Are you going to Spring 2013 International Quilt Market in Portland?? If so, come visit us at booth # 758-759. We have lots of fun events going on, so stayed tuned to all our social media outlets for up to the minute news.
Looking forward to seeing you all there!!!
Click here to view the Windham Fabrics Spring/Summer Catalog
Click here to view the Windham Fabrics Website
Are you going to International Quilt Market in Portland next week...Windham Fabrics has two fabulous and educational Schoolhouses planned. You definitely do not want to miss these!! Carrie Bloomston of SUCH Designs will be talking about her fabric collection Collage and Denice Lipscomb from Common Threads Quilting will be presenting her First Ladies Block of the Month Program.
Dates and times are below:
Q: Tell us about your education, experience and background?
A: I grew up in a small town outside of Seattle, and went to college to be a Dental Hygienist. I worked for a handful of years before deciding to stay home with my kids…and even though I only work now and then, I still really love Dental Hygiene! My Mom was always sewing clothes and quilts, but it wasn’t until I was older with kids of my own that I really got the urge to quilt.
Q: What was your biggest source of inspiration
while designing Wallflowers?
A: I’ve always had a thing for zinnias. I grew them in a little plot in our back yard, and I’d make huge bouquets to bring into the house and take to neighbors. That was the starting point for Wallflowers and the rest came after that first large floral print was done.
Q: How did you come up with the name of your blog “Cluck Cluck Sew”?
A: I grew up with chickens…and on one visit home I was trying to think of a blog name, and I could hear the chickens being noisy in the back yard while I was piecing a quilt together. The name just came to me…and I went with it. Luckily 6 years later I still like it too!
Q: When working on a new project, what are some of the biggest challenges you face?
A: Probably one of the biggest if I’m working on patterns, is trying not to have something that looks just like somebody else’s. Now days with everything on the internet…it’s easy to copy someone without ever meaning to copy someone! That and choosing fabrics for a project are always the trickiest bits!
Q: What is one thing that everybody should know about you?
A: Oh boy…I guess mostly that I am a pretty quiet person in real life. I keep to myself and I would be just fine staying home or out in the garden for days (or weeks!) on end! I’m pretty sure most of my friends have no idea what I actually do…or that I even have a blog!
A: Sitting on the beach while my kids play in the sand and look for baby crabs is one of our favorite things to do…and we are lucky to live minutes from lots of great beaches. Working outside in the yard and gardening always puts me in a good mood! I also love to re-finish furniture in my spare time...I constantly have a new project in my garage and I sneak out to work on it whenever I get a spare second!
Q: If you could have dinner with one famous person who would it be?
A: Hmm...I’d probably have to say dinner with Martha Stewart, and I’d cook the dinner with her and she’d probably let me know I was doing it all wrong.
Q: If you could be a superhero what would your superpower be?
A: If I could have one super power I’d like to be able to blink my eyes and go anywhere in the world. I’d have breakfast in Paris and lunch in Spain every single day. ;)
Today I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Carrie Bloomston of SUCH Designs. Carrie has created her first fabric collection COLLAGE for Windham Fabrics due in stores July 2013.
Q1: Tell us about your education, experience and background?
A1: I have been an abstract painter my whole life.
Refuge I -Ink, Acrylic, and Oil on Panel
At age two, my mom found me all tangled up in her needlepoint basket and knew exactly who I was. Growing up in Alabama, my parents were both creative–my mom always had projects happening around the house like painting, crafts, interior design, etc. We had a studio in our house that was a converted garage. It was awesome! My dad designs and manufactures clothing. So, I have always watched him doing that. Designing fabric and creating patterns for my brand, SUCH Designs, is actually drawing on a lot of the experience my parents showed me. I love that I get to share it with them.
I went on to study more formally at Rhode Island School of Design (Painting, BFA, 1994). I studied in every department: glassblowing, woodworking, bronze casting, ceramics, and painting. BUT, the two buildings I didn’t set foot in were Textile Design and Graphic Design! Ha! Go figure. Now I am doing just those things. Hilarious.
After school I built a life in the Arizona desert and have a beautiful family that is my shelter and my source. My kids own me. It is the greatest privilege of my life to parent them. All the stuff I make comes from that love.
A2: Start with your heart. Be who you are. Kindness first. Shine your light. Celebrate your inner artist™. Those are the things I intend to do with my designs. At 40, I understand more now how to accept, love, and trust myself as an artist. So I just listen to the tiny urges I feel–even if they are crazy ideas. I do them. It is totally OK to fail.
As for my design style? What does that all look like? Hmmm, hippie gypsy meets Nick, Jr.? Playful and modern. Modern, propaganda posters meets children’s book, Pinkalicious? Album art meets coffee house meets greeting cards. I don’t really know. I make a lot of different things. My abstract paintings look like Japanese landscapes. But I spend most of my day watching Ratatouille and cartoons and playing with LEGO and reading children’s books. So all of those sources filter in.
I love the French illustrator, Delphine Durand:
One of my favorites is the Japanese illustrator, Taro Gomi:
And of course, we watch Ratatouille a lot. It may be my all-time favorite movie. The brand message of this beautiful, little film is exactly what I hope to contribute… anyone can cook! Anyone can sew! Anyone can be an artist!
Q3: What was your biggest source of inspiration while designing Collage?
My biggest source of inspiration while designing Collage were Words, words, words! I wanted to make a line of text, letters, and words, because I, like many modern sewists, love to sew with words. When I set out to design this line, I knew I needed to design a line that I would want to sew with. The prints will feel like a collected stack of drawings and papers and notes just beckoning you to COLLAGE! The prints are artful and bold.
Q4:What is one thing that everybody should know about you?
A4: My life is filled with gratitude.
Q5:What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?
A5:I like to sit at our Lemonade stands and wile away the afternoon waiting for one customer, sitting in the shade of our Palo Verde tree, reading.
Q6: If you could have dinner with one famous person who would it be and why?
A6: Easy–the Dalai Lama. I once heard him speak in Atlanta, at Emory University, about 15 years ago. Did you know that he sounds exactly like Kermit the Frog, but with a deeper voice? His spirit, knowing, and joy could fill ten universities, ten cities, ten continents at once. I have never been in the presence of a more clear-minded, calm, loving, and intelligent person in my life. I try to read his books and have them all, but they are rather dense. So, I would rather have dinner with him and just ask him questions about his life–about life.
Q7: If you could be a superhero what would your superpower be?
A7: Also easy–I would like to fly.
COLLAGE will be viewable on the Windham Fabrics website in April and the fabric will be in quilt stores July 2013!
Here are some of Carrie’s lovely
patterns that are available to order through SUCH Designs.
"Wonky Little Houses"
I'll Huff and I'll Puff Finger Pattern
Wonky Little Houses Pillow Pattern
Tracie Lyn Huskamp is just so EXCITED about her third collection with Windham Fabrics. "Our House", is a warm and whimsical ode to a place where so many individuals find constant strength, refuse, happiness, and joy. These fabrics capture heartwarming houses imagined as part of an inviting neighborhood, little abodes that represent home as the center of each heart's universe, charming phrases gathered to express cherished sentiments, along with a beautiful variety of coordinate textures to create a rich, colorful tapestry of life, love, and family
Our House by Tracie Lyn Huskamp will be available in stores early June!!
Also, be sure to check out Tracie's blog Red Door Studio.
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