general manager of my company.

Where do you sew these days?

I love working with the Baby Lock machines. I have one in each of my four sewing rooms: on my television set, in my office, and in both my homes.

Do you have a favorite quilt pattern?

Definitely the log cabin, my first pattern. When I was struggling to survive and raise my two sons alone, it gave me a company name and a beginning. But in all honesty, each new book I’m working on is my favorite at the moment.

You’ve been called the “First Lady of Quilting.” Do you quilt in your free time too?

I never get tired of looking at, thinking about, making quilts. People ask what I do when I get home at night, and I tell them I quilt! I still have a pretty well-rounded life though. I actually cook and clean too—I’m just an all-around person.

The World of Pattern

Field Notes:  Kaffe Fassett

From time to time I pause in my hectic life to ponder my deep fascination with pattern. It is the common denominator in all of the various creative activities and projects, including quilting, that I am constantly revisiting.

I started knitting in the ’70s, and knitting became such an obsession that I stopped painting still lifes, which had been my main means of artistic expression till then. I published a knitting book several years later; I was surprised by how successful it was, and it led to me travelling the world giving lectures, workshops and media interviews. Next, I took up needlepoint — that resulted in my second book. I took up mosaics and did yet another book, this time with Candace Bahouth. After that, Liza Prior Lucy enticed me into patchwork, and the result has been several books, including one a year for Rowan, which produces a line of my fabric prints twice a year. I find such joy in exploring patterns in all the different textures, colors and scales of these media, and I take my inspiration from each of them in turn.

When I first took up knitting, the intense world of pattern around me leapt to life — everything I saw seemed to be a possible motif to help me organize the colors I was so passionate to use. I find the same happens with quilting. When I spot a set of neutral colors on a stone paving, somehow stripes don’t express the delightful impact of the gray cement setting off each subtle stone like a jewel. I developed an interest in recording the way colors are placed in repetition and proportion — in other words, the right layout and arrangement in a quilt has so much to do with whether a color will sing or appear ordinary.

I discovered the mother lode of pattern collections in the vast decorative arts galleries in London’s famous Victoria & Albert Museum. There, I saw how exciting and beautiful colors could become when they are organized into patterns and motifs in embroideries, carpets and intricate patchworks. Many years later, my fascination with these patterns inspired my fabric print collection for Rowan patchwork. As I design quilts, whether in florals or forms inspired by antique carpets, I constantly think back to the many hours I’ve spent wandering the decorative arts museums of the world.

Taking a motif through different media, like fabric, mosaic tile, knitting and paint, also fascinates me. One of the most popular fabrics I’ve designed (and it’s still in our collection) is Roman Glass. It was inspired by some fragments of ancient multicolor glass I saw in the Victoria & Albert museum. I first interpreted this motif in a knitted vest, then in a fabric print. Since then it has inspired Swedish coffee cups and — coming full circle — appeared on a glass plate.

Another of my obsessions is scale. For years, I made humansize knits and needlepoint cushions, so I’m excited by the world of quilting, where I can make 9-foot-long bed covers. The ability to play with size and scale on such a large “canvas” is inspiring.