Mod Corsage- Notes on a Collection

High (hi!) time to share this newest bit of fabric work with you kind people!  Introducing Mod Corsage- a 24-piece quilting cotton collection that headed out to stores worldwide about a month ago.  Here's the official inspiration statement that I drafted for the collection:

One of my favorite personal projects is a patchwork design called Mod Corsage where I've drawn inspiration from vintage Broderie Perse applique but put a modern, straight-line spin on the bouquet building. An exciting part of creating these somewhat improvisational, patchwork bouquets is sourcing the best fabrics for the floral, stem/leaf and background elements of the design. As a designer who never tires of floral themes, it occurred to me that these three, simple categories were a perfect direction to base an entire fabric collection. Mod Corsage offers bright, illustrative bouquet scenes with vintage flair as well as softer, more traditional floral renderings for balance. There are quirky, modern geometrics with high and low drama, and plenty of floral component pops here and there to build bouquets across all patchwork traditions. And, of course, so many of the fabrics are gorgeous stand-alone pieces perfect for fashion, accessory and home projects. Mod Corsage is everything I love about patchwork, flowers and color all rolled into one collection!

Memory

In some ways this collection feels like one that I have been meaning to make every time I sit down to design fabric.  That feeling happens once about every 5 or 6 collections... and I think it has something to do with purely expressing what I find beautiful.  And what makes my hands want to draw.  This is also a collection of process FIRSTS for me.  The above print, Memory, is the first time I have ever digitally altered a photograph to create a print.  Here is the bouquet photo shot taken a few years ago on my phone that started this print.  Though this print probably would have gone much faster had I drawn it, I am really digging the different feel that it has.

Observations

Another process first is this hand-drawn print, that was simply created by sitting on the front porch of my house and making a drawn bouquet out of everything that I saw blooming around mid-June of last year.  And I turned in more a drawing, and not a very perfected digital file, as I normally do, with flattened color.  I was interested in testing out the subtle print boundaries of the mill and how the screens would come out as they tried to match the roughness of graphite.  I love this one.  It feels so close to my sketchbook, that I have a tenderness towards it.  If one can have a tenderness towards a piece of fabric.  Here's a pretty usage.

Impression

And the remaining process first, is this watercolor print.  Again leaving the nuances of color as they existed in the original painting, and therefore leaving a bit to chance.  This one has such wonderful fussy cutting opportunities, as well as whole piece interest.

Leaving

Likely the most groovy of all of the prints both in form and color is this guy.  Really fun for fussy cutting too, or a mod dash of off beat color for garments.

Passage

Oh this is the fussiest of all the fussy cutting opportunities in the whole collection, but again great for full garments, bag and home decor uses.  Really large scale repeat, but section by section, has elements of ribbon like stripes on grain & bias, and triangular solid and woven bits too.  I've already used this one a whole lot for bias stems in applique.

Peonies

This has such a happy small-to-mid scale rich floral appeal, and I am itching to make Miss Mary Anna some sweet summer dresses or shorts out of all of these. 

Centered

This print was created with one thing in mind and that was to provide the pretty center to any sort of flower one might want to build in patchwork, whether fussy, applique, improv.... but the space of color that I left between the "centers" makes for a feminine but modern field of pretty.  It popped up in my Instagram stream a bunch as I was working on my patchwork projects for Quilt Market a few weeks ago.  After working with it so much it started to feel like eyeballs.  Lolz.

Stamped

A sweet, simple, iconic floral, that we all know may get used more than anything.  An ironic truth to designing fabrics that I have finally and happily come to terms with.  There is still a trick to getting them just right though, the really simple fabrics, I am happy with the way this one turned out.  So much so that I had decals made for the floor of my quilt market booth!  A sad moment to peel up and discard after the show was over!

Thaaank you for making it this far with me.  To the end of this blog post and the 10 years I've been designing fabrics! Back soon w some pretty patchwork!

xoxo, hoping life is happy where you are, Anna Maria

A Moment

The last several months have been ripe with daily discoveries in my work, my motherhood, my hopes and my art.  Failures.  Frustrations.  Joys.  Fears.  Unreasonable hopes, and many almost-just-right successes.  Since we opened Craft South in May of last year my schedule has been free of the more predictable format that the previous ten years have enjoyed.  In most sentences the word "free" implies something good.  Here, well, I suppose it is all a matter of how you look at it.  I am learning so much about what it means balance family and work.  So much.  I thought I knew, and then I realized that I had no idea until I threw a really heavy weight on one side of that scale.  For months, I have been pushing my foot down on the family side as hard as I can to weight the scale in favor of the people that I love, but not lose sight of the work that I love.  I suppose the greatest goal that I have is that the family can support me, and that the work will support my family, not just tangibly, but as a positive force.  That is it, right?  I think so.  I am so very grateful for both, but which of us professes that gratitude of motherhood while you are being puked on?  No hands?  Right.  Well, I suppose the work gratitude is the same.  It does puke on you.  Then later you realize how lucky you are to be puked on.  What was I saying?

Since 2009 I have written a January recap of the previous year, and this year, I just could not muster the strength to see 2015 for what it was..... it seemed so many years all in one.  Our family life with all of it's ages, directions, personalities seems to have grown bigger than any summary I can attach to it.... my work life too, has sprouted arms and legs and is running in directions that I am still trying to have the lung capacity for, but I remain engaged and excited about the changes.  I suppose I am still learning how to succinctly talk about it in bits here, and like many of us, I am trickling so many words and images through Instagram on an almost daily basis that I wonder about redundancy and all that.  I guess, placing thoughts here, is not redundant as much as it is just a different investment, and all together different piece of writing to look back on... and maybe less affected by the .25 second attention between the finger swipe of all the other images and words and #s.  Ahhh.  Slow. Down. Us.  I love Us.  But I want Us to slow down.  

If I CAN attach a single thought to 2015, and even the past few months, it is that I was forced to realize how much slower and in person is good.  My home became free of an online shipping process that made it belong to my family in a way that it has not since 2007.  That made each moment here a more dedicated moment.  So even the work that I invest in my home studio is now quieter, albeit busier with the addition of Craft South.  But that place, which is just about 10 minutes from my house.... it is a place for me to walk into where I engage my own craft and that of others in a tangible way, that is not a screen or a hashtag, or a FB post or an IG promotion.  Craft South is people and processes that I can see, and smell and hear, and feel a part of.  So the work and the home are better because of 2015.  Not easier.  But better.  

I have been fortunate to take part in several interviews in the past months where I got to take advantage of the long format of reply to questions from women that I really admire.  And we also made a little bio-doc of Craft South that I am really proud of.  Here are links to all of them:

-Crafty Planner

-Motherhood by Design

-Woolful

-Craft South Doc

I hope that the investment in the places above helps if you miss me here.  When I am conducting my days, I often think about this place and the voices that have so kindly responded to me here since 2006.  And the collective support that I still feel, despite my long stretches of silence, is a meaningful part of my creative conscience, so thank you for that.

2016, so far so good, you.  The image above reflects a very nice reward for the years of investment in my career and my family..... it is me as the proud mama of a gorgeous, talented girl, who just presented her first collection of fabric with Free Spirit while we were @ Quilt Con last week.  Miss Juliana, you are a rare and wonderful person, and you can do whatever you wish with your gift, because it is an honest and beautiful gift.  I am so happy that I watched your first official introduction to this industry on my mother's birthday.  I know that she is so proud of you, because I feel it pour right through my heart to you.

(and happy birthday to my dad today, too!)

(sob.smile.) xoxoAM

Fibs & Fables

Oh hi.  When I began work on my Fibs and Fables collection last winter, I remember thinking that by the time the fabrics are in hand, so much will have changed in my work & home life.  And while that is all true, returning to this blog to write about my design work feels comfortable and almost nostalgic.  I have been writing about my work here for just about exactly 9 years, which is hard to believe. I am so thankful for the personal history and correspondence that exists here and love being able to deepen it when time allows.  So today.  Fibs & Fables.  Here is the official inspiration statement:

"Fibs & Fables was inspired by my interest in and love for vintage fairytale illustrations and I have never had more fun doing research.  The notion of storytelling, in a sense, is a system of make-believe with various motives: to teach a lesson, to entertain or to perpetuate a culture's belief system.  And perhaps in a more cynical sense, stories are just fibs- but when set to beautiful images....they are welcome lies.  Exploring old German, Danish, British and American illustrations revealed all of the beloved book scenery that I got lost in as a child.  Many of those artists were themselves influenced by ancient artwork, ancient stories and Greek Mythology.  What entranced and inspired my color directions was the element of fear and tragedy combined with joyful resolutions.  The balance of the two, as well as the good and evil that is such a common theme helped me to cast a moody palette on the fabric's color ways. The prints themselves are a not so literal in telling any specific fib, fable or fairytale, but rather bring to light the elements that exist in so many of our favorite stories.  The collection is as fun for children's quilts, decor and clothing as it is unexpected for women's fashion."

I will further say that for someone who is not so much a novelty print designer, I found the fairytale theme a unique challenge.  And I can't say that I was inspired by any one fairytale or set of characters as much as I was inspired by the art that has told those stories over centuries.  I therefore sometimes shifted my focus to present imagery in a less literal way, but still include elements that act as the building blocks that can tell many stories at once.

So shall we have a look at the prints?



"Minutes"
A described above, I was as interested in peripheral imagery, and I suppose you can say that rather than having a print portrayal of a clock striking twelve, I have the above gem.



"Escape"
Church windows, castle windows, tower windows, yes this is much more literal.  But my focus here is on the possibility of escape from dark to light, as seen through the windows.  You just have to figure out which one you fit through.



"Helios"
I of course had to give a nod to Greek mythology.... but I was really only inspired to do so in this collection when I found so many illustrators over the past two centuries doing the same in their work.  Helios was imagined to be the god of the sun and he lit up the sky each night with four winged, fire-breathing horses.  And who wouldn't want to draw that?  Drawing horses is such a connection to my childhood that it was a welcome theme.  This one will also come in three colors of Rayon Challis.



"Dressmaker"
So many of my favorite stories as a child had an element of making- the spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty, the humble dress made by little creatures in Cinderella, the invisible garment in the Emperor's New Clothes.... so I paired those ideas with the culture of dressmaking and tailoring that and set them to a seemingly magic wand of a needle doing the work without hands.



"Cottage"
This one is a sweet representation of folk art styles found in many German and Dutch fairytale illustrations and to me it feels reminiscent of cozy interior spaces and kettles and dishes.



"Plaited"
I was obsessed with drawing characters with braids when I was a girl.  I loved having to re-figure out how to do it every time.  I really enjoy how equally weird and normal this print can be.  Only weird when you imagine it to be hair, but more normal if you have baskets on the mind.



"Starry Eyed"
I suppose you could call this my wish upon a star print.  Eyes, tears, stars.  It is a tiny little print and this one will be in Rayon Challis as well.



"Labyrinth"
And if a fairytale is a depiction of struggle from start to resolution, I loved the idea of including some sort of a maze-like print.  I had originally thought of hedge mazes, but that was less interesting to me visually, so I was messing around with meandering designs.  Then when researching ancient Greek art to develop the Helios print, the Greek key design was waving at me.  It was saying DUH.



"Enchanted"
Well OF COURSE I had to do a landscape.  What good fairytale book was without some sort of landscape?  Aside from that, I have always been intrigued (terrified) of developing a landscape image into a repeat.  I presents a very unique set of challenges that other prints do not.  I've shown what an almost fat quarter looks like above so that you can see how it all comes together.  I will admit this one took me FOREVER.  Resolving how elements came together on all sides proved quite tricky (lots of walking away) and but then extremely rewarding once I let go of reality.  Stars become flowers.  Roadways lead to clouds.  Clouds become water.  Sky becomes ground.  And weeping willows grow tears instead of leaves.  And the whole of it is guarded by a flight of swallows (how could I not pay homage to Thumbelina?)  If you follow me on Instagram you might remember that when I was first sketching this print (in my bedroom mind you) that a bird practically landed on my shoulder who must have gotten in the house and was hiding under my bed.  Yep.



Fanciful colorway~



Noble colorway~



And Gallant colorway~



There are a total of 27 pieces in the quilting cotton collection, and I have been working on some very fun sewing for the upcoming fall Quilt Market which I'll be sharing in the coming weeks.  As mentioned above there will also be 6 Rayon Challis pieces, that I have already been making clothes out of!



Beginning on Monday of next week, my online shop will be pre-selling full collection stacks of Fibs & Fables which should ship out the first week in November!!!  And to celebrate the launch, anyone who pre-orders a full collection stack from my shop will receive a free limited run fine art print of Helios, shown above measuring 8.5x11".  Perks, people!

We will send out a note with a shop link along with some other studio news on Monday morning, so be sure you are on my mailing list!

I hope you love this collection as much as I loved creating it for you!
be well, xxooAnnaMaria

As it is Now or Upstairs/Downstairs

There is stuff everywhere despite how much we have moved out.  My upstairs attic studio had been shared with my assistant ever since Mary Anna arrived two years ago (yes two!), thereby pushing Pierrette up the stairs to work with me.  The downstairs was divided into a nursery and online shop fulfillment studio (read 300 bolts of fabric) from which my other assistant cut and shipped. I had just been getting used to a personal workspace again, when it was time to stop getting used to that.  And now I am getting used to that again.  (Do I need to start at the beginning?  There will be a review before the test.)

UPSTAIRS: So the upstairs suffered a tornado of a move out- rifling through with no time to spare to get Craft South open on schedule.  There was a luxury to throwing everything around in whatever ridiculous manner I cared to, knowing that I was going to be the only one putting it all back together again.  Thinking of it now, I was so very uncareful and thoughtless about tossing here and there.  And now the first reentry into that space since we opened the shop (dreadful as the air conditioning is on the fritz up there) has been to assemble all of my Summer Rummage Sale items.  There is loads that I have been anxious to send to a happy home (still some available after listing this morning!)  but I have only been able to work up there for 30 or 45 minutes at a time-bc of the heat- rummaging and photographing the goods.  Sweat.

It feels so large and cavernous despite the mess now.  I am rethinking completely how I want the room to be put back together.  I had always rather liked Pierrette's view of the neighborhood hills, and wonder if I might move a desk over there.  Or maybe my drafting table.  You can hear the neighbor's chickens better from there.  Or perhaps a second sewing machine set-up that is always ready for machine quilting and larger projects, while keeping small project sewing at the current sewing spot.  I haven't had a couch up there ever since I began sharing the room and wondering if I have room now for maybe just a wingback.  My priorities right now are to get the air conditioning fixed then send my sister a plane ticket so we can sit on the floor and talk about how it should be, get about half done then abandon it for cooking and movies.  Goals.

DOWNSTAIRS: This has been the biggest change.  It went from being a giant fabric cutting table and shipping supplies and bolt after bolt after bolt of fabric to being almost completely empty.  So empty that I had to mock up a "studio" last month when my Janome crew came to shoot new class videos.  Which was actually sorta fun. My hopes for this space are that it get reclaimed by everyone, not really me.  We, like I am sure many of you, do SO much of our everything at the dining room table.  Homework.  Art.  Food.  Visiting. Nonsense.  So that started me thinking maybe we can have a whole room for all that instead.  And I am working on it.  A 6 foot table has been procured.  One hide has been snatched up to keep feet on something soft and warm while homeworking.  A smallish waiting room style, midcentury sofa in electric blue vinyl has also been invited to help us out.  The family painting we did together last summer has been hung where it was always meant to be.  A favorite art print appropriately landed right next to it.

AS IT IS NOW:  The table needs chairs.  Some of which I have but they need to be covered.  Until my air conditioning is fixed upstairs, my computer, myself, and -today- loads of rummage sale items and other works in progress are in here too.  While I am looking forward to reawakening my dream studio upstairs, for now I am happy to be closer to everyone down here, saving them the walk up to me, and slightly going mad from the chaos that summer can be.  Though this week we have whittled all the way down to the 2 youngest with the 4 older at camp.  So I can hear Mary Anna's nap breathing through the wall and Roman's crayons across paper right now and that is all.  Well, and my keyboard.

more soon.  hope your holiday weekend was a good one. xxooAM

In Care of

I am appreciating the pace of things right now. (Ask me again in a few minutes.) There is as much going on as ever I suppose, but no piece of it is causing me anxiety or impatience.  I am just moving along, feeling as though I have at least a grasp on everything.  You should know this feeling is not typical for me.  I can barely spend a minute basking in the relief of one thing finished before the fear of being behind on 14 others.  Self-employment?  Motherhood?  Both? You know that feeling.
I have found time to put real flowers on cupcakes.  I potted herbs for my new patio shelves.  I went for a good long run with my ipod for the first time in I can't remember.  I rocked Mary Anna entirely to sleep several times over the past few days instead of just close enough to sleep.  That was my favorite.  I laid down last night well before bedtime with only the intent to listen to rain hitting the window. 
In the studio this week, Pierrette and I have photographed, inventoried, cataloged, organized, packed, edited, listed, and launched all of my new cross stitch patterns and kits.  This is a thrill for me!  Really, really.  These little guys took a serious amount of perfecting that was deceivingly simple when I began the design and printing process.  But I am entirely happy with how they turned out, and the project was worth the extra bit of care that it required.  They live in a very freshened up Needleworks section of my shop that now has scissors, hoops, aida cloth, needles and brand new palettes of floss too.
Tomorrow Jeff & I head out very early with Mary Anna to NYC for the big fashion show.  I am learning what it means to be proud.  I thought I knew.  And I haven't even gotten there.  Oh. I feel the butterflies in Juliana's stomach from here.  And I think tomorrow they will all get their flying lessons.
Come along with me on IG.
smooch! Anna
(AND! thank you so much for all of the print orders!  Jeff told me that I found a sneaky way to being an artist, which is both funny and true.  Your support of my art is gilded.  Thank you!)

Mod Girls

Too many pretty things happened during my teaching days at Sew Down Nashville to let them just sit on my camera phone. I had the lovely opportunity to spend time with a very enthusiastic group of 80 or so patchworkers (20 at a time) two weekends ago. The Modern Quilt Guild does such a great job at putting together these events, so much so, that they make it seem easy, which I know it is not. Kicking off the weekend here in Nashville by welcoming everyone to the house and studio was a teensy overwhelming, but so worth our efforts. We kinda fell off the planet in the week or two leading up to the event as evidenced by the (in)frequency of my posts here, but the preparations were smooth and exciting.  Thank you so much to all of you who came, and also for patronizing our at-home pop-up shop!  Or petting my dogs, or holding my baby, or listening to my father-in-law play bluegrass, or eating crab cakes, or ignoring dusty light fixtures, or any other thing you might have done while here.  Thank you.  We loved it.
As for class.  I taught a class based on a block that I named Mod Corsage.  I was first inspired to create this make-it-up-as-you-go block while researching the history of broderie perse quilting.  (Here is what google images spits at you if you ask.)  I love needle-turn applique.  Not everyone does.  And like most things that we enjoy that are time consuming, there isn't always the chance to have much time to give to it.  So Mod Corsage was built out of my desire to create a pictorial block (or quilt) of a bouquet of sorts, but to take what might seem like short cuts to getting an image happening.  What I really enjoyed was that the practicalities of the patchwork process is what in the end offered just as much interest to the piece.  In other words, it is not just about fabric choice, but also about how many seams were taken to build the bouquet, and where you chose to change out the background fabrics a bit.  Staring with a simple structure that can continue to be reacted to and embellished with further applique was also very enjoyable for me.
Like most classes that I teach, even I don't quite grasp everything that is going to be taught until I open my mouth and begin sharing my path to creating the inspiration piece.  What I learned in teaching this class was that what we were really doing was defining the flower.  In other words, how many ways could we build, applique, patch or seam a flower.  The answer is every way.  There are no limits. My favorite.
I presented two basic ways of paying homage to the broderie perse tradition.  One was almost entirely about appliqueing bits of various florals together.  And despite a few specific tricks that can make this appear more time intensive than it is, a considerable amount of time on these blocks happens after the composition comes together (in other words hand sewing all those dang flowers in place).  The second method was more like my example up there (first photo) which was more structured and straight edge, and well yes, "modern", I suppose.  And for the most part, this approach has you spending a  bit more time on the front end, trying to allow for some spontaneity, but also a sequence of assembly.  Either of these two styles can be daunting at first.  But I can honestly say that everyone did something beautiful in class.  And it seemed most did something that they were not necessarily anticipating, which as their teaching is thrilling.
I have more pretty student work photos over here on FB.  I am so happy to say also, that the class was such a success, that I will be teaching Mod Corsage again at Quilt Con next year.  Yay.  I should mention too, that at Sew Down we only had 3 hours for class, and at Quilt Con we will have 6 hours.  I think that everyone that joined me for this would agree that 6 hours will be very helpful to getting a little further along in the process.
Okay.  Hope you're inspired!  xoxo, Anna

I do this thing where

... I have a list of things to share so long, that it actually grows arms and proceeds to tie my hands behind my back.  So rather than taking the first thing's first approach, I will start with the finished thing first.  (oh so obvious yet so hard for me).

Art.  I made new fine art prints, and I am REALLY happy with them.  Maybe more than the first batch. But then it's all a matter of newness, isn't it.  Maybe.  They are listed over here.  I decided to only do an edition of 50 each on this collection.  I did 100 each in the first batch, and there are some quantities left of those still, but they are getting pretty thin.  Also these are a bit bigger, the smaller being 9x12 instead of 8x10 and the larger being 13x19 instead of 11x17. But the prices are the same.  Yippee!

Items on the to-share-more-soon list include:
*Sew Down Nashville was way too much fun and we made beautiful things
*cross-stitch patterns are arriving tomorrow, kits for them following soon after
*we are bulking the whole embroidery shop soon
*we are bulking the solid quilting cottons in the shop too
*I bulked a bit myself on Easter Sunday with lamb and potatoes though I won't actually be sharing anything to do with that beyond that mere mention there
*My remodel is done, I like it so very much
*Mary Anna is walking at 10 (flipping) months, this will probably have to come with video
*Lots of fabric is on the way, all kinds of it
*Juliana's thesis collection is in the Pratt fashion show which we are going to see next week in NYC
*That has me every kind of proud and glowing, which I might get an image of if the right person has a camera while said glowing is going down

And back to it.
kisses, Anna

Sewing with Sunshine

And by Sunshine I of course mean the little Miss. The sun beaming through the windows on us and this project was no additional trouble however. I lurve the April stack. It is kind of as pale and neutral as this studio is capable of, which feels nice and fresh.   (And because there are 6 solids included, the stack has 14 total fabrics still keeping it in the 30-40$ range. Yay!)  It was high time I actually sat down at the sewing machine and enjoyed one of these Monthly Gatherings myself. Which is good timing for the new couch cover I have on one of the family room sofas. Everything in that room was in need of a good refreshing. Pillows and paint are my very favorite refreshers, probs yours too.  I am not sure if this pillow will stay on this sofa, or go on the cream one, but I do know that I will make another pillow from all the scraps left from this one.

For the flying geese I used the no-waste method of making four flying geese at once, which I describe in this Mother Goose free quilt pattern, but googling that italic phrase up there will take you to several spots where a formula is described for getting the specific size that you want for your geese.  This pillow is 24x24 and I wanted each goose to be 3x6, so I needed a total of 32 geese arranged 4x8.  Whoa, too many numbers.  My process of choosing the color arrangement was a little random and a little planned. By that I mean that I only started with one parameter of sorts, and that was- all of the paler, less bold toned fabrics in the April stack would be the geese (center larger triangle) and the rest would be the background (smaller side triangles).  Then once they were all made, I deliberately arranged them only for balance of color and interest, but no real pattern or reason to it.  The single parameter that I started with sorta helps to provide a unifying element that you aren't consciously aware of, but it's there.  So I am essentially playing mind games with you, snort.

Do you think maybe with all that lingo that I am getting ready for my patchwork class at Sew Down next week?!  Me too.  I also am undertaking the light and enjoyable privilege of hosting about 90 Sew Downers (Uppers?) here at the house.  No biggie.  I also have a surprise for them, I think.  I hope.  It rhymes with Sew Down.

Smooches. AM & Sunshine