I always love hearing the story behind someone's work. There is usually some detail here or there that you might not expect. Sometimes the story even changes the way you feel about it. Today I want to tell the story behind my Curiosities fabric collection.
We live on on the edge of campus here in Madison. It's not always glamorous, but it does include a fair amount of woods right in our backyard. Last Summer I had a plot in the community garden, and was spending a lot of time thinking about plants, and walking back and forth to my plot. There was so much to see on my walk, and in the gardens. The things that really caught my eye were the wildflowers and weeds. There is a little patch of grass along one of the paths that I spent a few afternoons laying in. If you lay down and just look up, it's hard to tell you're in the city. It felt far away, just for a little bit. It was really refreshing.
I challenged myself from the beginning to hand draw more of the prints. After Geometric Bliss, which has primarily geometric prints, I wanted to stretch myself and rely less on shapes to create my prints. A few geometric prints had to creep in of course, but the emphasis is on hand drawn. What started as a collection of sketched wildflowers and plants slowly morphed into this other worldly garden with many curiosities. Curious bunnies (George of course!), snowflakes, butterflies, and whimsical plants. Daisies that are ripe for the petal plucking, and sugar sweet tulips.
George demanded to be included in this group of curiosities. After all, he is named after Curious George. It only seemed right. So far he hasn't let it go to his head, but it's only a matter of time! I cannot wait to take photos of him with the fabric. I'm pretty sure my head will explode!
The vintage twist comes through in the colors. I'm so excited to have finally used navy! For some reason, I really love navy prints, so it was fun to use it myself.
The collection is split into two colorways. First up is the Fresh Encounters colorway. This colorways is a calm and cool with red, blues, sage, turquoise, teal, yellow, pink, and navy.
The second colorway is Sweet Finds. This colorway is warm and friendly, with oranges, pinks, taupe, a muddy gray, sage, teal, and navy.
There are twenty quilting cotton prints, four knits, a voile, and new to the Art Gallery lineup, a canvas print. Woo! The collection will be here in June!
If you're a shop interested in carrying Curiosities, it can be ordered through Art Gallery Fabrics. Find your sales rep here, call toll-free (888) 420-5399, or visit artgalleryfabrics.com.
