Happy New Year! This year brings new adventures and reflections on past creative endeavors. I am taking over the shop while mom goes into semi-retirement. She will continue to help me over the next couple years phasing out more and more as time goes by. The shop is her baby and I couldn't imagine her not being there in some way but it is time for her to focus on herself and her art. As this new adventure starts for me I am celebrating 20 years designing fabric and my 40th collection releasing this spring and designing my fall 2018 collection. Part of me can't believe that it has been 20 years but then I went in search for a photo of me then.
In 1998 I was fresh out of college with a Fine Arts Photography degree and was living in Greensboro, North Carolina. I was a hippie, tree hugging, photographer trying to get a job in NC and ended up working at Fran's Quilt Shop. Mom and I were working on our book, Through The Garden Gate and I had become obsessed with fabric and the possibilities of design. I knew this gal, Debbie Stark, that was head of a fabric studio, Quilter's Only, in Charlotte, and decided to take my black and white nature photography to her and pitch a fabric collection. Quilter's Only was a division of Springs Industries and they manufactured fabric for independent quilt shops only not chains. She took a risk on me and that started this amazing 20 year adventure of developing my art, growing and changing with the industry and my own life.
My first collection was Shades of Serenity, the collection was based on my black and white close up nature photography. I worked with the studio to design the fabric, at this time I did not draw or paint my designs. It is fascinating as I go through my collections, remembering my journey as an artist, when I decided I was going to draw my designs, when I started painting them, the first collection that I used the computer to now utilizing a technique I learned in college, block printing, to create my fabric.
I moved back to Sisters in 1999 almost a year to the day of moving to NC. I was homesick and missed my family so much. I called my mom and asked her if she might have a job opening for me. That year I started working at the Stitchin' Post doing the ordering of books, notions, and patterns. And here we are now....
Wishing you a great day full of Love, Kindness and a lot of Laughter!
xoxo
Valori
