my new line of Fabric!

Ahhhh! You guys!  I’m designing fabric!
And it’s already being printed.
And you can buy it in MAY!
(in any online or brick+mortar shop that carries Art Gallery Fabrics)

It feels really weird to say all that outloud.
But this has been such a fun adventure.

You know, I never really thought I would design fabric because my style is so simple and minimalistic.  Last year at our Baby Lock conference, we were sitting around sewing and a fellow fabric-designer friend asked me, “when are you going to design a line of fabric?” I totally laughed “well, it would just be stripes and dots”.
Which I guess it sort of is!  Haah.

But her comment got me thinking.
Could I design fabric?
Would it be more than just cabana stripes?  (like that would be a bad thing?)
And on the plane ride home from the conference I started making lists of different fabric line concepts.  Then when I got home I started drawing, and tweaking, and drawing some more, and pushing my Illustrator skills more.  And eventually I contacted Art Gallery Fabrics to see if they’d be interested in working together.

And it was a YES!
Oh man, don’t you love Art Gallery fabrics?  Beautiful, soft, fun yet sophisticated.
I’m really excited about this!
And I really wish I had a Mango-Strawberry ice cream cone right now…

Instead I’ll give you a virtual scoop, of the scoop?
Totally.
Okay, the collection is called: BOARDWALK DELIGHT

And it’s all about summertime + treats.  Because I love summer.  I love color.  And I love playing at the beach. (I’m starting to sound like Olaf).  I wanted to make a collection that captured all those summertime pieces that make me feel carefree like a kid again.  So I hope that through the fabrics you can imagine walking on the boardwalk, ordering your favorite ice cream flavor from the chalkboard menu, laughing with friends, stopping to take a photo against a colorful wall, and just enjoying the bright colors of a busy beach. That way, it can feel like summer all year long.

Who’s with me??

I did an interview with Art Gallery Fabrics on their blog HERE if you want to read more about designing fabrics and the process.  And you can see my full collection on their website HERE.

And I have so much more to share with you over the next couple months as fabric is printed, and as I prepare for Quilt Market.  Yes!  I’ll be showing at the spring Market in Salt Lake City at the end of May.  So many ideas, balloons, and taffy flavors are swimming in my head right now.

But in the mean time, how about THIS box of “strike-offs” that showed up last week!

The way fabric printing works (though I barely know what I’m talking about), is that once the designs are sent to the fabric mill, a first batch of fabrics is printed called “strike-offs”.  It’s about a 1/2 yard of each print, and the colors are compared against the pantone swatches we selected to see how well they match up.  Slight tweaks are made and then a second set of strike-offs are done, and those colors are also compared.  And then the process continues until everything is just right.
Such a learning process for me to see how it all works.

Okay, want to see the whole collection together?
#BOARDWALKDELIGHTFABRICS

• There are 10 designs.
• Each design is printed on quilting cotton.
• Three designs are also printed as KNITS!  Yay! (more info below)
• One design is printed on Canvas!

Fabric names (from Top>Bottom + Left>Right)

• Ice Cream Shop (also comes in Knit)
• Twinkle Lights
• Flavor of the Day (also comes in Knit)
• Candy Dots
• Busy Beach
• Sprinkles
• Soda Straws (also comes in Canvas)
• I scream, You Scream
• Eat-It-All (also comes in Knit)
• Ferris Wheel

Oh my gosh these fabrics make me so happy.

Now I just need to get busy and start sewing.
Quilt Market will be here before I know it.

You can check out ALL the new spring collections by other Art Gallery designers HERE (warning: there are adorable pandas and swans)

If you want to share about the new collection on social media, Art Gallery made the cutest little buttons for each collection.  There are two versions for Boardwalk Delight…but I’m kind of partial to Sprinkles.  Find them all on their blog.  Or here’s a button you can share (tag it with #BoardwalkDelightFabrics):

Happy Thursday friends!